An East London school's bid to expand its children's playground suffered a major setback when councillors recommended that they hold on to the adjacent municipal land.

The Cambridge Preparatory School plan to expand the playground to a vacant plot next to the school was lodged before council two years ago.

But councillors attending a municipal standing committee meeting on Monday recommended that the land should be retained.

With traffic through the suburb expected to increase, the land might be needed to upgrade and expand roads.

A new rubbish dump and a shopping mall are also expected to draw more traffic through the suburb.

Planning has begun for a rubbish transfer station that will provide a stopping point for East London's waste before trucks take it to a new dump near Berlin.

Across the N2 highway, construction has begun on the new Hemingway's shopping mall, which will be East London's biggest when it opens in 2009.

Development planning director Craig Sam said on Wednesday that the small unserviced triangle of grass-covered land that the school wanted was valued at R136000 by professional valuers.

It was too small for a retail development.

Greta Galloway, the school?s principal, conceded that traffic safety was as important to the school as expanding its playground.

"If the land could be used to improve traffic flow and safety, I would happily forfeit any (other) use of the land," she said. "That intersection is terrible in the morning, it is a nightmare."

The school had not offered to buy the land, she explained, but wanted to use it with the municipality?s permission.

The application to use the land was submitted after a long discussion at a meeting of the school?s governing body.

The school was in desperate need of land for growth, Galloway said.

"We are stuck between the station and businesses, with nowhere to grow," she said.

The report considered by municipal councillors this week referred to the Buffalo City Metropolitan Transport Advisory Board.

It had pointed out that the land in question would be needed for a planned upgrade to the intersection of Meadow and Queen streets.

Two years after submitting her application, Galloway said she was still awaiting a formal response from the municipality.

Daily Dispatch