A council spokesman said today the intention is to start building the school in October, and it is expected to be open to pupils by April 2012.

The school will be built on land north west of Summerfield Avenue. It will replace the existing Whitfield and Newfields primaries as well as the Whitfield Community Early Years Centre.

It will have 21 classrooms, 80 nursery places, a dining/assembly hall, a gym hall and an integrated children’s unit. In total, it will accommodate around 700 primary pupils and younger children.

Externally, there will be 3500 square metres of playground space, an orchard and a seven-a-side football pitch. Car parks will be provided to the north and west of the building.

The school is to be surrounded by a security fence, while steel railings will separate the playground from the access road and the car parks.

Both the existing Whitfield and Newfields primaries have been operating well below capacity, and the council decided it made sense to replace them with a single school.

Working groups comprising council officials, ward councillors, representatives of the parent councils and headteachers were set up to oversee the merger of the two schools.

In a report recommending approval of the planning application, city development director Mike Galloway said consultation events had been held involving the local community, parents and carers of pupils.

He said the events had been attended by some 150 people and no adverse comments had been received about the plans.

At the meeting, one local resident objected to the application.

He said his concern was not with the principle of a new school, which he accepted was needed, but with the fact 135 trees would have to be removed to accommodate it and there had been no proper assessment of the effects of a new road to access the school.

Mr Galloway said more trees would be planted than were to be felled and road access to the school would be taken from a new spine road, which is integral to the regeneration of Whitfield.