A special needs school will expand to meet a growing demand for places in the borough.

Fern House School will build a new two-storey school building and a multi-use games area at its site in Keswick Drive, Enfield.

The existing single-storey, 1970s school building, modular classrooms and a caretaker’s house will be knocked down to make way for the new facilities.

Fern House opened in 2017 and provides specialist education for youngsters with social, emotional and mental health needs between the ages of seven and 16.

The redevelopment will allow Fern House School to take in 16 more pupils and employ 12 more members of staff.

The facilities, which include an all-weather five-a-side football pitch, will also be open to community groups outside of school hours.

Councillors approved the expansion at a meeting of the planning committee on Tuesday (August 27).

The plans had previously been put on hold while officials looked into providing extra fire safety measures at the site, including sprinkler systems.

But at Tuesday’s meeting, councillors were told sprinklers were a matter for building control and could not be dealt with by the planning committee.

Conservative councillor for Town ward Cllr Mike Rye said Enfield desperately needed to meet demand for places for pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs.

He told the committee that many children with these needs had to be educated outside of the borough – often at a higher cost – due to a lack of spaces.

Cllr Rye added: “I think we need to take the issue about the sprinklers in schools back to those people who fund the building of the schools.

“Where possible, that funding should be provided so that schools are protected – because the costs when schools burn down, the dislocation in the education, is huge.”