PLANS have stepped up to turn an infant and junior school in Tilbury into a primary.

Thurrock Council’s cabinet backed the plans to merge the Manor Infant and Nursery School and Manor Junior School, in Dickens Avenue, into one school from September 2011.

Cllr Diana Hale, cabinet member for education, presented the report at a recent cabinet meeting and made clear plans were in the pipeline to build one new building for the whole school, when the money was available.

Cllr Hale explained at the meeting the nursery and infants stood in a fairly modern building, but the juniors had been in a temporary building from about 1928.