What will actually happen re lack of school places?

[ClubName]

It's never been an issue round here. Unless you wanted the best school in the county and were out of catchment you were pretty much guaranteed to get your first choice. None of the primaries were over subscribed and most of them were considered to be "OK"

However following massive house building 5 of the 6 existing primaries in the town are full for years R-4. The other is in special measures but even so, close to full.

They have just broken ground on a development of 200 homes and another is planned for the other side of town.

There are no plans for new schools and all the existing ones are already 3 form entry.

Presumably "they" will have to do "something". What will it be?

Well, round here, a few years ago, one school upped to 3 form intake, then DS1's school had a bulge class in what now is Y2 and Y1. YR is now an official 3 form intake, and the works have just been completed for the whole school to be a 90 place school.
And the building works are in place to make another primary 2 form intake from a 30 place.

There has been lots of building round here!

The council has, on its website predictions for the next ??5?? yrs of pupils at primary and secondary. The primary seems to be OK, but secondary round here is a bit messier. One town, one school. 2/3 of the kids are bussed out to two nearby towns, who can't fill their schools. Because of the availability in the surrounding area, the fight to get a second school in our town is regularly turned down, despite the fact we have 1000 kids a day bussed out.

Have a look on the council website. I found the expansion plans for the whole area on there.

Depends where you live. We are now a 5 form intake and still full with a waiting list.

It's carnage...

The 3 school closest to us have about 2/3 applications for each place and 300 new houses are being built.
I objected on the grounds of lack of school places( as did other people) but apparently this wasn't a valid objection

All the schools round us are busting at the seams. Talk is of ours going from 3 to 5 form entry split over 2 sites as lea can not open new schools !!!

It is madness that this sort of thing doesn't have to be considered in the planning process. But the Coalition and their NPPF have actually left very little that needs to be considered in the planning process. There aren't many reasons left to say no nowadays.

Rant over.

Planning applications would be dealt with by local government (not central unless very contentious) and some do insist on infrastructure projects as condition of planning permission. I don't think there's a need for more legislation.

The LEA can also activate FAP for children who have no place at all and none available win a reasonable commute. That means larger class sizes.

Or a bulge class, but viability of those depends on overall number without a place and whether their addresses are clumped together such one class in one place in the district actually solves it for most/all of them.

It's up to you as a parent to set up a free school. Local authorities are not allowed to do it. Gove's rules. The people on those new estates need to get cracking.