Preston kids 'travelling miles' to get to school as one city primary plans to double in size
Education bosses have said a plan to ensure there are enough school places for a rapidly-expanding part of Preston will be published next month.
The issue has been a highly charged one for several years with politicians of all colours raising concerns over school capacity and the continued absence of three new schools long earmarked for the north west of the city.
The proposal will be put to Lancashire County Council’s cabinet in early October.
News of the forthcoming blueprint emerged during this month’s gathering of cabinet members, at which they agreed to launch a month-long public consultation into plans to double the size of Goosnargh Oliverson's Church of England Primary School.
If approved, the move would see the creation of a second reception class of 30 children from September 2025 to deal with a shortfall of places caused by housebuilding and a high birth rate.
Over the course of seven years, that would take the pupil tally for the Goosnargh Road school from its current 210 to 420. Temporary classroom accommodation would be provided for the first 12 months of any expansion, before permanent facilities were created in time for the 2026/27 academic year.
Cabinet member for education and skills Jayne Rear described the proposed expansion as an “interim move to support the right number of places in the right area at the right time”.
She said her colleagues would next month be provided with a “full, updated programme” on the delivery of school places across the North Preston area.
Cllr Rear was responding to a question by fellow Conservative county councillor Sue Whittam - who represents the Preston Rural division - and who had asked what was being done to ensure there were sufficient school places, “not just in reception…but the years above”.
In North West Preston alone, more than 5,500 new homes are expected to be built in the 20 years through to the mid-2030s. A trio of new schools was proposed as part of a masterplan for the area drawn up back in 2017.
However, Labour’s Jenny Mein condemned what she said was the failure of the system to tackle the issues facing Preston sooner.
“These houses have been in the planning since 2013…we knew there was going to be thousands of [them].
“To date, none of the [proposed new schools] have come forward - and it means that there is a shortage of school places…in Preston - and children are having to travel a ridiculous number of miles to get to school,” said County Cllr Mein, the Preston South East division representative.
However, County Cllr Rear said the authority was bound by “very stringent rules” set by the government over the trigger point for the development of new schools - and told the meeting that the situation was complicated by the fact that there was movement of people both in and out of Preston.
She added: “Just because there are lots of [new] houses doesn't necessarily mean the number of children will appear at the same time.
“We did manage to offer every single child in the Preston area a place at school [in the latest round], so there is sufficiency in that area for everyone to have a place. However, some of the children are going through the appeals system at the moment.”
In December 2022, Liberal Democrat county councillor John Potter - who represents Preston West - told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that housebuilding in the masterplan area should be significantly slowed until promises for new schools were fulfilled.
In January this year, the county council said it was reviewing the expected number of additional school places needed in North Preston as a whole in light of a “downward trajectory of births” which meant that the forecast increase in reception-aged pupils had “not materialised”.
A report presented to cabinet at the time also noted that the predicted pace of housing development in the area had reduced, adding that options were being developed to meet the need that did exist, whilst avoiding an “oversupply”.
In contrast, cabinet has now been told that in the Goosnargh and Grimsargh areas of Preston - together with Longridge, in neighbouring Ribble Valley - there is a projected shortfall of 35 reception places from next September.
A document presented to members also notes that increased demand for places across all year groups - and the gaps that would exist without action being taken - is “an indication that significant demand is coming from new housing development and migration, whilst at the same time both areas have high birth rates”.
Further plans are being developed to address what are described as “significant shortfalls” in capacity for older age groups, which would not immediately be addressed by the introduction of a new reception class.
A brand new primary school is being developed on the former Whittingham Hospital site, but that will not open until September 2026.
Elsewhere across the north of the city, several expansions in the capacity of existing primary and secondary schools have recently been approved.
However, there has been no word on the three new facilities - two primary and one secondary - proposed in the North West Preston Masterplan.
Since that document was published seven years ago, land has been reserved within new housing developments for two of the schools - the secondary on a 320-home estate between Sandy Lane and Tabley Lane and the primary alongside 200 homes being built to the north of Tabley Lane.
But the county council last year instead consulted on the possibility of opening a new secondary on the site once occupied by Tulketh High School, which closed down in 2008, and a primary on land at Cottam Hall, off Merry Trees Lane.
Those proposals attracted criticism from some local councillors, who said the location was not close enough to the area where the need for places actually existed.