STRONG relationships between schools, academies and education chiefs in York mean the city has avoided many of the school capacity fears hitting other parts of the country, a senior councillor has said.

Because York is relatively isolated from other cities, and has good links between headteachers and academy chain bosses, education chiefs say they are not worried about providing enough secondary school places for children in the city.

Cllr Stuart Rawlings, City of York's executive member for education, was speaking as council bosses elsewhere in the country warned that with school place demand predicted to rise, they fear thousands of children could be left without secondary school places as local councils do not have the power to compel the growing numbers of academies to expand.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has today warned that almost half of councils across the country may not be able to meet rising demand for secondary school places within the next five years. The organisation has analysed government data, and warned that more than 125,000 children face missing out on a secondary school place by 2022/23. To combat this, the LGA wants councils to given powers to force academies and free schools to expand if additional places are needed.

In York, the government figures show the number of secondary school aged children will rise by around 1,400 by 2022.

Cllr Rawlings said that even though six of York's nine secondary schools will soon be academies outside local authority control, the council has good enough relationships to be sure there will not be any problems in providing enough places. He has already approved "basic need" education funding for expansions at some academies, he added, including for new social spaces at Archbishop Holgate's.

Maxine Squire, assistant director of education at the council, pointed out that York also accepts many pupils from outside the area, who want to travel in to York schools because of their strong reputation. Those extra pupils are factored into place planning, she added.

"Working with York’s schools, we have already predicted an increase in the demand for places and, by using funding from central government, have already started increasing capacity in primary and secondary schools to meet the expected need," Ms Squire said.

"We’ve created extra school places in areas of the city which need them alongside managing our existing supply that includes a surplus of places in some areas. Our latest forecasts are that we have sufficient secondary school places based on current trends and we are planning to add additional places where needed.

"Meanwhile capacity exists in schools in the west and north of city and, as we continue to monitor and forecast pupil numbers alongside city-wide capacity, we are confident that together, we will manage the additional demand."