PARENTS at Greendown School have been given their first close-up look at a £3 million expansion scheme designed to solve its chronic overcrowding.

Comments have been invited from both parents and children at the West Swindon comprehensive which has become a victim of the area's booming population.

Plans on display in the Len Hobbs Community Suite at the school reveal proposals to extend that building to create a new gym, restaurant and hall.

There will also be new toilets, office space and a total of nine extra permanent classrooms.

It is hoped the expansion will create capacity for an extra 150 pupils and end a situation where parents in West Swindon have been forced to bus their children out to Bradon Forest, in Purton, and Ridgeway, in Wroughton.

Last year, more than 100 West Swindon youngsters could not get into their school of choice.

Swindon Council architect Nick Newland said he hopes to have the expansion completed by September next year.

He said it should result in a more rational overall layout for the entire site.

As well as the extension, his plans move the library to the centre of the school and creates a third football pitch.

He said: "I think it will make a significant difference to the school.

"At the moment there are diverse spaces which don't link up at all.

"This will create a central core and make facilities for whole-school assemblies and a main examination hall."

He said the extension will also create an improved area for adult evening classes and community sporting activities.

Mr Newland said construction should start at the end of January next year.

The school, which was built to cater for 850 pupils, now has more than 1,200.

Space is so tight that lessons have to end at staggered times to prevent the corridors getting jammed with pupils.