Cabinet to consider series of proposals to create more school places in Preston
A series of projects that aim to create hundreds of new school places in Preston will go before Lancashire County Council's cabinet this week.
The proposals seek to provide additional primary and secondary school places through the expansion of existing schools and the establishment of new schools.
Numerous projects that are at various stages seek to create more places where projected shortfalls have been identified.
These include Phase 2 of the Cottam Primary School expansion, doubling the number of places from 30 to 60 from September 2025. This will eventually provide an additional 210 permanent school places. On Thursday, 11 January, cabinet will be asked to approve the capital allocation to fund Phase 2 of this expansion.
Councillors will also be asked to approve the capital allocation to permanently expand Broughton-In-Amounderness Church of England Primary School by 25 places per year from September 2024.
Approval will be sought for the temporary expansion of Archbishop Temple Church of England High School by 55 places for September 2024, with cabinet asked to approve a consultation to make the expansion permanent from September 2025.
In addition, cabinet will be asked to approve the proposal to permanently expand Christ the King Catholic High School by 20 places per year from September 2025 and approve the capital allocation to fund the expansion.
Councillors will also review the outcome of a consultation around plans to build a new primary school at the former Whittingham Hospital site, creating 420 places.
County Councillor Jayne Rear, Lancashire County Council's cabinet member for Education and Skills, said: "As a local authority we have statutory duty to ensure there are enough school places available to meet demand over the coming years.
"A lot of work has gone into identifying where shortfalls are predicted and we keep this under review to ensure we are in step with the latest forecasts.
"Providing additional school places will always be carefully managed to mitigate the overall impact on the wider community.
"I want to reassure residents that this is the case for all of our planned schemes."