A SECONDARY school's plans to create a new classroom block on its grounds have been approved by the council.

Rainford High Technology College submitted a planning application in July to erect a single storey building.

It said the new block would help the school arrange its facilities to cater for the large number of pupils with education plans.

The school, located on Higher Lane, Rainford was refurbished and redeveloped in 2013.

It is made up of a number of buildings of various sizes, set around a landscaped courtyard.

The extension, which would be the first development at the school in seven years, would be made up of four classrooms, which could each house up to 32 pupils.

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A supporting statement within the planning application stated: “The additional space will allow the school to rearrange its facilities appropriately to meet the current requirements of the school’s population, which has a large number of pupils with EHC (Education, Health and Care) plans in place, or are in the process of having one developed.

“The new building provides a space that can be used independently from the main school building, and expands overall space within the school to allow for smaller groups of pupils where required.”

Within the plans, the application states that the building’s location and appearance “would not cause any further harm to the openness of the green belt land on which the school sits than the existing school development”.

The statement added that the school considers the building would fall under the “very special circumstances” required for development in the green belt “as part of the Rainford High School campus”.

The school proposes to install a factory-constructed “modular building” which would be lifted into place by a crane.

The planning application was granted permission by the council's planning department.

The works must begin within three years of the decision date.