A Bath secondary school has been given the go-ahead to build a community sports and arts centre costing more than £10 million.

Plans for the development at Hayesfield School in Upper Oldfield Park, which will include a multi-gym, restaurant and a 350-seat auditorium, have been in the pipeline for four years but have now been approved by Bath and North East Somerset Council.

Builders are expected to start work on the upper school site in August and the development – which will be open to the public outside school hours – should be finished by the end of November 2010.

Headteacher Erica Draisey said the improvements were long overdue.

She said: "We have absolutely appalling conditions here and it is the one thing that Ofsted has told us we need to develop.

"This is just the thing we need to get girls excited about sport. Girls of this age group need to have something that offers them a range of different types of sport."

Ms Draisey said the project would enhance Hayesfield's reputation as a healthy school.

The new building scheme will involve the demolition of an old green, wooden gym, which was constructed in 1922.

It will be replaced by a modern structure set into the hillside, which will house drama, music, ICT and art as well as sport.

There will be new netball courts and an all-weather pitch in the grounds, as well as landscaping to partially shield the building from people living in Lower Oldfield Park.

Pupils at the school have been directly involved in the planning process and a group of Year 9 girls has spent the past year working alongside architects on the design.

The school has been keen to consult neighbours throughout the process and Ms Draisey said she was pleased with the way that had gone.

She said: "We are delighted with the planning and we feel it has been a major success.

"I believe that has been because we have engaged with our neighbours and we set up a stakeholder group very early on.

"We wanted to get the views of all the different groups in the community and we have modified the designs quite a few times in response to how people felt."

The development comes at a time when Government money for new school and college buildings in Bath has been held up, with recent plans for the City of Bath College's expansion put on hold indefinitely.

Part of the money to pay for the Hayesfield centre has come from the sale of the school's playing fields at Frome Road, with the deal also producing £3 million to be spent on promoting sport in other schools across the area.

Ms Draisey said everyone was looking forward to seeing the work start.

She said: "The girls are very excited and so are the parents. This is something that many people thought would never happen and is a tremendous achievement."