Plans were passed for the New Delaval First School in Blyth to be demolished and replaced with a state-of-the-art two storey building to accommodate 210 pupils and will be known as the Blyth New Delaval First School.

The application was approved by the planning and regulation committee at Northumberland County Council, subject to conditions, and will also involve the construction of a play area and car parking with necessary demolition of buildings on the site, including a disused chapel and a nursery.

One of the conditions of planning approval is a traffic management scheme to reduce obstruction and excessive parking on nearby roads.

Committee chairman Coun Paul Kelly raised concerns that the number of parking spaces would be limited to just 22 with one additional space for disabled access.

But Jack Walton, community and environmental services officer, said: "We are trying to discourage parents from driving children to school.

"We want to encourage people to use other forms of more sustainable transport.

"But we do recognise there is an issue with parking in residential areas and we will provide as much parking as possible to prevent this.

"The development is at the edge of Newsham and there are informal arrangements with the golf club – every site is looked at as an individual matter."

As part of the work historic artifacts from the chapel, such as the date stone, a stained glass window and the pews will be removed and stored for use elsewhere.

The project is part of Putting the Learner First scheme.