THE Darwen school being expanded to accommodate the town’s growing population has been named as St Peter’s Church of England Primary.

It will almost double in size from 295 pupils to more than 500.

Blackburn with Darwen Council education boss Cllr Maureen Bateson revealed the name of the Turncroft Road school to its executive board meeting on Thursday night.

The senior councillors approved a £63million classroom building programme to accommodate pupils from families moving into new housing developments.

The scheme will create up to 400 new places and will see capacity at Lammack Primary School in Blackburn increase by 140 places from 490 to 630 by building several classrooms at an estimated cost of £1.55m.

The council also plans to spend £3.25m constructing new classrooms at St Peter’s to provide 210 extra places.

The meeting approved the £1.5m transfer of Longshaw Nursery to newly-built premises in the grounds of nearby Longshaw Infants’ School.

Cllr Bateson said: “We are delighted to be able to expand St Peter’s and the other two existing schools to meet this growing demand for places. We will address traffic concerns in Lammack.”

Cllr John Slater, leader of the council Conservative group, said: “I am pleased this is progressing.”