Students, teachers and funders are due to celebrate the start of construction of the £30 million Whitehaven Campus on Wednesday.

Children along with a host of partners involved in the multi-million pound project will meet at St Benedict's School next week to mark the momentous occasion.

It will mark the start of construction work for a purpose-built education campus for St Benedict's School and Mayfield School on one site.

Among the guests at the event will be David Southward, portfolio holder for economic development and property at Cumbria County Council.

He said: "I shall be there to enjoy it," adding that a lot of effort has gone into securing the funding for the major project.

Planning approval for the campus was granted in February and work has taken place since then to make the site accessible and ready for construction work.

The plan is to build two schools in two separate blocks which will be linked by a central block that will accommodate the sports hall, the dining area for St Benedict's and facilities for Mayfield School including a hydrotherapy pool.

The scheme also includes new sports pitches, facilities, parking and landscaping on the site, at St Benedict’s School, as well as new access onto Moresby Road and Red Lonning.

It is intended that the existing St Benedict’s will be kept during construction. Once the new-build is up and running, there are proposals to demolish the former St Benedict’s and Mayfield buildings.

The county council is the planning authority for the new-build.

Work has been under way for a number of years to move the campus vision forward.

Funding for the state-of-the-art campus was secured in July 2015.

The unprecedented £30 million investment for the campus comes from a range of partners including the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Sellafield Ltd, Copeland Community Fund and the county council.

Wates Construction was brought in to design the campus. These initial designs went on display to the public in October and the county council formally submitted the proposals in December.