Plans to extend a town school have been given the go-ahead.

Kent County Council’s (KCC) agreed Westlands primary can build three classrooms, toilets, cloakroom, link corridor and six additional parking spaces but, before work can start, it must submit a revised travel plan after concerns raised by residents about congestion.

The building work is set to cost £440,000 with funding provided by KCC.

It’s hoped work will start before the end of this year.

The school was forced to look at increasing its entry form from two to three to accommodate extra children after a rise in demand for places after it became part of the Swale Academies Trust in September 2010.

An additional classroom has already been built to the east of the grounds to allow for the extra 30 Year R pupils who joined this September but an extension is needed to take an additional form of entry every year until a new building is built on the site in Homewood Avenue.

Plans are yet to be submitted, however, under the Department for Education’s Priority School Building Programme, funding has already been approved to allow the existing school to be rebuilt with state-of-the-art facilities.

The scheme replaces the former Labour government’s Building Schools for the Future programme which aimed to repair and refurbish schools in need of urgent revamp.

There are 430 pupils from reception to Year 6 at the school, 23 teachers and 34 support staff but once all the work has been carried out those numbers will rise to 640 children, 31 teachers and 41 support staff by 2020.

Trust principal Jon Whitcombe said: “There has been a surge in the number of children coming through the system and we need to make sure we have the infrastructure to provide for them.

“We have had the tenders in to carry out the work for the extension and we are going through those at the moment, as long as we meet all the [planning] conditions we intend to start work as soon as possible and we hope to have at least one new classroom ready for use by September 2014.”