A PRIMARY school crisis is looming in Bishops Stortford due to increasing demand from housing developments, claims a county councillor.

Conservative Cllr Bernard Engel says his long-held prediction that primary schools to the west of town would reach saturation point, is fast becoming a reality, with parents angry at lack of places for their youngsters.

And at last Wednesdays education committee meeting at County Hall he slammed education chiefs for ignoring the primary school time bomb which he says has been ticking away for many years.

He said: We urgently need to have a new primary school built to the west of Bishops Stortford now, to prevent the problem from getting too serious.

I am constantly getting telephone calls from parents who cannot get their children in the school of their choice because of the problem.

Ten children were originally allocated school places across town this September because the schools to the west were full up. It was not until I made representations that places were found for them to the west of town.

Its good that Manorfields and Northgate Schools have increased their places by 60 per year, but this is only a short-term measure. The authority needs to address the long-term problem.

Cllr Engel added: I am being fobbed off by the education department which keeps saying weve got to wait until the ASRs (Areas of Special Restraint for housing) are developed which could take five, six or seven years. At last weeks meeting the campaigning councillor pointed out that no new schools had been built to cater for the influx of children from the 1,475 new houses already built at Bishops Park and St Micahels Mead.

He said that the situation would be exacerbated once the remaining 425 homes on St Michaels Mead were completed and also drew attention to the developing shortage of secondary school places in the town.

In a written reply, chairman of the education committee Bob Mays said the authority was closely monitoring the scale and time of housing developments in Bishops Stortford.

Cllr Mays admitted there were also difficulties with limited secondary school places, but said this years problems had been averted by refurbishing mobile classrooms to accommodate additional pupils at Birchwood High School.

But his claims that the problem was not helped by selective admission policies of grant-maintained schools such as Bishops Stortford High School were heavily refuted by Cllr Engel and the school itself.

Cllr Mays claimed that the London Road schools September intake included 39 per cent of pupils from outside Hertfordshire, but the school corrected his facts, saying the percentage related to pupils outside Bishops Stortford.

A school spokeswoman said: The figures have been quoted incorrectly and in fact relate to the number of places offered to pupils not resident within the CM23 postcode, Bishops Stortford.

These areas include Great Hadham, Little Hadham and other villages close to Bishops Stortford, which is what we have already explained to parents.

Labour Cllr Mays expressed a need for further primary and secondary school provision, especially after the ASRs to the north of town are developed, but said the matter would be referred to the school provision panel.

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