FOUR years ago, Bournemouth council angered a lot of people by closing a primary school.
Today, it faces a crisis in school places.
A lot of babies were born in the year the struggling Townsend Primary closed. And now, in some areas, parents are facing the ridiculous prospect of four-year-olds being sent miles across the town to take up the only available school places.
It’s no surprise that the council is now looking at spending £4.15million opening a new school on the Townsend site as part of of efforts to find another 420 places by September 2014. It’s an expensive plan, but it makes sense.
One of Bournemouth’s problems is that it has no control over admissions numbers in the town’s faith schools and academies. The government could ease the situation by requiring all schools to take their fair share of the rising pupil numbers.
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