Hertfordshire County Council has bought a section of land for a new secondary school.

Land near Carpenders Park Farm in Oxhey Lane, Carpenders Park, has been earmarked for a new school.

Education chiefs say it will help tackle the growing demand for school places.

Documents approved by the council cabinet on Tuesday suggest the school would mainly serve the South Oxhey area – where work on 514 homes is expected to start later this year – increasing the demand on school places in the area.

Cllr Mark Watkin, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for Education, said: “They have bought that bit of land and gone back to exactly where they were 25 years ago, with schools going in on places where there were school that have since been closed down.

“I think it has been very tough on the kids in South Oxhey because they do not have a secondary school.

“People there, and in Carpenders Park, are distinct communities and the children have to go by bus or car to places like Rickmansworth, Bushey or even Harrow.

“In principle it is a very good idea.”

Campaigners had criticised the council’s planning because a number of schools have been shut in the last twenty years.

Langleybury School, Sir James Altham Comprehensive School, William Penn School and Durrants School in Croxley Green are among those to have been closed.

Diana Harnett, who campaigned to keep the Sir James Altham Comprehensive School open in the late 1980s, told the Watford Observer last week: “They said there would not be enough kids on the estate to justify keeping it open. The Sir James Altham School would have been ideal. It was only five minutes away from this here.

“At the moment the kids are being shipped off to here, there and everywhere and the parents are having to pay for the travel.

“There are more people coming on to the estate and they should have thought about that.”