The expansion of a secondary school in Shepshed has been approved – but that might not be the end of the matter.

Iveshead School is set to get a new teaching block to help Leicestershire County Council meet a growing need for places.

The school currently has an "approved admission number" of 150 new pupils each year, but this academic year it agreed to take 210, with the number expected to rise again to 240 in the 2025/26 academic year.

However, the current school building only has a capacity for 950 pupils in total, and, in September 2023, there were 943 on roll.

Now, the council has signed off on part of a two-phase plan to expand the school, with councillors voting unanimously to approve a new, two-storey building on part of the playing fields. This would include 10 new classrooms, a library, three seminar rooms, a media studies classroom with an audio-visual suite and a post-16 centre, as well as offices, toilets and a staff room.

Despite councillors giving the go-ahead, however, there may still be some way to go before the work can begin. This is because Sport England, which the local authority is legally bound to consult, objected to the scheme due to the loss of playing field space.

Since then, the plan has been amended to bring another, currently "redundant", grassland area into use as a football pitch. A sports equipment store and changing rooms are also proposed for the future, but for financial reasons cannot currently be built.

The council also said it would be happy to enter into a community agreement so local residents could benefit from the new pitch.

The original proposal for building on part of the playing fields would have resulted in the loss of "just" 50 sq m of playing field space, the authority added. In addition, it said, the authority revisited the scheme again in recent days and made more modifications, increasing the size of the new sports area. The final proposal would leave the area with six sq m more playing space than if the whole project did not go ahead, it said.

Despite this, the Sport England objection still stands. This is because it has not yet responded to the latest proposals. Council officers said they had not been able to get hold of anyone at the organisation, but accepted that that could "be a matter of half term", during which many people book holidays.

If Sport England does not withdraw its objection, the local authority will have to refer the application to the Government, which will then decide if it wants to "call in" the application, which means it would make a decision on the application itself. Officers said, however. that they "fully anticipate" the body would change its mind.

They decided to give Sport England a few more days to respond to the tweaks, before referring the application to the Government. If the organisation does not remove its rejection, the Government will then have 21 days to decide if it wants to call in the plan.

The council also revealed that modifications to the current school building were planned, which would see an existing dance studio and changing rooms converted into general teaching classrooms, the computer suites upgraded and a "food service cabin" installed. These changes were not considered as part of this application.