CONTROVERSIAL plans to build a new primary school have moved one step closer after receiving the green light from the council's planning committee.

Reading Borough Council's head of planning and latterly the secretary of state will have the final say before May 30 over long-running ambitions to relocate the Heights Primary School to Mapledurham Playing Fields.

Fresh proposals to expand the current temporary site on Gosbrook Road also appear to be gaining momentum, with the council having to contribute the majority of £1.2m to accommodate 100 more pupils in the interim building phase.

The Education Funding Agency (ESFA) will hand the council a capital grant of £450,000 after five sites were considered during a public consultation.

Planning officers recommended that the project be approved due to the 'deficiency' in primary school provision and argued that the 'overriding public benefits' of building the school on the fields would outweigh loss of open space.

Reading Chronicle:

The report reads: "The process to secure a suitable agreement and planning permission has been protracted. A permanent school is unlikely to be available within the next two years."

"The playing fields are owned by the council and officers have been working with the Birmingham Catholic Diocese and the governors at St Anne’s Primary School and have agreement that the local authority can use part of these school playing fields to site the temporary accommodation for The Heights school."

The Education Funding Agency, a government body, previously offered £1.36m to improve leisure facilities on the playing fields in return for around five per cent of the land.

Other options considered by the council included co-locating one year group from The Heights Primary School at Thameside School.

There has been fierce opposition to the project from Mapledurham Playing Fields Action Group and 66 per cent of respondents (485) objected to the plans following a re-consultation.

Rebekah Jubb, speaking on behalf of the action group, argued that the level of objection from residents' associations and bodies such as Sport England could not be ignored.

She added: "This site is not appropriate and would cause unacceptable harm to the site and the surroundings."