A NEW primary school to replace outdated buildings requiring more than £1m in refurbishment is expected to open four years late.Suffolk County Council announced yesterday that a new school in Pytches Road, Woodbridge, to replace the New Street school in the town will open next spring.

By Richard Smith

A NEW primary school to replace outdated buildings requiring more than £1m in refurbishment is expected to open four years late.

Suffolk County Council announced yesterday that a new school in Pytches Road, Woodbridge, to replace the New Street school in the town will open next spring.

The scheme was officially unveiled in March 2001 with the aim of opening a new school in September 2003. But the development project is a complex jigsaw involving three sites - the current library, the school premises in New Street and the new site in Pytches Road - and it fell behind schedule.

However, the new school will coincide with the centenary of the New Street site and staff and pupils will have a double cause for celebrations. It will have places for 210 children and a nursery with nearly 40 places.

A county council spokesman said yesterday: ''At the recent progress meeting with officers of the council, the county's development partners, G&E Woodbridge Consortium Ltd, formally introduced senior staff of R G Carter [Ipswich] Ltd, their selected building contractors for the new school building.

''There was detailed discussion on the programme for the construction of the building with targets established for the final detail of any necessary agreements.

''The aim of the programme is to complete construction of the new school in the spring of 2007. Next year is the centenary of the purchase of the New Street site in 1907, the existing school having been constructed shortly afterwards and the partners look forward to giving the existing building a further 100 years of useful life with its renovation and conversion into the new county library for the Woodbridge area.

''With a complex and significant project such as this, there is inevitably a great deal of detailed work that has been undertaken to bring it all to fruition and both the development partners and the county council are working hard on all aspects to bring this work forward to meet their target dates.''

Kevin Connolly, headteacher, said: ''This is an exciting time for all of us at the school but particularly for our children, tomorrow's citizens. The building has been designed to be flexible, inspiring and supportive of teaching and learning and we hope that this will enable us to involve even more of the community.”

Part of the New Street main building will be turned into a library and there will be houses and flats around the old playground.