PLANS for eight homes on the site of an historic former school that was destroyed in a fire have been given the go-ahead.

The scheme for the former Ramsey Primary School, in Wix Road, involves demolishing all buildings except for the caretaker’s house, which will be retained.

A fire, which was deliberately started, ripped through the old school building on May 20, leaving only the rafters of the roof intact.

The building had been disused since the new Two Village Primary School opened about ten years ago, and had been due to be auctioned in April.

Now Tendring Council has approved the plans to build on the site, which includes keeping the majority of trees and covering them with a protection order.

A terrace of three houses will be built to the main road front, with five detached properties to the rear, set around two courtyard areas.

Ramsey and Parkeston Parish Council strongly supported the application, hoping it would remove a long untidy and overgrown site.

Councillor David Smith said the case had been made even stronger with the recent fire.

“You need to have something there, it is a right state,” he said.

“The fire was very shocking, and to get the place cleaned up and sorted out cannot do any harm.

“We have to move on now. There have been a few applications for the site which were much more unsuitable from a traffic point of view.”

He added: “This isn’t a lot of homes and if it cleans the area up, then that can only be a good thing.

“Any site that is left alone and empty can be a danger to people, and it isn’t long before you get vandalism.

“The fire is a clear and recent example.”