AN expansion plan for Winchester College has received the green light from city planners.

The scheme would see a new boarding house built at St Cross Road beside Antrim House, the college's old medical building.

The three buildings making up the new house would allow the college role to rise from 700 to 765.

Plans for the demolition of Antrim House and for the boarding house to go in its place were rejected by the council earlier this year.

The college now proposes to keep the older part of Antrim House, which is Victorian, and demolish a more recent extension.

The boarding house would be built alongside the site on Kingsgate Park, which is maintained by the college and rarely open to the public.

The first of the three blocks would face on to St Cross Road and be of similar size to Antrim House.

The second and third blocks would be constructed behind the first building and would be larger. None of the new buildings would be over three storeys high.

Members of the city council planning committee met last week to discuss the scheme.

A planning subcommittee visited the site on October 7 in preparation for the meeting and then voted by six to three to recommend the scheme should be approved. A report prepared by council officers also suggested the boarding house should be permitted.

Officers were concerned about losing a portion of Kingsgate Park, but said the college did not intend building anything else on it.

Some councillors criticised the scheme. Patrick Davies, said: "I think the integrity of the park will be damaged." Liberal Democrat member, Therese Evans, said she would vote against the scheme because it was "overdevelopment".

Yet when a vote was taken, Mr Davies and Mrs Evans proved to be in the minority, as the scheme was approved by nine votes to three.