Planning permission has been approved for a £30million education campus for Whitehaven.

The plans will see a purpose-built campus for St Benedict’s School and Mayfield School on one site.

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.

Cumbria County Council has confirmed that planning permission for the campus was granted at a development, control and regulation meeting last week.

A spokesman added: “Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet is due to consider the awarding of a main contract for the project on March 16.”

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

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.

Last month Copeland Council's planning panel also backed the proposals.

At the meeting, Nick Hayhurst, a Copeland planning officer, said: "This is designed to provide a modern, fit for purpose education facility.

"It is expected the all-weather pitch will be available for community use and it is a big benefit that the access point off Red Lonning will be a one way system, leaving at Moresby Parks road. At the moment there is a big issue with drop-off and pick-up.

"Overall this is a suitable development for an education campus meeting the specific needs of both schools with enhanced sports facilities and significant improvements to parking."

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

Work has been underway 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 Council, Copeland Community Fund and the county council.

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