MILLIONS of pounds will be poured into primary school places across the borough – but this is still nowhere near enough, critics say.
The government awarded Redbridge council £3.46 million towards meeting the excess demand, but cabinet member for children's services, councillor Gary Monro, said a range of national issues were being felt locally and meant demand is exceeding supply.
Cllr Monro said: “The £3.46 million awarded by the government, while very welcome, is a gesture and nothing more. The problem is caused by a range of things. We've got a high birth rate here in Redbridge, plus our schools are renowned for their quality”
Two new primary schools have been built in the last two years: Cranbrook Primary School and Winston Way Primary School, both in Ilford. In addition, five schools took on 'bulge years', where an extra class is added for a single academic year to ease pressure.
Cllr Monro said: “In Redbridge, the greatest pressures are felt in the south of the borough. We try as best we can to locate the solutions where there are problems, it's not always as easy as they. Ideally you'd like to put a school in the centre of the biggest demand, but you've got to have the money and you've got to have the land.
“To be honest, it's pointless to put more pressure on the government to get more money, because they have known about the problem for years. They know we are under increasing pressure, and they have under-responded and under-performed. They have relied on us to struggled through and to do it ourselves.”
In July this year plans for a new primary school in Gresham Drive, Chadwell Heath were shelved due to concerns about the suitability of the site.
Elizabeth Canavan has four children at Aldersbrook Primary School, which faced criticism earlier in the year from parents who were against the addition of extra classes as they felt it was already overcrowded.
She said: “It's a real shame that there aren't enough places because then you have children having to travel too far to go to school. What happens is you get children being taught in temporary classrooms and it's far from ideal.”
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