PLANS  to build a new primary school in Didcot were approved by Oxfordshire County Council’s planning and regulation committee today.

The school will be part of the Great Western Park development, which will include 3,300 new homes, and will take 420 pupils as well as having 26 nursery places.

Government rules dictate that all new schools must be academies or free schools, meaning they will be independent of county council control.

The county council has appointed GEMS Education to run the primary school in Great Western Park.

While district councils normally deal with planning the county council can make decisions on buildings it will have operational use of, such as schools and libraries

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