PLANS to demolish four secondary school buildings and replace them with state-of-the-art facilities look set to get the go-ahead.

Applications to rebuild Belle Vue Boys School in Heaton, Carlton Bolling College in Undercliffe, Oakbank School in Keighley and Samuel Lister Academy in Cottingley are recommended for approval at a planning committee next week.

Sport England, the government body that provides funding to sports in the UK, had at first objected to all four of the plans, concerned at the loss of sports pitches.

But its fears now appear to have been allayed, after it was given reassurances about the sports provision planned at each site.

However, Shipley MP Philip Davis still has grave concerns about plans to rebuild Samuel Lister Academy.

He said virtually no-one in Cottingley sent their children there, instead preferring Beckfoot School or Bingley Grammar "because the results are better", while the pupils at Samuel Lister tended to come from the Bradford West constituency.

The Conservative MP said this caused major traffic disruption on the roads.

He said: "We just need a complete reorganisation. This isn't solving the problem of expanding the places at schools where people want to go. I'm just not sure it's the right solution to the problem."

Sport England had particularly objected to plans to rebuild Oakbank School, where works would have left a popular hockey pitch out-of-action for up to three years.

Members of Airedale Hockey Club, which use the pitch, had warned that the club could fold if a replacement was not found. A total of 122 people also wrote to planners to officially object to the plans.

But a new planning report says the applicant, engineering group Laing O'Rourke, is keen to find a solution to the problem.

It says the group is putting together a mitigation plan to "ensure the existing users of the artificial grass pitch have access to an artificial grass pitch suitable for the level of hockey played by Airedale Hockey Club, Skipton Ladies, and the school for the duration of the construction period".

Sport England has agreed to drop its objection, once a legal document guaranteeing this replacement pitch is signed.

The Government body is also rescinding its objection to a new-look Belle Vue Boys' School after being told a planned new sports hall would have much better facilities than the sports field being lost.

It has removed its objection to plans for Carlton Bolling College after being told an area of land being built on was sloped, and was no use as a sports pitch.

And it is also expected to drop its objection to the plans for the Samuel Lister Academy as long as certain on-site sports facilities are guaranteed.