New special educational needs school in Rayleigh is "extremely important"
The area's MP Mark Francois was at the ground breaking for the new Wolsey Park School
A new SEND school in Rayleigh has been called "extremely important" by the area's MP.
The Wolsey Park School is now under construction, with works set to finish next year.
The school will provide places for over 150 primary age children with special educational needs, and will be run by the Zenith Multi Academy Trust.
Keir Construction has been appointed as the contractor for the school, which will be split across the Wolsey Park Development and the former site of Chetwood Primary School in South Woodham Ferrers.
The new school will be the first of its kind in the area, and Mark Francois MP says they had to "jump through many hoops" to get it under construction.
"By creating this new school, which we hope will open in the spring of next year if God is kind to us with the weather, not only do we provide spaces locally for Rochford special needs children, but that will also free up some other spaces in other special needs schools across South Essex.
"That won't completely clear the backlog of special needs children waiting for a space in South Essex, but it is going to take a big bite of it.
"The genesis of this goes back several years, because I had parents coming to my constituency surgeries very frustrated.
"The only way to solve the problem was to create more capacity.
"After a lot of twists and turns, and going through a lot of bureaucratic hoops, we are here today, and the main construction starts this afternoon."
Councillor Tony Ball, Cabinet Member for Education Excellence, Lifelong Learning and Employability at Essex County Council said:
"This is vitally important, all our special needs schools in Essex are oversubscribed.
"This will make a really big difference to children, who are either waiting for a special needs school place, or are in the wrong setting.
"I think it's been well documented across the country, and Essex is no different, that children and families presenting with special educational needs has doubled in the last few years, and we haven't been able to keep up with that need and demand, this will really, really help."
Cheryl Ward, Managing Director at Kier Construction said:
"We start today, and start with the foundations and build up the structure.
"I think the really key thing is that so many of our local communities are involved.
"We involve people all the way. So many people will be involved in this project from end to end.
"We have a number of commitments in terms of apprenticeships we will be able to offer, we are able to use our small and medium companies in the area, so much of it is local spend as well."