Ipswich Borough Council has recommended for approval an application for a new sixth form centre at an Ipswich high school.

St Alban’s Catholic High submitted the application for a new sixth form building which will comprise six new classrooms and a study space as well as an outside elevated social area.

Now planning officers at the borough council have recommended the three-storey building, which is expected to cost around £900,000, be approved.

The funding for the project was secured from the Demographic Growth Capital Fund and from the Catholic Diocese of East Anglia.

If planning permission is granted the build will commence this summer and is expected to take around 10 months.

There will be additional car parking as part of the scheme on the school site.

Only one letter of objection was submitted against the proposal. It came from a resident of Ladywood Road who objected to the “traffic implications of this or any further expansion of the school without sufficient facilities to reduce or maintain the current traffic management.” However planning officers concluded that the sixth form building was, “a well thought out and designed proposal for development at the site” and will have “no adverse impact on existing residential properties that share a boundary with the site.”

Colin Walker, headteacher at St Alban’s, said: “The need for the new build is in response to the growth of the school, particularly in the sixth form, where success over many years has made St Alban’s a popular destination for post-16 study.

“In addition, the national initiative for pupils needing to stay in education and training until they are 18 has made demands on school planning for capacity in the future.

“This is an exciting development for St Alban’s. The project will enable pupils who stay at St Alban’s, or choose to come here from other schools, to benefit from innovatively and creatively designed learning spaces.”

St Alban’s was recently named one of the top performing in the county.