A FORMER gasworks in Ponders End has been officially handed over so a new school can be built on it.

Oasis Academy Hadley, in Bell Lane, has been given money by the Department for Education to move from its current site to a new £27 million building on the former gasworks in South Street, Ponders End.

National Grid, which owned the land, held a ceremony on Wednesday to hand over the land and presented developers with a plaque from the gasworks, dated 1909, to be placed on the new academy.

Primary students are due to move to the new site in September - secondary and sixth form pupils will join them in January 2013.

The developers must still gain planning permission from Enfield Council, but this is likely to be a formality.

The three-storey school will eventually cater for more than 1,900 students – with classrooms protected from traffic noise by extensive tree planting around the building.

The academy was created in 2009, replacing Albany School, and accepting primary pupils for the first time in September 2010.

In February last year, Ofsted announced that the school was “rising quickly”, after GCSE results were poor in 2010.