Children at a Thornton Heath free school are set to spend the foreseeable future in cramped classrooms after plans to build a permanent school building have been rejected by the council.

Pupils at Paxton Academy Sports and Science have been taught in Portakabins ever since the primary school opened two and half years ago next to the rugby club on Brigstock Road.

Councillors voted unanimously to oppose the plans, raising concerns that the proposed site would be too small, as well as how close it would be to the busy and polluting London Road.