TWO temporary classrooms built in the grounds of a primary school need to be kept because the school cannot afford a permanent replacement, a council has heard.

Two buildings at St James CE Primary School in Cowley will remain in the grounds of the school after Oxfordshire County Council's planning and regulation committee approved a planning application to keep them.

Councillors on the committee agreed the school would not be able to carry on without the extra buildings.

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But Labour councillor John Sanders said: "These temporary buildings will have been up for 15 years by the end of this extension. That means that when they first went up a five year old will now be in secondary school."

He added: "As part of our examinations there needs to be a permanent replacement for these buildings after the five years."

A council officer told the committee the two buildings were granted an extension of use in 2012.

This expired in 2017, but no one had noticed and told the school until 2019.

The officer added that school could not afford to build permanent new buildings to replace the outbuildings, so needed to keep them in use.

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Though the committee gave the school permission to keep the two buildings, an objection to the plan was received from Oxford City Council.

In its objection, the city council said keeping the buildings was against its planning policies because the buildings were only intended for five years of use.

One of the two buildings contains two classrooms, the other contains a single classroom which is used for teaching children who have special educational needs.