Livingston Eyre won a design competition with David Morley Architects to design the Combined Community Project. The building provides integrated facilities, including a nursery and primary school, a school for children with severe learning difficulties (SLD) and a community centre with all the associated external spaces for school play, teaching and community recreation.

The school has one large play-ground at it’s heart fro energetic play and informal sports. Around this are collected smaller more individual play-spaces including classroom gardens, an adventure play area, a nature garden and a memorial garden. The school grounds are divided from the surrounding park by existing field ditch and hedge lines, giving a feeling of enclosure and safety yet still allowing occasional views through. The adventure play area is enclosed by the landform, which mounds up to meet a ramp from the first floor of the building. It is located to allow shared use by both schools and as a local community resourse if desired.

Footway and cyclepath links encourage the rest of the site’s use throughout the day. The provision of two adult and one junior pitch, a multi-use games area (MUGA), skate park and earth mounding for BMX use are all intended to increase the sense of public ownership and serve the rapidly expanding local community.

The civic square extends out from the community building to create a generous public space and the main arrival point. An area has also been identified for future development as a Public Open Space as set out in the planning guidelines.