THE green-light has been given for Worcester's brand new secondary school.

Councillors unanimously backed plans for the major new site in Newtown Road, which was officially confirmed as its location last week.

After a lengthy consultation, the public backed plans to bring a new school to Worcester, and Cllr Marcus Hart, cabinet member for education, said it was badly needed.

Introducing the report to the council, he said: "It gives me great pleasure to bring this here today.

"It will come as no surprise to members of the council and public that we need to build a new secondary school for Worcester."

Cllr Hart went on to reveal the results of the public consultation into the new school site.

Of the 595 people who responded, 83 per cent were in favour of the plans, 9 per cent neither agreed nor disagreed and only three per cent actively disagreed with the plans.

He added: "Even before I was in the cabinet, I know a new school was talked about for the city.

"We currently have 1,214 secondary school places available for September 2022 and we already have 1,204 pupils we know about.

"As you can see that gives very little flexibility or choice, especially with the inward travel to the city we are expecting."

The new school has been in the works for a number of years and is being built to cope with the rise in demand for school places the new housing developments around Worcester will receive.

It is hoped the new school will alleviate some of the pressure on Nunnery Wood High School and Tudor Grange Academy Worcester.

The £44million school is expected to be up and running by September 2026.

The notice of motion introduced by Cllr Hart was seconded by Cllr Andy Roberts when the county council's cabinet met on November 18.

Cllr Roberts said this would be the first new school in the city since Nunnery Wood was opened around 80 years ago.

He said: "I absolutely support this. We could cobble something together for the next few years, but I believe this council is better than that."

A further formal consultation into the plans will begin on November 28 and run until the new year.

Labour councillor Richard Udall asked Cllr Hart to ensure the new school's admissions policy would not be based around faith or ability, saying it should be open to all.

Cllr Hart replied that the school would be offered to an academy and would open with its own admissions policy.