SETTLE High School is about to start a £490,000 building programme to solve its overcrowding problems.

The school educates 13 to 18-year-olds from throughout North Craven and is also a community college offering Craven College evening classes.

However, it only has enough capacity for 520 students - and there have been more than that every year since 1994. Current projections suggest student numbers will be more than 650 by 2004, making the building works even more vital.

A new block of eight classrooms will be built next to the existing library block and the "temporary" classrooms at the top end of the school's grounds are to be replaced after 34 years in situ.

The new building means the school can create a much-needed post-16 study area in the existing space on the floor below the library.

There will also be improvements to the office and teaching areas in the centre of the school.

Headteacher Trevor Wear and his governors have been pressing for new buildings since 1995, and the money means the great pressure on premium space at the school will be relieved.

Architects Watson and Batty, of Leeds, have drawn up the plans which are due to go before Craven District Council's planning committee in December. If they are passed, a start will be made in early spring with the classrooms ready early in the academic year of 2001/2.

Mr Wear said: "It is probably over-optimistic to expect the new building to be ready for the start of the new year next September.

"In any event, we will have substantially improved accommodation coming on line within the next 18 months.

"This will undoubtedly benefit all our daytime students and take a lot of pressure off existing accommodation. It will also mean a further potential expansion in community provision, which is doubly advantageous in as much as the new building will be much more easily accessible for disabled people."

At present the school, the oldest part of which was built in 1907, is on many different levels with 85 steps throughout.

The new block will be fully accessible for the disabled, with a platform lift.

Improvements to sporting facilities are also on the agenda, with the school joining forces with Settle Middle School and other interested parties to look at ways of building a sports hall next to the swimming pool.

Mr Wear added: "There is no question that we are in urgent need of such facilities, but we need all the help and expertise we can get if we are to launch a successful bid for lottery funding, or indeed funds from any other sources."

Settle High School started life as a girls' school then became mixed in 1959.

The last building work at the school was 27 years ago.