Land for a new special school in Windsor could soon be transferred to the borough council for a fee of just £1. But the new housing estate it will be built on has attracted strong local opposition.

The new school will be built on a planned development off Dedworth Road, between Windsor and Oakley Green. It will serve 100 children with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs who currently have to be educated privately or in specialist schools outside of the borough.

Council plans say: “There is currently no state provision within the Royal Borough that caters for children with more severe SEMH needs, and so these children are currently educated in the independent sector or in mainstream provision outside the borough.

“Opening the school will mean that more children and young people with these needs can be educated locally and more cost-effectively.”

Councils across the country are struggling with rising demand for and costs of providing special educational needs services. These include the costs of providing transport to specialist schools far from home.

The school is to be built by the government’s department for education on land in a planned new 320-home housing development.

Conditions attached to planning permission for the development mean that housing developer Vistry will transfer the school land to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for a £1 fee.

The school will then be built by the department for education and once completed will be leased to the Chiltern Way Academy Trust, which it chose as the provider.

But the housing development it is attached to has attracted opposition from nearby residents – and some councillors – who fear it will cause ‘gridlock’ on nearby roads.

Councillors approved detailed plans for the housing element of the development at a Windsor development management committee in October.

But some residents argued that vehicle access into the development would be unsafe, while extra traffic and new pedestrian crossings would cause cars to ‘back up’ on the A308.

Councillor Wisdom da Costa – a member of the leading Liberal Democrat group – argued that the plans should be refused.

But council planning officers said they considered site access and the impact on traffic to be acceptable. And councillors voted in favour of the plans, noting that the site had already been earmarked by the Royal Borough for new housing.

The department for education will have to submit a separate planning application for the school.

Leading councillors on the Royal Borough’s cabinet committee are being asked to allow council officers to conclude the land transfer and lease agreements at a meeting on Wednesday December 3.