NOW that St John's School has cleared a major hurdle in its plans for a single-site school, headteacher Patrick Hazlewood has been working with consultants on the logistics of moving the two schools together.

Last week St John's heard that its lower school site at Chopping Knife Lane, Marlborough, had been included in the Kennet Local Plan for housing. It means St John's can go ahead with marketing the site to developers to pay for the building of the new school, which is estimated to cost between £12 and £15million.

The first phase of project is the building of a new access road off Pewsey Road to the upper school Stedman site, work on which is due to begin in the autumn and to be completed by early next year.

That will give access to works traffic which will move on to the greenfield site at the back of the present school and build the new secondary school for children from 11 upwards.

Dr Hazlewood was yesterday due to meet with the project team to look at the contracts for a piece of land near the Stedman building, which will be the first to be sold off to provide enough capital to enable the detailed architects' plans to be drawn up. It is to be sold for four residential plots.

He has also given the go-ahead to the estate agents, Hamptons International, to market the Chopping Knife Lane site, now that it has been included in the Kennet Local Plan for housing by planning inspector Robin Muers.

The sale of the lower school site will, it is hoped, pay for the building of the new school on the Stedman site in Orchard Road.

Although building may start on homes behind the Chopping Knife Lane site, the school building itself will not be redeveloped until the new school is ready to welcome the 11 to 14-year-old pupils.

Dr Hazlewood said: "The plan is for education to continue seamlessly until the new building is ready and then both lower and senior schools will move in together.

"It is to be occupied no later than the beginning of the autumn term 2005."

Dr Hazlewood added that no-one was nave enough to believe that there will be no hiccups in the scheme but, because no two parts of the proposals are linked, it should be possible to carry on with the rest of the scheme while any problems are sorted out.

Once the new building is complete, work will begin to demolish the 1960s buildings on the Stedman site.

Dr Hazlewood said: "They are at the end of their useful lives and it would cost in the region of £3 to £4 million to recondition them. It is much more economic to get rid of them and start again."

The area currently occupied by the upper school buildings will be used for tennis courts and playground.

The crux of the success of project is the new Pewsey Road access, though it has caused much controversy locally.

Dr Hazlewood said: "Of course, no scheme is perfect, but access from that side is much better than what we've got and the residents of Orchard Road will be very pleased to get relief from school traffic after all these years."