Building 400 new homes near Gilstead will increase the pressure on the already excessive demand for places at Bingley Grammar School, its chairman of governors fears.

Jim Britton was speaking out after Gilstead Village Society's secretary, Barry Foster, said he feared Eldwick Primary School would be left unable to cope with the demand for places by an influx of families.

The primary school is scheduled to open on the site of the present Gilstead Middle School in September 2000 after Bradford's switch to a two-tier education system

Plans for the houses at Warren Lane between Gilstead and Eldwick had been bitterly opposed by residents and initially rejected by Bradford Council.

But last month a Government inspector allowed outline planning permission for the homes with a phased start of 150 homes until completion of Bingley's relief road.

Jim Britton said: "We're going to have problems at Bingley Grammar School as well.

"When we switch from a 13-18 school to an 11-18 one in September 2000 our intake will be going down slightly from 306 to 270 per year.

"We've got far more parents wanting to send their children to us than we can take at the moment so when we have 40 less places it will be even worse."

He said the additional houses were bound to bring in a lot of younger families with children of all ages, putting even more pressure on local schools.

"At the moment I'm not quite sure how we will handle this," said Mr Britton.

Bradford education committee chairman Councillor Jim Flood (Lab, Bingley) has said the local education authority could not plan provision on the basis of speculation.

But he added: "In the future, if Warren Lane is built up with all these houses, our education provision will be adapted.''

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