A £1.5MILLION scheme is set to expand four East Lancashire schools to help meet demand for more school places.

An increase in the county’s birth rate has seen proposals for five schools to expand ahead of an anticipated rise in applications.

If approved, the scheme would see Lancashire County Council award Huncoat Primary School £213,000, Mount Pleasant Primary School in Clayton le Moors £285,000, Edenfield CE Primary school £387,000, Lancaster Lane Primary School in Clayton-le-Woods £171,000 and Barrow Primary School in Clitheroe £500,000.

Christine Marchi, head at Barrow Primary School, said it was already ‘massively overs-ubscribed’.

She said: “We are getting appeals week after week.

“There needs to be some strategic planning by the authorities. We had 34 applications for 17 places – we need the extra room.

“Pupils are being turned away and it goes against the whole agenda of choice for parents. They are being given places at schools they don’t really want to go to and we want to provide the space.

“We don’t want to grow enormously. We want to retain the small school ethos but we do need extra space to deal with the children that are coming through.

“As a school we would like to go to one form entry. To do this we would need three extra classrooms. This would allow us to have 30 children instead of 17 and there would be no mixed age classes.”

Phil Clarke, deputy head of Huncoat Primary School, said: “The school numbers were falling a number of years ago and the classroom was given over to the children’s centre.

“Since the head, Sean Crosier, started in 2010 his vision has been for the school to go to single classes.

“We are not over subscribed but we have healthy numbers coming up through foundation, nursery and KS1.

“There is a need for a building programme and we need an allocation to have an extension built at the rear of the school.”

Lynn Mappin, Lancashire County Council's head of pupil places, said: “There has been an increase in the birth rate across the country, including in Lancashire, and the county council's job is to make sure that there are enough school places and sufficient accommodation for all children who need them.

“If approved, these proposals would ensure that there is enough accommodation to meet the growing demand for places in these areas of East Lancashire."

The decision is due to be made on May 8.