A NEW 1,260-pupil school in Oxford could alter its opening times to cut traffic congestion.

Residents warned The Swan School will bring ‘gridlock’ to Marston, as more details emerge about staffing numbers, build times and access.

Traffic concerns have prompted bosses to suggest opening with different times than neighbouring The Cherwell School, in a bid to stagger the school run along Marston Ferry Road.

A document released by Swan School bosses this month said: “Different opening times for The Swan than Cherwell have been suggested as a potential option to eleviate congestion...We would expect to have traffic marshals at the start and end of the day.”

It also reveals fresh details about the free school, which is set to open on the site of the Harlow Centre in September 2019.

The 18-page report states:

- The centre will be demolished to make way for the new school

- There will definitely be a sixth form, bringing the total student body to 1,260. Previous figures publicised were 900 pupils plus a potential sixth form

- About 70 teachers and 50 support staff members will work there

- St Nicholas’ Primary School could lose land from its playing field to allow an access road to the Swan School, from Marston Ferry

- Its catchment area will likely overlap and expand on Cherwell’s

- It will have a sports hall, activity studio and a field large enough for two full football pitches

- The school will start only with Year 7, and take seven years to fill up completely

- It will teach children aged 11-18 years old, with 180 pupils in each year group

Oxfordshire County Council sold the Harlow Centre to the Department of Education for £1 earlier this year, after it was deemed the only suitable site to deliver school places in time to meet demand.

Its decision came despite objections from residents and from Old Marston Parish Council.

The parish council’s deputy chairman Duncan Hatfield said: “There’s a long list of concerns. The road will go across the cycle track, which is one of the busiest school cycle tracks in the country.

“Congestion is horrendous already - there will be gridlock.”

He said staggering the opening times could be impractical for working parents.

City councillor Mary Clarkson said the different opening times ‘in some ways seems to make sense’, but added: “There might be some link-up between the Swan School and Cherwell, which presents quite a challenge for timetabling.”

The Swan School will be run by the River Learning Trust, which looks after several schools across Oxfordshire including Cherwell.

Just down the road from Cherwell, the Harlow Centre currently houses Meadowbrook College; a school for pupils 'unsuited' to mainstream education.

According to the new document, which is available on the Swan School’s website, Meadowbrook will relocate to a new building on the Swan School site.

The county council will attempt to find a new home for part of the Oxfordshire Hospital School, also based at the Harlow Centre.

The report sets out a timeline for the school’s development.

Consultation is due to run in autumn, prior to a planning application being lodged before the end of the year.