PREVIOUSLY approved proposals for a £9 million school in Hampshire have been given the green light for the second time, four years after first being signed-off.

Planners at Hampshire County Council’s Regulatory Committee agreed that the unaltered plans for Winchester’s Barton Farm Academy Primary School were still acceptable.

Praise was also given by Liberal Democrat leader Keith House for the site’s location next to community facilities and its opportunity for expansion.

Bosses at Hampshire County Council say that the plans were resubmitted as work on a neighbouring development – which is was meant to serve – stalled just after the original scheme was granted back in 2015, meaning the school’s intake would have fallen well short of earlier predictions.

The decision was made, they add, to delay construction.

Once built, the two-form entry school – sponsored by the University of Winchester Academy Trust, is set to have capacity for a maximum of 420 pupils, and will look to open in Summer 2020. It was originally meant to open in Spring 2019.

As reported, 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.

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.