THE leaders of Carlisle's biggest school say they are delighted that city planners have backed their flood fightback bid for a new £1.8m sports hall.

Carlisle City Council has granted Trinity School permission to build the hall in a new location on its sprawling Strand Road site.

It is part of the school's efforts to make its site more resilient after it was one of three neighbouring secondary schools left submerged and extensively damaged in the 2015 winter floods.

A tendering process to find a contractor to create the new sports hall has been launched.

It was revealed in February that the school's bid to the Education Funding Agency for money to support the work had been successful.

Sheila Johnston, who is co-headteacher of the school alongside Derek Kay, said: "We are very pleased that the plans have been approved."

Trinity School was one of the major landmarks left swamped in Storm Desmond, losing 40 per cent of its floor area.

It was left struggling for months after the floods without any access to sporting facilities.

The school's contaminated playing fields were also out of use as well as the sports hall.

Equipment, work and other resources also fell victim to the floodwater - but the school pulled together to reopen on the site and got by.

An old classroom was converted into a changing room and a temporary hall was erected in March last year.

The new sports hall, measuring about 12,000sq ft, will be located on grassland behind the leisure centre, away from the flood plain.

The old building, which was submerged by up to 7ft of water during the floods and was initially hit in 2005, is earmarked for demolition.

The new hall will have four changing rooms. It will be available for private let for the wider community at evenings and weekends.

Planning permission for the new sports hall is the latest step in the headteachers' flood resilience action plan.

Mr Kay and Mrs Johnston have been adamant since the devastation of Storm Desmond that they would do all they could to "future proof" the school from any further flooding.

Other steps already taken include moving the boilers and IT servers, which were previously below ground level, up to a first floor.

This means that the school will be able to get back on its feet more quickly if problems were to arise again.

In January 2016 Trinity School was visited by the then Education Secretary Nicky Morgan in the weeks after Storm Desmond.

She also toured nearby Richard Rose Central Academy and the now vacant buildings of Newman School.