LEADERS of a new Oxford secondary school hope to start a 'clean slate' after the controversial scheme was approved.

Plans to build the 1,260-pupil Swan School in Marston were passed by councillors on Monday night, overriding earlier refusal by a different Oxford City Council committee.

It will be the first secondary school in the city since the 1960s, which is now back on track to open in September in time to meet a need for pupil places.

A three-hour meeting at Oxford Town Hall resulted in seven councillors voting in favour of the new academy, which will open in temporary classrooms at least for the first year.

The school will replace the Harlow Centre off Marston Ferry Road - it is currently home to Meadowbrook College, which will get a new building as part of the Swan School deal.

Paul James, chief executive of the River Learning Trust, which will run the free school, said: "This decision will be a huge relief to all those families likely to have been affected by the secondary school places crisis that would have hit Oxford next September, if the Swan had been turned down again.

“This has been a fraught process. There has been high emotion on both sides, but the slate is clean from our point of view.”

In September the city council’s planning committee refused the plans, citing damage to the Green Belt and safety concerns about the access road cutting across a busy cycle track.

Their decision defied advice from planning officers and was ‘called in’ to be reconsidered.

No councillors voted against the plan on Monday but Stephen Goddard and Mohammed Altaf-Khan both abstained.

Following presentations for and against the plan, the press and public were made to leave while councillors heard confidential advice about planning law, before resuming in public.

The committee heard that the school had already received 136 applications for the initial 120-pupil intake, weeks ahead of the application deadline.

Planning officer Nadia Robinson told councillors there was a ‘pressing need’ for secondary school places and there were ‘no [planning] grounds for refusing the application’.

One objector who addressed the council said his daughter had been hit by a car while cycling on Marston Ferry Road, urging them to refuse the proposal.

Only a small minority of parents and staff will be allowed vehicular access to the site, and only during certain time slots.

Another critic said 'even Lewis Hamilton' would struggle to get in and out in the allocated time.

Cyclox chairman Simon Hunt encouraged councillors to reject the application unless an underpass was built, so cyclists could bypass the entrance.

Council officers said an underpass was ‘not necessary’ and subways can 'raise concerns over personal security, however.

The plan was approved on 38 conditions.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr James said: "We want to work with everyone in Marston to make this a school that the community can be proud of, and a school that contributes to making Marston one of the very best places to live.

"Quite rightly, people will criticise us if we do not do all the things we have pledged to do - it is up to us to deliver from this point on."