Lewisham Council has agreed to hand over a patch of land to a primary school in St Johns to aid its expansion.

Ashmead Primary School is planning to accept an additional 150 pupils in September 2018 and is looking to expand to accommodate them.

The school currently has 270 pupils in total and is oversubscribed year on year. In 2016/17 it received 80 first and second preference applications for only 30 spaces available.

Even in 2017/18, where most schools in the borough suffered an overall large reduction in primary applications, the school was still oversubscribed by 77 per cent.

A planning application for the expansion of the school was submitted to the council in November last year and is still being determined.

Public consultation on the planning application started on January 3 and the school said it needs to have the patch of land to the rear of the school before a decision is reached on the application.

The decision to give the land over to the school was made by Lewisham Council at a cabinet meeting on February 14.

In a post online about the expansion, Ashmead School staff said it would be a significant “financial advantage” for the school.

The post said: “Looking at our financial plan for the next three years the positive financial impact of the proposed expansion is very substantial.”