Plans to permanently expand three schools have been given the go-ahead by councillors.

The proposals for Belmont School, in Hibbert Road; Pinner Wood School, in Latimer Gardens; and Kingsley High School, in Whittlesea Road, North Harrow, were granted planning permission by Harrow Borough Council on Wednesday evening.

The planning committee gave the go ahead to help the borough cope with a rising demand for school places in the years to come.

Chris Spencer, Harrow’s interim corporate director for children and families, said: "We have a huge task on our hands here in Harrow – to create thousands of new school places over the coming years.

"So we are excited at the prospect of starting work at Belmont, Pinner Wood and Kingsley – and delivering on our promise to provide a fair start in life for every Harrow child at a good, local school.

"These are the first three schools in our new phase of expansions – with many more to come over the next few months."

Belmont and Pinner Wood are part of the council's second phase of primary school expansion, which will see 11 schools in the borough grow by class over the next two years.

The first phase of the expansion plan is already underway with eight schools permanently expanded from September last year.

Mr Spencer added: "There has been a big increase in pupils with special educational needs in our borough – so we are particularly looking forward to creating new additional places at Kingsley.

"At Belmont and Pinner Wood, we are pleased to be adding classrooms, improvements and even extra staff parking spaces, which will help relieve pressure on roads in the local areas."

The council has managed to secure government funding for the second phase of expansion, including £30million from the Government’s Targeted Basic Needs fund.

It will allow the authority to provide 3,000 places in primary, secondary and special educational needs schools by 2015.