THE over-subscribed Buckhurst Hill Community Primary School could take 90 more children if plans to add three classrooms to the building go ahead.

Essex County Council will fund the extension, which would see three temporary classrooms replaced, raising the total pupils on the role from 330 to 420 over six years.

There has long been a problem with spaces at the primary school and parents who claimed they were forced to send their children to schools miles away formed a pressure group in 2008 to demand a few extra places.

Headteacher Lesley Howes said: “It was almost unavoidable that this was going to happen.

“I don't think either myself or St John's (primary school in Buckhurst Hill) were surprised and we could see it coming.

“I'm looking at it positively. It means the school will have a second hall and five brand-new classrooms.”

She said that some local residents may be worried about the road congestion caused by more school places, but that the school had organised a 'walking bus,' where children walk to school under supervision whatever the weather.

A Loughton Way resident who fought to get her six-year-old son into the school, said: “I think it's a good thing. I think if you live a stone's throw away from the school, your children should be able to go there.

The mother, who refused to be named for fear of being targeted by residents opposed to the plans, added: “I think more people would be affected in the plans didn't go ahead.”

Headteacher at St John's primary school, also in Buckhurst Hill, Peter Tidmarsh, welcomed the plans for more school places in the area.

“I think we need to plan ahead so keep up with demand in future years,” he said. “We have always been a very over-subscribed school.”

He is currently fighting a planning application for 14 homes behind the school and blamed too much development for putting pressure on school places.

“There have been too many successful planning applications in Buckhurst Hill in recent years and it's turning the area into an urban area,”

“My concern has always been that families who have lived in Buckhurst Hill for a number of years can get school places near to where they live.”

The county council has submitted a planning application to Epping Forest District Council for the extension, which also includes more parking spaces, a PE store room and new ramps to access the school's main entrance and courtyard.