MUCH-delayed plans to build a new secondary school have moved a step closer to becoming a reality.

Education chiefs have wanted to replace the crumbling Seaham School of Technology for many years.

The school missed out on Labour’s £55bn Building Schools for the Future programme before it was axed by the Coalition and although it was included on Michael Gove’s £2.4bn Priory School Building Programme (PSBP), that itself has been much-delayed.

However, plans have now gone in to Durham County Council, again raising hopes Seaham will finally get a new school soon.

The Government wants all 261 PSBP projects to be completed by the end of 2017.

Washington-based Miller Construction UK has been selected to build the new Seaham school, on a former colliery state off the town’s Station Road.

Due to the sloping nature of the six-hectare plot, it would be built across three levels, with the school buildings at the bottom, all-weather sports facilities in the middle and grass pitches highest.

The site is currently scrubland, with some capped mine shafts but no buildings.

The new E-shaped building would face Station Road and be accessed off a tree-lined plaza, with facilities for up to 1,200 pupils, 84 teachers and 102 other staff.

There would also be three football pitches, an eight-lane athletics track, a throwing pitch, cricket pitch and multi-use games area with all-weather tennis and football pitches, plus spaces for 168 cars, 70 bicycles and three buses, along with two electric car charging points.

The current school, which has capacity for 1,150 pupils, is more than 50 years old and badly deteriorating.

Planners had considered building the new school on the current site, 300m away on Burnhall Drive, but concluded it was not big enough to cope with the construction work while classes continued.

Outline planning permission to build on the new site was granted in 2010, although that consent has now expired.

Supporters say the new development would bring lower maintenance costs and carbon emissions and improved working conditions.

A planning application, plus supporting information from Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners, has been filed and public consultation is taking place now, until Thursday, August 28.

Those involved with the school have already been consulted on the proposals, at an event held at the school in July.

For more information, visit durham.gov.uk/planning, using the reference DM/14/02132/FPA.

The scheme is expected to go before a council planning committee this autumn.