A POPULAR oversubscribed school has been granted permission to accept more pupils and two single-sex schools in Southampton are to turn mixed.

Bitterne Park Secondary School will see its places increase from 1,400 to 1,500 from September next year.

Meanwhile, Regents Park and Bellemoor School are also going to be allowed to turn into two 750-place mixed schools.

Governors, church group representatives and councillors sitting on Southampton's School Organisation Committee gave the final go-ahead for the plans during two meetings this week as part of the council's revamp of secondary education in the city.

During a final six-week public consultation in January, only a handful of letters of objections were received against the proposals.

Andrew Hind, the council's head of strategic development, said it was hoped that increasing pupil numbers at Bitterne Park would reduce the number of parents sending their children to other schools in Hampshire.

He said: "We want to expand a successful school that delivers excellent results to its pupils.

"It is an excellent school and consistently among the top three schools in the city."

Under a Government scheme for the expansion of successful and popular schools, the council is entitled to bid for £400,000 to help pay for extra buildings.

However, any new buildings will have to get planning permission.

Restrictions are also in place over the height of any buildings, due to the school lying underneath Southampton Airport's flight path.

The admission of girls into Bellemoor and boys into Regents Park will be introduced gradually from September 2008.