Plans for a new primary school in the east of Trowbridge are gathering pace as Wiltshire Council looks to find a business to manage the new facility.

The academy is being built in response to extensive new housing in the area and the council believes it will boost the ongoing regeneration of the town.

Wiltshire Council’s manager for school strategic planning, Nick Glass, said: “As more houses are being built, it’s our responsibility to provide more school places for the new children coming to the area.

We have future-proofed the site so that if more houses come, we can extend the building and have 10 classes and go up to 14, if needed.”

Planning permission has already been given for the building, near Green Lane, in Hilperton, and it will initially welcome 105 pupils in seven classes from September 2014.

Letters were sent to organisations considered suitable to run the academy in February.

The county has worked with the Department for Education to identify potential service providers and contacted academy groups in Wiltshire.

Mr Glass said a key criteria of the selection process would be the applicants’ experience running outstanding schools.

The deadline for companies who want to govern the new academy to apply to Wiltshire Council is April 15, with a shortlist being drawn up and interviews scheduled to take place in May.

Mr Glass said: “I would be very pleased to hear from any businesses and organisations who would like to be a part of this project. As far as I’m concerned this is going to be a great opportunity for Trowbridge.”

Once the preferred organisation to govern the school has been selected, the Department of Education and MP Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, will be required to give permission to the application.

A workshop was held at Trowbridge Town Hall at the end of January where parents and headteachers from the town discussed their views about the project. Mr Glass said he was impressed by the positive response the plans had received from the local community.

He added: “Throughout this process we have followed the Department for Education guidelines consulting the local community about the plans and some very useful things have come out of our consultation.”

Wiltshire Council has also been approaching construction companies to get quotes to build the new school. Its school buildings and primary place planning co-ordinator, Clara Davies, said: “We are looking for the work to start on site in around June or July, with it taking around a year to build, we these kind of projects we aim to finish at that sort of time so we can comfortably get the equipment into the building.”

Once the academy has been built, it will run independently from Wiltshire Council but will still be subject to Ofsted inspections.

To find out more about the project or governing the academy, email: nick.glass@wiltshire.gov.uk