A NEW £9m primary school in the heart of a major Bridgwater housing estate will open its doors in September 2027, Somerset Council has confirmed.

Bloor Homes South West secured planning permission from Sedgemoor District Council in July 2018 to deliver the third phase of the Wilstock Village development in southern Bridgwater, comprising 248 homes, a community hub and a primary school.

The majority of the new homes have now been delivered, with school pupils currently having to travel to the Somerset Bridge Primary School in the neighbouring Stockmoor Village estate – or further afield to other local schools.

Somerset Council has now confirmed the new Wilstock Primary School will be constructed over the next two years, with the first pupils being welcomed from the autumn of 2027.

The council confirmed the school project within its wider capital programme, which was approved on Wednesday (March 5) as part of its annual budget setting.

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The capital programme includes £7,742,000 of borrowing for “Wilstock Primary School (new build)”, with the majority of this funding expected to be spent between April 2026 and March 2028.

The council has subsequently clarified that this borrowing will be paid back using contributions from local housing developments.

A spokesman said: “There is an identified site in the next wave of the development which has been earmarked for a school.

“We’d anticipate the school costing between £8m and £9m, with the entirety of the cost being met from developer contributions over time.

“We’d likely target a September 2027 opening.”

The new school will be delivered on Cosmos Drive at the southern edge of the Wilstock development – a short distance from the proposed community hub which was granted detailed planning consent in April 2023.

The school will initially have enough space for 210 pupils and a 40-place nursery, and will be designed in such a way that it can be expanded in the years after its completion as pupil number grow – much like the recently delivered Orchard Grove Primary School in Taunton.

The new school is expected to include two large football pitches and outdoor play equipment, with the existing public right of way to Wilstock Lane being maintained.

The news has been welcomed by council leader Bill Revans, whose North Petherton division includes the Stockmoor and Wilstock communities.

He said: “I have been campaigning for a new primary school to be built at Wilstock for many years.

“It is vital that new house-building comes with community infrastructure like schools and health centres.

“All three primary schools in my division – North Newton, Somerset Bridge and North Petherton – are over subscribed, and we have more houses with permission to be built in the area.

“Even in the most challenging financial times, Somerset Council is delivering for our communities.”

The new primary school is expected to be discussed in more detail by the council’s planning and transport policy sub-committee in Taunton on April 8.

This discussion may include the allocation of funding from community infrastructure levy (CIL) payments made by housing developers in and around Bridgwater.

The same sub-committee voted in February to approve £558,000 from CIL payments towards a £700,000 expansion of Puriton Primary School, a stone’s throw from the Gravity enterprise zone where a new ‘gigafactory’ is being constructed.