PLANS to create more places at primary schools in Warrington have been announced.

Five primary schools in the town will increase its intake of pupils from September to meet the growing demand for places in Warrington, the Warrington Guardian has learned.

St Phillips CE in Westbrook, Barrow Hall, Chapelford and Park Road Primary School in Great Sankey were all selected by the council to increase its pupil numbers due to the schools' close proximity to new housing developments.

St Joseph’s Primary School is also to be expanded to meet the growing demand for Catholic school places.

It is unknown how many more spaces are to be created in the town or how much the expansion will cost.

But parents from Chapelford Primary School have been told that the school on Santa Rosa Boulevard will welcome a third class of reception pupils from September, with the intake rising from 60 to 90.

A council spokesman said: “As a consequence of the significant and ongoing new housing being built in the west Warrington area we are developing a strategy for meeting the additional demand for school places.

"Given that most of the new housing over the next five years will be to the north of the area, we have looked at the potential to expand existing schools within a reasonable walking distance of the development of approximately one mile.”

“We have taken account of education performance, parental preference, building condition, site capacity to expand traffic and congestion issues and hope to be able to release details of the full strategy before the end of the month.

“The decision to increase intake at some of the schools listed in September, including Chapelford, has already been taken to increase flexibility over place availability for this September.”

A spokesman for the council also confirmed that there are no plans to re-open Sycamore Lane Primary School after it was closed in 2013 following the opening of Chapelford Primary School.