Campaigners hope to change local planning blueprints to pave the way for a new £1.5 million primary school.

A retired farmer has offered to give £1 million towards the Wivelsfield County Primary School project if he gets planning permission for 40 homes nearby.

The school governors want new premises because classes at the current buildings in Church Lane, Wivelsfield Green, are so cramped.

Residents, however, have objected to the scheme and the school faces further difficulties because the land is not earmarked for development in Lewes District Council's plans.

Wivelsfield Parish Council, backed by Lewes MP Norman Baker, has lodged objections to the district local plan, claiming it should have suggested a site for a new school.

School campaign spokesman Keith Murray said: "We are hopeful of getting a planning inquiry but this is by no means certain.

"In the meantime we will look at every avenue that could deliver a new school."

More than half the school's 122 pupils are taught in mobile classrooms and there is no school hall, dining room or playing field.

The school leases a small church hall for assemblies, PE and lunch and pays a small rent to a local landowner for a playing field.

Planning laws severely restrict any expansion of the 125 year-old school which is located in a conservation area.

Mr Baker will visit the school on February 5 to meet head teacher Rita Tipple and governors to see the cramped conditions for himself.

East Sussex County Council cannot afford to build a new school.

Marion Whear, chair of the school governors, said: "The irony is that everyone from the planning authority to County Hall recognises the need for a new school and has done so for some time. But it's a council decision that remains one of the biggest hurdles we have to overcome."