WORK is set to begin on the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy's new £24m Maritime House campus next month after a long delay.

IPACA has announced that work will begin at the controversial Southwell Business Park site on April 20.

Contracts have been signed with Wates Construction which will undertake the development work.

The school initially had £14m to spend on the project but has now secured a total of £24 million worth of central government funding.

The building work is expected to take 58 weeks with the campus due to open in September 2016 - a year after it had originally planned to open.

The work includes alterations, extensions, a new sports hall and sports fields as well as re-organisation and additions to road, footpath and cycle routes.

IPACA won its bid to move to Southwell after a plan inspector found in its favour following a public inquiry.

The borough council’s planning committee had refused permission due to the proposed sports hall being outside the development boundary and the impact of extra traffic on the area.

Welcoming the beginning of building work, IPACA director of change and innovation Gary Spracklen said: “We’re extremely delighted. It’s fantastic news - it’s what we’ve been waiting for for a long time.

“It just fulfils our vision for twenty first century learning on Portland. We’re going to operate a stage not age approach to learning. It will allow us to work with a much more flexible and agile approach.”

Speaking about the delay, Mr Spracklen said: "That was because of the delays in the planing. We've secured an increase in funding from £14m to £24m and we're really excited we secured the extra money."

The new campus will include a 200-seat theatre and cinema and sport and swimming facilities.

The entire campus will be connected to superfast broadband and serviced by Cloud technology allowing students to access learning materials throughout the campus.

Cllr Paul Kimber originally opposed the plans but is now supportive.

He said: “We stand by the public inquiry and we wish it all the best of luck. It is time to get on with educating our kids.”

Cllr Ray Novak, still believes it isn’t the right place for the school but is happy with the announcement.

He said: “That’s good news that it progressing because time has been ticking by for the school and for the island."

A spokesperson for Wates Construction said: "We are now in a position to look forward to commencing on site and have been working closely with IPACA as we move towards this exciting time for the academy.”

IPACA will keep people informed with a serious of meetings, the first of which will be at 6pm on Wednesday, April 15 at Royal Manor Campus.