PLANS have been submitted to keep temporary classrooms at Kenton Primary School for up to three years.

The retrospective application to Teignbridge Council by Portakabin Ltd, which has been appointed by The Secretary of State for Education, will allow the temporary buildings to remain on site at East Town Lane until a replacement school is built.

The small village primary school suffered catastrophic flooding in 2023 and children were taught in three other locations nearby until they were all able to move into temporary three single storey and a two-storey buildings were all ready late last year.

The school trust has been working in collaboration with the Department for Education and has received confirmation the school has been accepted in the School Rebuilding Programme for a replacement school.

Funding has been approved and the DfE had indicated the new, permanent school would be completed by September this year.

Delays now mean this is ‘unlikely’.

However, a planning application for the permanent school is due to be submitted shortly and construction to begin ‘immediately’ if it is approved.

In the meantime, the current application is to retain the existing three single story and one two story temporary modular buildings while also installing a car park, pathways, fencing, gates and artificial turf.

The 2023 flooding at the 600-year-old building in Mamhead Road was the most ‘significant and disruptive’ in living memory.

While it had been planned to return, the flood risk remains and it was considered no longer suitable.

Until the new school is built, Portakabin assisted the DfE in ‘supplying a modular solution to ensure that Kenton Primary School can continue to deliver high standards of education until the permanent solution is realised’.

Once construction of the permanent school building is complete, the temporary modular buildings will be removed from the site and the land reinstated to its original condition.