WORK starts today on a £5.9m scheme to relocate a special school from the one-time home of a former Prime Minister.

A formal turf cutting ceremony will mark the beginning of the scheme to relocate Windlestone Hall School, near Rushyford, County Durham.

The school has been based at the 19th Century country house, once the home of 1950s PM Sir Anthony Eden for nearly 50 years, but now it will have its own modern purpose built premises in nearby Chilton.

Windlestone Hall, which will be sold on the open market, was first developed as a school in 1958 and today teaches about 60 pupils aged between 11 and 16 with emotional and behavioural problems (EBD). It has now outgrown the Grade II-listed building, which would need to have costly repairs to carry on housing the school.

Its future has been considered by education chiefs at Durham County Council for some time and now a chance has come along to provide a modern alternative.

Councillor Neil Foster, the council's cabinet member for Children's Services said: "As a listed building, those repairs would have carried significant cost implications, and even if they had been carried out the building itself would still be unsuitable as a school.

"The surrounding parkland is also Grade II-listed, which effectively prevented us from building a new school in the grounds, so we had to look around and consider the alternatives."

The proposed 60-place replacement school will be built at Blue House Farm, Chilton, and is due for completion by August next year.

It will be built by Wates Construction and will be a landmark building framed within a parkland setting.

Sustainable features will include a wood-fired heating system using locally produced fuel.

It will cater for both boys and girls and include residential provision for up to 20 young people plus staff quarters.