PLANS to create a £700,000 sixth form at a Benfleet secondary school could be given the green light.

Appleton School has submitted proposals to Castle Point Council for a state-of-the-art building which would provide education for 300 students and create 18 teaching jobs.

The new building would include nine new classrooms, a laboratory, IT room, seminar room, library and a Costa coffee cafe.

Proposals for the new facility, which is being independently funded by the academy school, were given the go-ahead by the Education Funding Agency, the body which pays for school places, in July.

Now, council officers have recommended the project be approved by councillors at a development control meeting next week, subject to 14 planning conditions.

In a report, planning officer Keith Zammit states: “The proposed additional block of accommodation and relocation of the existing demountable classrooms is considered to be consistent with the Government’s aim of improving schools and there are no significant adverse impacts arising from it that can be identified.”

This comes after King John School, in Shipwrights Drive, Thundersley, was recently given approval for a £2.2million expansion of its sixth formbuilding.

From 2015 young people will be required to stay in education or training until they are 18 after the Government raised the school leaving age.

If approved, building work on Appleton’s new sixth form will start early this year and open in September 2014.

The meeting will take place at the council offices in Kiln Road, Thundersley, at 7.30pm, on Tuesday.

For more information, visit www.castlepoint.gov.uk