Stanmore College has been given the go-ahead for a £40million rebuild and expansion of its five-decade-old main campus.

Harrow Council granted outline planning permission for the scheme - which will increase teaching space on the Elm Park, Stanmore, site and allow an extra 200 students to enrol earlier this month.

The existing collection of buildings will be replaced by one main block, consisting of classrooms, a library, a kitchen and a dining hall, that is linked to a second block containing the main hall, sports hall and gymnasium.

Only one original building, known as Beech, will remain standing.

Principal Jacqui Mace said: "We haven't got very good accommodation at the moment.

"It doesn't match the curriculum or provide flexibility. We want excellent facilities to match our excellent teaching and learning."

It is proposed to begin construction on the teaching block in June 2009 and to have it finished by December 2010. Building the sports hall will start later with a completion date of summer 2011.

Temporary off-site sports facilities will have to be found for students at some point during the build, Mrs Mace confirmed.

The council's strategic planning committee first debated the college's application on July 23, when members decided to postpone their decision in order to gather more information about potential traffic problems and the impact of the new college on neighbours.

The committee approved the plans after hearing the college had scrapped a proposed all-weather rooftop sports pitch that had become a bone of contention for nearby residents.

The committee insisted the college must contribute cash towards a traffic study for three years after the new campus opens, again to address neighbours' fears about worsening parking problems.

Harrow Council still has to approve 'reserved details' such as design and landscaping and the college - which came into being in 1969 - must still win a sizeable grant from the Learning and Skills Council, the government body which is responsible for funding post-16 education.