Deliveries to the site, which is close to the town’s Tesco branch and on the same road as Cop Lane Primary School, will only be allowed between 9am and 2.30pm and 3.30pm to 5pm on weekdays to avoid school start and finish times. and morning and evening rush hours.

It has been almost two years since the 800-pupil school, which opened 70 years ago and is the only non-selective, free girls’ school in Lancashire, was added to the Department for Education’s nationwide school rebuilding programme.

However, the plan for the new building has attracted opposition from Sports England because it involves the loss of a small section of the playing area and the remaining area will not be available for public use outside school hours. This means Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner will now have final say on the plans.

Headteacher Sharon Hall told planning committee members there was a growing gap between the school’s ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating and the environment in which students and teachers operate.

“The building we are currently sitting in was built with the vision of 1954. This project represents a fantastic opportunity for our school and will provide current and future students with access to up-to-date and innovative provision across the whole curriculum.

“For some time we have struggled to provide this experience with outdated facilities designed for a different age, that do not take into account modern teaching and learning methods and (or) the impact on the environment.

“Currently we have small classrooms, no gym, very narrow corridors and curriculum areas spread throughout the school,” Ms. Hall explained, adding that the restructuring will ensure a “bright future” for future generations of students.

The overall larger new school, which does not have a sixth form, will include a gym and new themed curriculum areas.

The committee heard the facility, which would be a pair of partly two- and partly three-storey buildings arranged in a quadrangular shape, would push the school further away by shifting it to the south of the site. From properties on Alcester Avenue to within 43 meters of a property on Poplar Drive.

The construction site will be separated from the existing school, which is planned to be temporarily demolished during the October 2025 semester and Christmas holiday periods. The entire project is aimed to be completed by March 2026.

According to the plans, an additional 20 parking spaces will be provided in addition to 10 taxi stands.

Thirteen people objected to the proposal – voicing concerns including the impact on traffic and the privacy of nearby residents – but 38 residents sent letters of support for the project.

The plan was generally welcomed by the committee, with one of its members, Major Haydn Williams, noting that the long-standing presence of a school in the area meant that neighbors were not being asked to accept “a large new building”.

Sport England’s objection to the new school was based on the fact that just over 700 square meters of the approximately 36,000 square meters of school playing fields on the site would be lost and there would be no public access to the remainder.

Committee member Mary Green called both possibilities “sad.” But Cllr Williams said the reduction meant a loss of just two per cent of the playing field – which he put down to “almost nothing” – and the meeting also heard that even in its current form there is no option for the public to use the playing fields.

Council planning officer Debbie Roberts said such access could be considered in the future, but the necessary security and additional maintenance costs would have to be met from the school’s own budget, which is currently unaffordable.

Subscriber: Stay in touch directly with the latest headlines from Blog Preston, Join our WhatsApp channel And Subscribe to our twice-weekly email newsletter. It’s free and straight to your phone and inbox.

Read more: See the latest Preston news and headlines