PREVIOUSLY approved proposals for a £9 million school in Hampshire are set to go before planners next week.

Bosses at Hampshire County Council say that the plans are being resubmitted for Winchester’s Barton Farm Academy Primary School as work on a neighbouring development – which it was meant to serve – stalled just after the original scheme was granted back in 2015.

But now the plans will go before the authority’s Regulatory Committee once again, at its meeting on Wednesday February 13.

The new school, which will be two-form entry, is set to have capacity for a maximum of 420 pupils.

If approved again, the school – which is sponsored by the University of Winchester Academy Trust, will look to open in Summer 2020. It was originally meant to open in Spring 2019.

Submitted documents from the county council – which is also the applicant – revealed that it was unable to start work within the conditioned three year approval period due to the slow progress of the rest of the long-awaited development of 2,000 homes at Barton Farm, which was approved back in 2012.

Speaking about the delay, children’s services chief at the council, Councillor Keith Mans, said: “The latest predictions around pupil data for 2019 suggest that the delay in the number of houses being built at Barton Farm would not justify the opening of a new school for September 2019.

“When the original schedule for the new school’s construction was planned, we were clear that the dates would be subject to the rate at which the new housing would be built by the developer, and families moving into those properties.

“We and the University have taken the latest information into consideration and agreed that it would not be in anyone’s interests to have a school built significantly ahead of being needed to meet the demand arising from the new development.”

The council added that existing Winchester schools having sufficient places for the forecast demand, the updated construction schedule will have no adverse impact for families, and their children, currently living in the area.

The meeting will be held in the authority’s civic offices in Winchester. The meeting starts at 10am.