EXPANSION plans for an ecoschool in Much Dewchurch have finally got the go-ahead five years after they were originally drawn up.

Those behind an application for new classrooms at the Steiner Academy – first approved in 2004 but later amended – had been made to wait after councillors delayed the decision in March over concerns regarding access for fuel deliveries.

But southern area planning sub-committee members finally approved the altered plans at a meeting last Wednesday after the applicant outlined new routes for lorries that would also be subjected to restricted delivery times.

Now pupils can look forward to a new assembly hall, music room and a biomass plant room at the school, which became the first ever state-funded Steiner centre in the UK last year.