TWO schools have been given permission to create extra classrooms to allow more pupils to enrol in education.

St Leonard’s Primary School, in Moor Lane, Padiham, and Reedley Primary School, in Reedley Road, will both create four new classrooms as part of the expansion.

The work at St Leonard’s will also see a new site entrance, staff parking and a new playground, while a new hall and office area will be built at Reedley.

Councillors on Lancashire County Council’s development control committee approved both schemes yesterday.

County Coun Marcus Johnstone, who represents the area around St Leonard’s, said: “This school is a real success story.

“When I first started on the development control committee if I had told people we would be looking at a four classroom extension for St Leonard’s nobody would have believed me.

“It is a school that has done incredibly well.

“Successful schools do bring their own problems but I very much welcome this.”

A sloping patch of green land that was not suitable for use will be taken up by part of the development and an existing tree will also be felled. Plans for an extension at Reedley Primary School were initially approved in June last year but bosses at the school scrapped the scheme and submitted a new version which will also see some classrooms expanded.

Planning officer Jonathan Haine said: “Reedley Primary School has been identified as being located within an area where there will be a future sustained growth in children of primary school age.

“The proposed four classroom block would be required to allow the school to sustain the increased admission numbers over the longer term.”