A school expansion may not go ahead after the Mayor of London called for permission to be overturned.

Planning permission to expand the Hasmonean High School, Page Street, Mill Hill, was granted by the Barnet Council planning committee by six votes to five in January, but Mayor Sadiq Khan has directed the council to overturn their decision.

The reasoning behind the call from Mayor Khan is due to the impact the expansion will have on greenbelt land and insufficient transport links to support the development.

Cllr Richard Cornelius, Barnet Council Leader, said he hopes the amount of land required can be reduced to minimise the impact on greenbelt and allow the school to expand.

He said: "We know there is a crying need for more Jewish school places in Barnet.

"More than a third of children on waiting lists for Jewish schools had to settle for a place at a non-Jewish school last year.

"We believed combining and enlarging Hasmonean girls’ and boys’ schools on one site was a sensible suggestion for helping to tackle this problem."

A letter sent to the council on Monday from Mayor Khan's office, said the direction to the council could be withdrawn if the school were to resubmit their application which has less impact on greenbelt land and more sustainable transport measures.

Leader of the Barnet Labour group Cllr Barry Rawlings agreed with the Mayor's suggestions and called for a collaborative approach to solving the issues set out in the letter.

He said: "Protecting the greenbelt is important, and the Mayor is absolutely right to point that out.

"In his letter the Mayor also recognises the importance of meeting educational need, and so I welcome his comment that he would work with the school and Barnet Council to find a solution that protects the greenbelt, deals with crucial transport issues and meets the needs of the school within the curtilage of the current site."

The planning application would have allowed Hasmonean to expand its girls’ school site in Mill Hill to incorporate the boys’ school site in Hendon, allowing the total number of pupils to increase from 1,100 to 1,400.