MAJOR plans to rebuild a Southampton secondary school could be given the green light tomorrow.

The £20million plans to overhaul Bitterne Park School were first revealed in the Daily Echo in July.

If city planning bosses approve the proposals the 1950s-era building at the Copsewood Road site will be torn down and replaced with a brand new building.

That would mean the end of a long saga during which the school lost out on funding for the work on several occasions.

However the Government announced last year that it would stump up the cash to provide a new building that will transform the school site by 2018.

Since the agreement senior staff at the school have been working with architects and the Government to come up with a new design for the site.

School chiefs have been applying for funding for several years, with much of the building in poor shape and the city also facing a rising demand for school places.

Bitterne Park itself will need to find extra capacity for 300 more students than it currently has, taking the total number of youngsters studying there to 1,800.

The blueprint for the site would see a three-and-a-half storey teaching block built on the site to replace some of the existing buildings.

The plans also include 80 new teaching classrooms, a purpose built assembly hall which can be used as a theatre with seating for 360 students.

There would also be a new dining space with a fully fitted kitchen, new performance and sporting facilities, improved student toilets, and a large learning resource centre and numerous meeting and group working spaces.

Earlier this year, head teacher Susan Trigger told the Daily Echo: “It is vital to ensure the excellence of what we currently deliver is continued in a new state of the art environment.

"Our expansion into a new school reflects the huge demand for places at Bitterne Park School and will allow even more students to experience the ‘can do attitude’ and aspiration that is the norm at Bitterne Park School”

The final countdown to work beginning could start if the city council’s planning panel grants permission for the work tomorrow (Sep 15).

The school will stay open while the building is constructed on its Copsewood Road site.

The existing building will then be demolished and replaced by playing fields.

Residents have previously raised concerns about potential traffic concerns around the new build owing to the number of on-site parking spaces.