BURLEY-in-Wharfedale Neighbourhood Forum attracted in excess of 170 people on last week as three representatives from Bradford Council’s Education Department came to answer questions about secondary school places in Wharfedale.

Parents and grandparents from across the Wharfe valley came to hear what could be done about current and future shortages of school places.

Councillor Jackie Whiteley (Con) Wharfedale Ward praised the work of Wharfedale Action for School Places (WASP), a group formed when a petition of over 2,000 signatures was handed to Bradford Council earlier in the year, calling for action to be taken on school places.

"They did a wonderful job in raising awareness about the issue, met with the head teacher at Ilkley Grammar and sent questions to Bradford Council," said Cllr Whiteley.

"In response, Ilkley Grammar School announced last week that they will be able to accommodate the children currently in the system from year three upwards. This was a welcome announcement. However, local parents are still concerned about places post 2018 because a significant number of houses are planned to be built across the whole valley in the next 15 years and a number of applications are due to come on stream in the coming months. "Bradford Council’s own report suggests the number of additional school places will result in approximately 2500 within the fifteen years. Ilkley Grammar School can accommodate the current need to 2018 but it has no physical capacity to take any more pupils.

"This is an issue that isn’t going to go away.

"We live in a wonderful place, more people want to live here and they want their children to receive the type of education that Ilkley Grammar School is renowned for. Developers know this too and so the houses will come. Its chicken and egg time what comes first children or more provision?"

Helen Williams, headteacher of Ilkley Grammar School, said the school was going to consult on increasing its annual intake from 245 students each year, to 261 from September 2016.

She added: "The exception to this will be that we intend to consult on a one off 10 form entry of 286 students for the current Year 3 – September 2018 intake, due to the ‘bulge’ in numbers in our feeder schools for that year group. We have taken this decision based on our desire to continue to be able to have the capacity to educate students from our community feeder schools and will revise our curriculum and staffing structure over the coming years to be able to accommodate this."

*The desperate need for extra school places in Wharfedale was also raised in parliament this week by Shipley MP Philip Davies, whose constituency includes Burley-in-Wharfedale and Menston.

He accused Bradford Council of ignoring the needs of students in Wharfedale, saying it was too focused on issues in its Labour heartlands.

Speaking in Education Questions in Parliament he said: “There are insufficient school places at secondary level in Wharfedale. This is a problem that Bradford council do not seem to care about. Can I encourage government officials to specifically look at the needs in Wharfedale and provide the funding for the school places that my constituents need to make sure they can go to a good local school.”

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said setting up a free school could resolve the issue and urged Mr Davies, together with Ilkley's MP Kris Hopkins, whose constituents go to school in Wharfedale, to consider it.