POUNDBURY parents have been assured that plans to redevelop Manor Park First School will not impact on a bid for a new school on the development.

There has been a long held ambition to relocate Damers First School to Prince Charles’s model development, with outline plans for the Poundbury scheme earmarking a site for a 450-place first school.

Over the other side of Dorchester there was good news for Manor Park as Dorset County Council announced it would be investing £3.8million to extend and refurbish the school to meet the growing demand for school places.

However, the council insists that is not the end of its plans and the relocation of Damers School is still very much on the table.

Poundbury resident Margaret Morrissey, from the parents’ group Parents Outloud, said that the new school in Poundbury was definitely needed and the expansion of Manor Park did not change that.

She said: “It will be a really good thing because for the last four years people have bought houses on the promise that there is going to be a first school up here.”

Mrs Morrissey said that, despite some misconceptions to the contrary, there was a large proportion of families living in Poundbury.

She said: “We are talking to a significant number of families who have come here on the basis that there is going to be a school they can walk to safely.”

Mrs Morrissey said Damers First School badly needs replacing and there would be more than enough demand for a new, larger school on the western side of town as well as the extended Manor Park School to cater for the needs of Dorchester.

She said: “We desperately need to increase the size of the school up here.”