CAMPAIGNERS pushing for more secondary school places in Wharfedale are calling on residents to turn out in force at a neighbourhood forum meeting in Burley-in-Wharfedale next month.

Wharfedale Action for School Places (WASP) is rallying people in the valley to speak out about oversubscription at Ilkley Grammar School.

Ilkley Grammar School is asking Bradford Council if it can increase provision by seven places in the year ahead - but there are fears the school could be oversubscribed by at least 29 children in 2018.

And new house building targets which may yet be accepted by a planning inspector as part of Bradford Council's Local Plan could leave the area with a need for as many as 4,000 additional schools places.

A petition demanding extra schools places inWharfedale was put before Bradford Council earlier this year - but the Council said there was not currently sufficient demand to justify an entire new school for the area.

Wharfedale ward councillor, Jackie Whiteley, (Con, Wharfedale) has asked Bradford Council's Keighley Area Co-ordinator to arrange for a representative of the local authority's education department to be at the Burley Neighbourhood Forum meeting on July 16.

WASP has been distributing fliers publicising the meeting around Burley, and urging other Wharfedale residents via social media to contact parents elsewhere in the valley.

The group has suggested a short-term solution of additional funding to address the provide Ilkley Grammar with enough capacity to house an additional Year 7 form.

Longer-term suggestions include an Ilkley Grammar sixth-form college on a new site. This, WASP argues, would allow more young people to continue their education locally, and free up space at Ilkley Grammar's Cowpasture Road site for lower form pupils.

Councillor Whiteley says she would agree with a new sixth form centre if it was open to all, but also favours the idea of setting up a new free school in Wharfedale.

She hopes a Bradford Council education representative will be able to attend the July 16 meeting.

"I'm working with the council and others to put this on the agenda, and I hope a member of the education department will be there to answer questions," she said.

The neighbourhood forum will take at the Queen's Hall, Main Street, Burley, starting at 7pm.