WITH the deadline for parents choosing primary school places at hand tomorrow the pressure on York's primary schools is greater than ever.

Nationally almost one in five primary schools does not have enough space for its pupils, according to a Labour party study and with places allocated in mid-April, just before the general election the subject is set to become a political hot potato.

The issue of increased demand for primary school places has been rumbling for some years, with a surging birth rate bringing an estimated 450,000 more primary pupils between 2012 and this year across England.

In the city, as previously reported by The Press, pressure on school places in South Bank in particular means 2015 will see City of York Council coming up with a plan to solve the problem.

Cllr Janet Looker, City of York Council’s cabinet member for education, said that the popularity of South Bank means that both Knavesmire and Scarcroft primaries are under increased demand for places and work has been carried out at Knavesmire to build an extension to create provision, but more needs to be done.

Cllr Looker said: “We are going to have to think very creatively because we can see from the demographics that South Bank is a real pressure point.

“Knavesmire is full and the new homes at the old Terry’s site haven’t been built yet.

“We can’t just go out and build a new school because the current Government’s requirements mean that if you do that the school has to be either an academy or a free school at the moment.

“What we are trying to do is create a ‘York solution’ so that we might look at partnerships within York to support an academy structure.

“There will be a lot of hard work in 2015 to try and put a shape to it all, even if we don’t build a school.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, work on new primary schools for Carr Infants in Acomb and Lord Deramore’s in Heslington are both due to begin this year.

Cllr Looker also said there would be a possible expansion of two of York’s PFI (Private Finance Initiative) primary schools, St Barnabas CE in Leeman Road and St Oswald’s CE in Fulford, to help cope with the increased demand for pupil places in both those areas, subject to discussions with the PFI partner, Sewell.