A primary and secondary school will be demolished and rebuilt, a planning committee agreed last night.

George Mitchell secondary and primary schools, in Leyton, are named as part of the priority school building programme and work will be funded by the Education Funding Agency.

Planning permission to demolish and rebuild the two sites was agreed last night (February 2) by the planning committee at Waltham Forest town hall in Walthamstow.

The primary school, in Burchell Road, was built in the 1960s and will be replaced by a two storey building with facilities including classrooms, main hall, nursery play area, library, staff room and kitchen.

The secondary school, in Farmer Road, is an old Victorian building and will be demolished to make way for a three to four storey red brick building with facilities such as a sports hall, classrooms, science laboratory and offices.

The facade will not be retained due to inpracticalities.

Robert Hewson, the council planning officer presenting the proposal, said the fact a Victorian school was being rebuild could be controversial.

He said: “The new secondary school will replace the Victorian building and this could be seen as an issue that we are losing this original structure.

“But there are various practical reasons given why the existing building is not adaptable to standards that we require today.”

The report states that the building is too small to fit 600 pupils and the stairwells are too narrow to meet national requirements.

Leytonstone ward Labour councillor Jenny Gray said the needs of pupils must come before any emotional attachment to the building.

She said: “The primary school is really in need of refurbishment and can’t see any reason not to go ahead with the plans.

“The secondary school is an old building with a lot of history and my son went there.

“But I agree that it is not fit for purpose for a modern school and for pupils in Waltham Forest to have the best chance to compete.”