WORK on finding a site for a new secondary school in Littleport can finally get under way after the county council gave the long-awaited project a final seal of approval this week.

WORK on finding a site for a new secondary school in Littleport can finally get under way after the county council gave the long-awaited project a final seal of approval this week.

Members of Cambridgeshire County Council’s (CCC) cabinet agreed on Monday that Littleport would be the ideal site for a new secondary school in the district and gave the go-ahead for planning and design work to get under way.

The decision comes after almost a year of consultation, research and planning from officers at the county council.

Parish councillor Paul Cox, told the Ely Standard: “It is very good news indeed. Nearly everybody in the village who has given the plans much thought has deemed a new school absolutely necessary.

“It will effectively put right what most of us think was a great error made back in the 1980s when the old school was closed and hopefully it will get us back to how we were then.

“I think we need an ethos of education in the community and a secondary school could help provide that.

The need for a new school in the district was identified following a study by CCC in 2009 which found that by 2020, there would be need for an extra 1000-1500 school places for 11-16-year-olds in the district.

At present, about 400 pupils are bussed in to City of Ely Community College from Littleport at a cost to the council of some �277,000 a year.

With the number of pupils expected to increase in the coming years, it was identified that the Ely college would struggle to cope with the demand on places from extra pupils.

Options put on the table during consultations with local people included a new school in the north of Ely or an expansion of the district’s existing schools in Witchford, Ely, Soham and Bottisham.

The consultations found however, that a new school for Littleport was the overwhelmingly favoured choice and the option was finally put forward to the cabinet on Monday.

Work on finding a site for the new school, which is expected to cater for some 600 pupils, will start in the Autumn with a consultation launched that will encourage members of the public to put forward their ideas as to where the school should be built.

To take part in the consultation visit www.eastcambs.gov.uk or visit the council’s offices in Grange Lane, Ely.