MULTI-million pound plans to rebuild two village primary schools have been submitted.

Durham County Council wants to rebuild Brandon Primary School and Esh Winning Primary School, both near Durham, both on the existing school sites.

Following months of work by schools chiefs and extensive public consultation, planning applications have now been filed.

Both schemes will likely be considered by a council planning committee in the next few weeks.

Council chiefs originally wanted to rebuild Esh Winning Primary School, currently at The Wynds, on land off Woodlands Road, in the centre of the village, at a cost of £7.3m.

But they performed a U-turn last autumn after parents and residents campaigned against the proposals, claiming the site was a village green.

The protest succeeded after Esh Winning Residents’ Group secured a Big Lottery grant of £50,000 to install play equipment on the Woodland Road site.

The new buildings would be red-brick with clay tile roofs, 69 parking spaces and 20 cycle spaces.

Esh Winning Primary School is renowned for its outdoor learning facility, or ‘forest school’. Along with Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Roman Catholic Primary, it has been one of two schools in the village since Hamsteels Primary closed two years ago.

The plans to rebuild Brandon Primary School have been much less controversial, with many parents welcoming the £6.7m scheme warmly.

A school was first established on the Carr Avenue site in 1929, as an annexe of Durham Johnston School.

Brandon Primary School was created by the merger of Brandon Infants and Junior schools in September 2008.

The school has regularly won praise for its international work, gaining Durham County Council’s International School Award.

Previously, the council said the new school would be a single-storey building, with places for 390 pupils. A council-run nursery would have space for 26 youngsters each morning and afternoon. The existing Sure Start building and swimming pool would remain and there would be facilities for community use. The new school could open by January 2012.

Several multi-million pound Durham County Council schemes to rebuild secondary schools have been axed in recent weeks, following Government cuts to the Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF). However, no primary school projects were affected.

The plans for both rebuilt schools are available for public viewing on the Durham County Council website, at durham.gov.uk