County councillors have agreed to add a one-form entry expansion to Cottam Primary School from 2023/2024 and for it to permanently be a two-form entry primary school.

It is intended that the additional 30 places for 2023/24 can be provided within existing school accommodation with additional provision on the existing school site required to address demand from 2024/25.

A public consultation took place about the Cottam school expansion and led to the additional places being temporarily put in for September this year.

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Now the county council is going to expand the school on a permanent basis to meet the continued demand from housebuilding in the North West area of the city.

County Councillor Jayne Rear, Lancashire County Council’s cabinet member for education and skills, said: “As a local authority we have statutory duty to ensure there are enough high-quality school places available to meet demand.

“The actions taken by our cabinet will ensure that we will meet this statutory duty and deliver additional school places in areas where we know need them most.

“Thank you to everyone who responded to our public consultation regarding plans to expand Cottam Primary School.

“Taking the responses into consideration, we will now move forward with these plans.

“Providing additional school places will always need to be carefully managed to mitigate the overall impact and residents can be assured this will be the case for all of our planned schemes.”

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