WORK on building a new school to serve the Collingbournes is expected to begin early in the financial year 2003-04 but the school may not open until September 2004 - a few months later than hoped for.

The education department has advised Wiltshire county planners that the external factors, such as negotiations with a landowner, mean it cannot guarantee an earlier opening date.

Planning permission for two mobile classrooms on the old school site near the church ran out on 31 August this year.

Now permission to extend their life for another two years has been applied for by the education department.

Collingbourne Ducis Parish Council owns the land on which the mobile classrooms sits and has objected to the renewal of planning permission.

The parish council needs the land to enable it to provide an extension to the adjacent graveyard which is rapidly filling up.

Richard Lander, the director of environmental services at Wiltshire County Council, has told members of the regulatory committee that they have little option but to grant permission for the classrooms.

"The accommodation needs of the school can only be met by the continued use of the mobile classrooms until such time as the proposed new school is constructed and ready for occupation," he said in his report.