Plans for two multi-million pound Mid Sussex secondary schools funded by private cash were expected to be given the go-ahead today.

Proposals for replacement buildings for Thomas Bennett and Ifield community colleges in Crawley will go before West Sussex County Council's planning committee at County Hall.

Outline planning permission for the two schools was granted in March.

This latest phase of the scheme is the final hurdle to the £60m project, which also includes a new secondary school for the fast-growing Maidenbower area.

Building work has already started at the site and it is hoped the doors will open in September next year.

The Private Finance Initiative scheme also covers construction of a new leisure centre on the Thomas Bennett campus, led by Crawley Borough Council, and a new Desmond Anderson Primary School.

The proposed new Ifield Community College would serve the western part of Crawley and would cater for 1,100 pupils. The wider campus, at Lady Margaret Road, also contains the Ifield First School and Middle School, St Margaret's Church of England first and middle schools and the new Catherington and Deerswood special schools.

The new two-storey Thomas Bennett site, expected to accommodate 1,450 pupils, would serve the southern part of the town.