By Kelly Eve Education reporter

Last updated 15:57, Tuesday, 26 August 2008

MOTORISTS in Carlisle are being warned they could face up to three years of disruption as £110 million is spent in the city centre on education and an upgrade of underground sewage systems.

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Alan Mottershead: ‘The scale of investment in the academic infrastructure in the city in terms of schools as well as the college and university is unprecedented’

The Victoria Place area of the city will become a hive of activity as the bulk of the cash – almost £80 million – is spent developing Carlisle’s ‘learning village’. Three neighbouring school sites – Trinity, Newman and St Aidan’s – together with Carlisle College are all due to be transformed, many by 2011.

Plans for a £20 million refurbishment of Trinity School – its biggest changes since its formation as a comprehensive 40 years ago – could begin next spring and be ready by September 2011.

Carlisle College is also hoping to start on a £30 million rebuild when older sections of its campus have been demolished.

And more than £25 million is to be spent turning the former St Aidan’s School site into a state-of-the-art base for the Richard Rose Central Academy.

At Newman School, work has already started on a new £2.5 million sports centre which is expected to be completed by next spring.

Full planning applications have yet to be submitted yet a massive effort to co-ordinate the work in carefully controlled stages has been going on for months.

And it is predicted most disruption for motorists will be caused by the £30 million wastewater scheme from United Utilities, due to last up to 18 months.

County highways teams have already brought forward road-widening works at Victoria Place, currently going on, after being informed that the wastewater works will not start until October. Flood defence works in the east of the city are also continuing but are due to be finished by the time the wastewater works begin.

Richard Hayward, Cumbria County Council’s Carlisle area highways engineer, said the United Utilities programme may see Lismore Place and Lismore Road closed for up to two months before work moves to the Greystone Road, Aglionby Street and Tait Street areas of the city.

Residents are invited to find out more about the programme at a public event next month. Caroline Brumwell, from United Utilities, will be on hand to discuss the plans at drop-in sessions in Lowther Street Church from 4.30pm to 7pm on September 3.

Mr Hayward said: “A few of my officers have been working with a range of organisations on these developments and schemes. The immediate challenge will be the waste-water scheme that is going to take up to 18 months.

“In the St Aidan’s ward it will be chaos for a bit while this happens but, in regard to the learning village, information so far is that it is not coming up with any major problems.”

He added that relocating most of the central academy students to Harraby for the next three years while the work goes on has partly alleviated the situation, removing the risk of having hundreds more pupils and staff in the area.

At Trinity, work will concentrate on the former Margaret Sewell and Creighton areas but will not include a complete demolition of its older buildings.

Headteacher Alan Mottershead said: “We’ve got over 30 acres of land here and we’re not going to have to take any of our sports land out of commission during the build. We’ve got enough to be able to create a new block without causing too much disruption to different parts of the school.

“Now the scale of investment in the academic infrastructure in the city in terms of schools as well as the college and university is unprecedented.

“We are also a major provider of adult education in the city and the school is used by the wider community in terms of our partnership with Carlisle Leisure for our swimming pool, therefore we are in the heart of the city and we know these are very exciting times for the city, our families and our young people.”

Cyril Weber, chairman of the county council’s Carlisle local committee, said the investment in education was welcomed but said concerns among councillors would remain in terms of the location of the academy in the city centre.