Bedford Borough Council is facing increasing pressure on secondary school places, with demand growing due to larger primary school cohorts and net inward migration.
While there is currently a small surplus of Year 7 places for the upcoming year, concerns were raised at a council meeting about the impact on parental preferences, school transport, and future capacity as demand continues to rise.
The Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee was told this week (6 January) that the borough council has a statutory duty to ensure there are sufficient school places for children aged between 4 and 16 years old.
Report data showed that the Year 7 forecasted need was 2,486 borough pupils, with 2,508 places available (a surplus of 22).
Councillor Hilde Hendrickx (Lib Dems, Riverfield) said: “Given that places are relatively tight that will probably mean that more pupils will not get their first or second preference this time round.
“Potentially [they] also then have to move to schools that are further away from where they live.
“Will that have an impact then on school transport and our budget for school transport?” she asked.
The council’s chief officer for education, SEND and schools infrastructure, Chris Morris, said this wasn’t anticipated to be an issue.
But added that this is slightly challenging, and gave Goldington Academy as an example, which has 302 people applying for 168 places.
“Actually Goldington Academy is an area where Mark Rutherford is within walking distance, Castle Newnham is within walking distance, St Thomas More is within walking distance,” he said.
“But it’s getting the best results in GCSEs in Bedfordshire why would you not be put in [there]?
“I think the challenge is that we’re seeing a squeeze of school places and children who live locally not being able to get in,” he said.
Mr Morris said the old catchment scheme for Biddenham would see children in Biddenham not getting a place.
“If you actually look at the catchment for Biddenham it is pretty much half of Bedford borough because it runs all the way up to Mark Rutherford all the way down to Queens Park,” he said.
“We’ve got children who live in the catchment for Biddenham who actually would have to be driving past St Thomas More,” he said.
Mr Morris said most schools are in walkable areas due to their “relatively urban” locations.
“And if not, then public transport is available,” he said.
“I don’t anticipate [there will be] a significant impact on the school transport costs.
“I’m fairly confident that, for example, those that may have put down Goldington as their first preference, most of those who put Mark Rutherford as their second preference are likely to get there.
“We’re fairly confident that when it washes out that our first, second, and third preference data will still be strong,” he claimed.
“The challenge with this is as always around you’ve almost got to try to predict how rapidly the houses are going to be built.
“At this moment in time, I’m very confident we’ll have sufficient numbers of school places for September 2025.
“When it comes to September 2026 that’s going to be where it gets to be a challenge,” he said.
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
