TOWN-WIDE daily gridlock caused by King Alfred's school will be solved by Wantage Town Football Club's new pitch and car park plan, the academy has promised.

School boss Simon Spiers said school buses will be able to use the car park rather than blocking up Portway every morning and afternoon, making the road safer for pupils.

The executive head teacher of the Vale Academy Trust, which runs King Alfred's, told Wantage Town Council on Monday night that the football club's plan was an integral part of the school's plan to close its East Site on Springfield Road and expand Centre Site and the Sixth Form on Portway.

An impressed town council gave the plans its full support.

The football club submitted a planning application in December to build the new all-weather sports pitch on a field between its current pitches and Wantage Leisure Centre.

The application, prepared with King Alfred's, also seeks to turn one of the leisure centre tennis courts into a 55-space car park for use by the club and the school.

The football club previously told this paper the £650,000 scheme was the culmination of 10 years of planning and 'long overdue'.

Mr Spiers told councillors on Monday: "Wantage deserves some outstanding facilities such as this.

"The car parking bit of it is just as important: this is all linked to King Alfred's project to move from three sites to two.

"This will finally take the school buses off Portway which, if you live in Wantage and you are around in the morning or evening, you know is absolute chaos as we gridlock the whole town.

"This plan also increases the overall number of parking spaces for the football club, leisure centre and King Alfred's staff so there is huge indirect impact on everybody else."

Councillors Ben Mabbett called the plan a 'no brainer' for the council, adding: "We all know the parking problems in the town and this will improve that no end – plus we all get a brand spanking new pitch."

The only concerns about the application centred around the demolition of the school's 1950s armoury building, formerly used to store guns and ammunition used by cadets.

The scheme would demolish the small brick building opposite the sixth form entrance to widen the road from Portway.

Vale of White Horse District Council conservation officer Sally Stradling described the hut as a 'significant' heritage asset.

However Mr Spiers told councillors on Monday night the road needed to be widened to improve safety, and revealed that key parts of the armoury would be saved and put on public display somewhere nearby, which was enough for the councillors.

Former mayor StJohn Dickson said: "Personally I think it is a very strong application and there's no reason we should turn it down.

"I can understand why some people might be opposed to the loss of the armoury but if they're taking the front and putting it somewhere then the benefits outweigh the downsides."

Mayor Steve Trinder, an Old Afredian himself, added: "I think the armoury is the only objection, but that building has always been obscure and to preserve the old part of it so it can be display in public is a step forward, not a step back."

Members of public can see the plans for themselves at whitehorsedc.gov.uk using reference number P16/V3021/FUL.

Vale of White Horse District Council is aiming to make a decision on the scheme by February 1.