Planning applications have been lodged for two £25 million new school buildings.

Witham’s two academies will undergo wholesale changes with work due to start early in the new year if planning permission is granted.

The £50 million investment will include at least a £17 million cash injection in the Witham community, as the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET), which runs the two academies, has pledged a third of the money will be spent on local goods and services.

Planning applications for Maltings Academy and New Rickstones Academy were lodged with Braintree Council last week.

Jonathan Gillard, Principal of New Rickstones Academy, said: “We are all so pleased that the next stage of our journey towards a brand new building for New Rickstones Academy has been completed successfully.

“Quite apart from the excellent professionals who have helped us, we are keen to recognise the creative ideas and inputs from our own students, parents and members of the community who have provided them with their vision for this new exciting building.”

Both academies are aiming for new three-storey developments with 104 parking spaces and 160 cycle spaces and landscaping.

Maltings Academy wants permission for a multi-use games area and reorganisation of its playing fields while New Rickstones Academy wants temporary access from Rickstones Road during construction.

Mike Barnett, Publicity Consultant for the academies, said a number of changes have been made to the original plans after suggestions from parents and the public during a consultation in June.

“The New Rickstones Academy plan has been updated to reduce the impact on local homes,” he said.

“There are two bungalows next to the school along Rickstones Road and what we’ve done is reduce the immediate height of the new building and the area of the new build.”

If the academies get the go ahead they will be built on open fields next to the current schools and a requirement will be that construction generates minimal disturbance.

The aim is to have them both built by September 2011.

Braintree Council will make a decision on the proposals next month.