DESIGNS for a £3m school to replace one devastated by fire have hit a stumbling block due to objections concerning loss of playing fields.

The plans for Middleton St George Primary School will be considered by Darlington Borough Council's planning committee on Wednesday, but the process has been complicated by objections from Sport England, which aims to deliver the Government's sporting objectives. It is concerned about the loss of playing fields detailed in the plans and the lack of measures to compensate for the loss.

Planning officers are in talks with the organisation in an attempt to overcome the objection.

In the meantime, they recommend the planning committee gives the director of development and environment delegated powers to grant permission for the school if the Sport England objection is resolved.

Failing this, the application will have to be referred to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister informing him of the authority's decision to grant permission for the school and giving him the final say on the plans.

If the plans are approved the replacement school will be a modern single-storey brick building in the shape of a figure 4.

Access will be from Neasham Road and there will be 28 parking spaces.

The school will have hard and grass surface play areas and a playing pitch, with football pitch and running track.

Local councillor and school governor Doris Jones said she sympathised with the Sport England objection, but added that as there are 351 pupils at the school they cannot make the building any smaller.

"We are already discussing rotas for staggering play times and dinner times so we don't have all the children crammed on the playing area at once," she said.

"We are desperate in the village for open spaces for children to play on, with the number of housing developments and the probability of more children in the village in the future."

The school was devastated by a fire in February last year, deliberately started by two 14-year-old former pupils, who set fire to waste paper on the roof.

The school, to be called St George's CE Aided Primary School, will include some pupils from Sadberge Primary School, which is to close.