A Shrewsbury Green Party candidate has raised concerns over a proposed new primary school in the Bowbrook Meadows development after a Freedom of Information Request revealed that it will not have sufficient places to meet demand from local families.

Julia Evans, a former NHS nurse who is standing as a Green Party candidate for Radbrook in the May elections, says that the new school will not fulfil the needs of parents for many years. Children will still have to travel to primary schools further away, which is not what parents were led to expect when they moved into the area.

Says Evans: “The local area desperately needs more school places. Radbrook Primary School is fully subscribed, as are nearby schools including Woodfield and Oxon. With the increase in housing developments between Radbrook Road and Mytton Oak Road, there is inevitably going to be more pressure on school places in the coming years. We had hoped that the new Bowbrook Meadows Primary, proposed for September 2022, would solve these issues. However, it seems the proposals haven’t been properly thought through.”

A recent Freedom of Information request revealed that the new primary school in the Bowbrook Meadows development will only admit one form, a Reception class of thirty pupils, in its first year of opening. It will add subsequent forms in each successive year. That means that the school won’t be fully functional for all year groups until 2028.

Evans stated: “When local residents heard about the proposed school, they assumed it would help ease the demand on other primary schools in the area. However, this Freedom of Information request suggests that it won’t take any local children who are already of school age. That means it won’t do anything to help the lack of school places that families are facing in the area. I don’t believe this is good enough. Families urgently need additional school places now, not in 2028.”