A NEW school for children with special needs will be built in the north of the county – despite councillors’ worries that children could be killed by traffic nearby.

The new school will be built on land near the Warriner School in Bloxham. It will accommodate up to 100 pupils.

The land is currently used as a field for grazing for the Warriner School’s farm.

Councillors on Cherwell District Council’s planning committee approved the project on Thursday. Its chairman said there is a ‘vital need’ to build the school to support new residents.

James Macnamara said: “We constantly say: 'we need the infrastructure because we’re building the houses' and we tend to complain we don’t have the infrastructure.”

He added: “You can call it emotional blackmail, I call it absolutely vital need.”

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But councillor George Reynolds said he worried extra traffic on roads supporting the Warriner School could cause trouble.

There are about 1,300 pupils at that school, with that expected to rise to 1,600.

Mr Reynolds said: “I would not like to leave this room [to think] that I’d voted for something that could and might cost the life of a child.

He added: “We stood there for half an hour. At least twice, I thought, Christ, here we go.

"This goes on day on day at the moment.”