Planning permission sought for new £19m Carrickfergus school premises

Mid and East Antrim Council will consider the application for a replacement building to be constructed on the school’s existing site at Victoria Road.

It will accommodate 700 pupils and will consist of 43 classrooms in a 10,314sq metre premises designed by Hamilton Architects which has been involved with a number of award-winning education projects in recent years.

It is expected the building will be constructed over two phases – the new school and pitch, followed by the demolition of the existing building and completion of site works. The school has been situated at its current location since 2002 following a move from temporary accommodation in Whitehead when it first opened in 1997 with just 63 pupils. Ulidia now has more than 500 pupils enrolled.

Principal Michael Houston said: “The members of the board of governors are absolutely delighted that we have managed to get to the planning application stage on schedule for the new Ulidia Integrated College, despite the current lockdown situation.

“Planning meetings with school staff, DENI (Department of Education) and Hamilton’s architects have taken place via Zoom over the past months and progress has been very positive. The new 700 pupil school will cater for our current number of pupils, and, whilst it does not increase the size of the school, it will provide much needed state of the art facilities for all of our pupils and staff.

“We do not have a definite start date as yet since the planning application has only recently been submitted, but we would hope to get to the construction phase as soon as possible.”

Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter.

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