Plans for a special school's new multi-million pound home have been unveiled by Gateshead Council .
This comes after the authority gave its backing to proposals to move Gibside School to a new site on the Shipcote playing field in a bid to cope with a sky-rocketing demand for places.
The school takes pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties, autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with complex communication and medical needs.
The school's current site in Whickham was extended just a few years ago, but civic centre officials say it is still too small to meet the rapidly-growing demand for special school places in the borough.
Authority bosses voted to support the new scheme at a cabinet meeting last year, despite hearing concerns from nearby neighbours.
Plans for the new building, which will house 170 pupils aged three to 11 compared to the existing site's 130, have been submitted to the council's planning department.
If given the green-light the school will be open by autumn 2020.
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The council has set aside £11.6m for the project and pledged to consult with neighbours as the plans progress.
A statement written by council planners outlined other options that had been considered by the authority.
The report warned that taking no action could cause the council to incur extra costs in five figures per pupil.
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It said: "The forecasted numbers on the roll indicate that if there is no increase in capacity the local authority will have to send Gateshead children out of the borough for their educational and welfare needs at a cost of £38,000 per autistic child and £48,000 per child with profound and multiple learning difficulties."
They say that extending the existing site at Burnthouse Lane could cause traffic problems and pointed out that its car park is already full to capacity.
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Other sites have also been looked, these include the site of the former Windmill Hills School, the former Hookergate School, the former Lindisfarne Primary School, land off Whickham Highway and land off Askew Road.
These sites have been rejected for a number of reasons, including ground conditions and the need to demolish buildings and the allocation of some of the sites for housing development.
Gateshead Council's planning department will decide whether to grant planning permission for the scheme by Wed 22 May 2019.
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