A Beaconsfield school is set to demolish its staff accommodation so it can build new facilities for students.

Plans to build a new dining hall at the Alfriston School in Knotty Green were approved by Buckinghamshire councillors at a meeting on Tuesday night.

The current dining facilities at the special school for girls aged 11 to 18 are ‘inadequate’, according to its application.

It read: “They have a small, overcrowded dining area with a separate kitchen on the opposite side of a corridor.

“The school has seating for up to 60 places only which makes it necessary for staff to eat separately from the girls and for the girls to be served in two sittings, with waiting times.”

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The Alfriston School has around 150 pupils and provision for up to 20 girls to board for three nights per week.

However, it requires dining space for 200 people staff and students to eat together ‘comfortably and without rushing’.

Members of the East Buckinghamshire area planning committee voted unanimously to grant planning permission for the proposals for the new dining area, subject to approval from the council’s planning director.

The plans were heard by the committee after being called in for further scrutiny by Cllr Jonathan Waters.

He argued that the demolition of the staff accommodation would result in the loss of key housing in the area and that the new dining hall would be ‘out of character’ with what is a largely residential neighbourhood.

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