A SOUTHAMPTON school could be set for major expansion if £9.6m plans are approved today.

The city council's cabinet will meet to decide whether to approve proposals for the project at Springwell School.

If approved, the special school would be expanded to contain ten classrooms, a hydrotherapy pool and a new hall.

It would also contain a sensory room, catering kitchen and enough facilities to support 128 youngsters with special needs.

The project would also see car parking at the Hinkler Road site improved as well as providing better access for school transport.

The move is being made as the council does not currently have enough special school places to offer.

The council has faced an increasing number of tribunal appeals from parents whose children cannot currently be offered places.

Appeals faced by the council rose from nine in January 2014 to 2015, to 24 for January 2015 to 2016, and has cost the council £60,000 to hire a solicitor.

A number of students have been placed in independent schools because the council cannot accommodate them at Springwell.

A temporary solution has been to accommodate temporary classrooms at Bassett Green Primary School and Startpoint Sholing.

But now the council looks set to press ahead with a revamp of the Springwell site, and work could begin next April if the plans are approved today.

It is expected construction work would then be completed the following summer, with the first students moving in in September 2018.

The expansion would see the new building created next to the existing school, with one building containing Key Stage One students and the other Key Stage Two.

Some of the funding for the project will come from borrowing, with the council assuming annual loan repayments of between £320,000 and £430,000 until 2023.

Labour city education boss Dan Jeffery said: "We have a growing population of children in the city with special educational needs, and the flipside is that we don't have adequate places in the city for supporting those children in education.

"Springwell are currently support children who are at other schools in the city and we are bringing it together so we can have it all on one site.

"It's going to be an ambitious capital scheme with a lot of additional facilities for the school, it's a really exciting next step."