The country's first state-funded Hindu school, earmarked for a green space in Edgware, has moved another step closer to development after Harrow Council last week officially agreed to the plan in principle.

William Ellis Playing Fields, in Camrose Avenue, is the second proposed location for the school, which was suggested by the council to I-Foundation, the charity behind the proposal.

The grounds are currently used by Belmont United Football Club, who will lose five -and-a-half acres of playing fields if the plan is given the green light, but will still be given room to play.

I-Foundation, part of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, better known as the Hare Krishna movement, previously failed to convince residents and environmentalists that a farm, on Green Belt land near Pinner, was the ideal site for the Krishna-Avanti Primary School, and it may have another fight on its hands with this.

At a cabinet meeting last Wednesday, homeowners living close to the site voiced their concerns about adding more traffic to an already congested area.

Colin Ricks, 68, who has lived in Bideford Close for 43 years, said: "Camrose Avenue is our only access to roads and a new school will increase traffic problems that have gone on for more than 20 years."

Camrose Residents Association has been formed by worried residents to try to protect themselves against the unwanted development and they are writing to the council with a petition.

Dilip Patel, 48, of Broomgrove Gardens, said: "William Ellis is too small for a school and we already have four schools within a half-mile radius.

"The football club is bearable, because it is only four or five times a year. You cannot even get to your house when there is a game, but residents put up with it. But if this is going to be during the week - it's too much."

Council cabinet members were quick to stress the agreement did not mean the school would definitely be built there.

But Mr Patel said: "I believe this is a done deal."

Director of I-Foundation, Nitesh Gor, said: "As part of the planning process, we will be doing everything that is required of us to ensure we have planned for traffic, residents and all the other issues that need to be taken into consideration."