COUNCILLORS gave the thumbs-up for the redevelopment of two Walthamstow primary schools.

The 1970s school buildings of South Grove Primary School in Ringwood Road will be demolished over the next five years and replaced with a star-shaped, single-storey building and a two-storey block with a car park and landscaping.

Hillyfields Primary School, the newly amalgamated Edward Redhead nursery and junior schools, will be re-developed into a two-storey building with a sloping aluminium roof and new play area.

The council's green travel plan to coincide with the new building works, however, was slammed by several members of the council's planning committee on Tuesday, January 13.

The council's green travel plan seeks to encourage parents and teachers to share cars, and pupils to walk or cycle to school.

Cllr Liz Phillips said: "Most teachers in primary schools are women and encouraging them to leave the car at home and get public transport, sometimes late at night, is not going to work."

The proposal is part of a school private financed initiative (PFI), public projects financed with private money, with six other Waltham Forest schools all using developer Kier Regional.

Several residents in Callis Road, Campus Road, Markhouse Road and Low Hall Lane have complained over loss of light and loss of green space resulting from the South Grove school redevelopment proposal.

At the committee meeting planning officers said there would be no loss of light, and the application is considered to be a "neighbourly development", noting that it would not impact on the environment.

Pupils at both schools will be taught in mobile classrooms until the building works are completed.

The planning officer's report says the new school in Ringwood Road will replace the single-storey buildings, "which do not meet the functional requirements of a 21st century school".

The new schools will have the additional security features of extra outside lighting and CCTV cameras.