DEVELOPERS have been given the green light to start work on a project to merge a high school's two sites into one.

Senior staff at the Rhyddings High School, Haworth Street, Oswaldtwistle, hope to see the new two-storey block completed by next spring, ending more than 60 years of pupils trekking between two sites.

The new block, which will comprise a block of six classrooms and workshops, which means the school no longer requires the old technical school in Union Road, Oswaldtwistle.

Lancashire County Council has now requested permission to sell the Union Road site for housing development.

That decision will be taken at a future meeting of the development control committee, but at yesterday's meeting at County Hall, councillors gave permission for the expansion of the Haworth site to begin.

The building will replace a science block, which moves elsewhere within the school. Several protected trees will be removed to make way for the development, although a new playground, seating area and group of shrubs will be planted elsewhere.

PE lessons will also take place within the school's own grounds for the first time.

Assistant head John Coulter said: "This new development will bring a lot of improvements to the school. It will mean everything is on one site, rather than spread across two and will mean pupils will no longer have to walk along the busy Union Road inbetween lessons.

"We have to be out of the old annexe by next year. It makes sense that it is used for development as it will mean county council gets money for it."

Local councillors have supported the planned demolition for development of the old annexe, even though Oswaldtwistle Civic Society has declared it a destruction of the town's history.