PLANS to build a £5.5m primary school for children who have to travel miles every day have been deferred.

Members of Stockton Borough Council's planning committee have decided to delay a decision about building the 630-place school at Ingleby Barwick after concerns raised by objectors.

The councillors were split on the issue after they heard objections had flooded in to the proposal to build the school on protected community land.

Some councillors argued that the decision should be deferred for council officers to make more effort to find alternative sites.

However, others backed by the planning officers argued that developers at another possible site would want £4.5m for the land, which would use up most of the budget to build the school.

They stressed that if the school was not built by next year the council would lose the £5.5m Government grant awarded for the work.

A total of 16 objections were received by the council, including opposition from Ingleby Barwick Parish Council, Hilton Parish Council, the Thin End of the Wedge group and the Council for the Protection of Rural England. Most of them were concerned about losing the green site but others were worried about increased traffic.

The proposal is to build the school on a parkland area south of Ingleby Barwick, near Barwick Way.

A new access road to the site and a roundabout in Barwick Way would also be built.

Ward councillor Jenni Beaumont successfully argued for the issue to be deferred for at least three weeks.

She said: "As a ward councillor for the area, this is like being between a rock and a hard place. We are desperate for new school places and I'm not even against this site. If this is the only solution I'd be the first to vote for, it but I think we have other issues to sort out first."

Council leader Bob Gibson said the decision would merely lead the council officers to repeat the same conclusions they had already made.

Coun Beaumont's proposal to defer won the vote by nine votes to five at a meeting on Friday.