SEAHAM is to finally get a new secondary school, after decades of waiting.

Durham County Council today (Tuesday, November 4) granted planning permission for a new 1,200-place school on the former Seaham Colliery site, off the town’s Station Road.

Councillor Audrey Laing said Seaham had been fighting for a new school for at least 12 years.

“I’m absolutely delighted, with the Seaham members, for this to go ahead,” she told the county planning committee at Durham’s County Hall.

Cllr David Boyes said the project was long overdue, the town having missed out on the Labour government’s Building Schools for the Future programme before the £55bn scheme was axed by the Coalition.

“It would have had a lot more money spent on it (under BSF). But we are where we are and we’ve got to make the best of what we’ve got,” he said.

The scheme has been included in the £2.4bn Priority School Building Programme, itself much-delayed.

The new school will replace the existing 50-year-old Seaham School of Technology, where the buildings are reaching the end of their life.

It will have 345 extra pupil places, with facilities arranged in an ‘E’ shape.

There will 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.

Planning officer Andrew Inch said there had been no objections from statutory bodies or residents and the scheme would provide for improved community and educational facilities.

The site needs regeneration, he added.

Miller Construction is expected to start work on site next summer.

After Seaham Colliery closed in 1987, roads were built anticipating the development of housing on the site.

Local planning policy envisages a mixed-use development, including housing and recreational facilities.

However, Mr Inch said the principle of development as a school had been previously established. Outline planning permission was initially granted in 2010, although it expired without the project going ahead.

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.

The scheme was approved unanimously when it came before councillors at County Hall.