AN OXFORDSHIRE secondary school has tonight won permission to build a housing estate on one of its three sites.

King Alfred's Academy, Wantage, can now sell its East Site in Springfield Road to a housing developer to build 150 homes on it.

Vale of White Horse District Council's planning committee unanimously granted the school permission for its scheme in a meeting at The Beacon, Wantage, tonight despite objections from 55 residents.

Neighbours of East Site objected that the scheme was an overdevelopment of the land, that the hundreds of new residents would have an adverse traffic impact on roads and complained about the loss of playing fields on East Site.

The school will now be able to achieve its long-held ambition to move from a three-site model down to two sites, meaning teachers will not have to travel as much between lessons.

The academy is expected to get £11m for the site.