A PRIMARY school in North Oxford can finally expand its playground after a planning row over a bridge was resolved.

SS Philip and James Primary School, in Navigation Way, needed land used as a path to a level crossing and allotments so it could expand southwards.

The proposal was part of a controversial planning bid by Network Rail to replace a railway bridge near Aristotle Lane as the land would no longer be needed.

The bridge planning application sparked objections from residents of nearby homes and allotment users, causing months of delays.

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Now the scheme has been approved by Oxford City Council and the school has received £72,000 from Oxfordshire County Council to prepare the site for development.

Chairman of school governors Corinna Redman said: “It has been a very complicated business but we can now move forward.

“Network Rail has been generous and we will be meeting with them later this month to talk about the next steps.

“We’d like to make a wider open area which could be used for theatre or teaching purposes and we could also have raised beds for cultivating produce or other plants.”

Pupils Juliet Pinner, seven, and brother Adam Pinner, eight, from North Oxford, were among those celebrating the breakthrough.

Adam said: “I am excited because there will be more space for us to run around.”

Network Rail’s application to replace the railway bridge, over the tracks between North Oxford and Port Meadow, was submitted to the city council in May last year.

But the scheme was delayed by a series of objections about the bridge’s design and a path leading up to it.

Hayfield Road residents said raising the path – which runs behind their homes on the east side of the railway tracks – could threaten the structure of an existing wall.

As reported in the Oxford Mail last year, there were additional concerns that if the path had smooth tarmac it could become a “mecca for skateboarders”.

But during a meeting of the city council’s West area planning committee on Tuesday, Network Rail pledged to build the wall higher and rebuild sections completely.

It also assured the path’s surface would not be smooth.

But even as agreement on the path was reached, councillors almost voted the scheme down because of the proposed appearance.

They said its solid sides, which Oxfordshire County Council told Network Rail were needed because of its use as a bridleway, made it stand out too much.

City council leader Bob Price, a member of the planning committee, said: “This will be a very foreboding addition to what is generally a very nice landscape.

“It would be very simple to design something with holes in it that would let children watch the trains go past.”

The scheme was passed, with five votes for and four against.