A schools crisis in Northumberland looks set to be averted with plans for more than 500 new classroom places for children in the county.

Later this month, Conservative councillors on Northumberland County Council are expected to approve the creation of 579 additional place at schools in Blyth, Seaton Valley and Morpeth with £4.5 million being proposed for investment in existing and new buildings across four schools.

The schools which will benefit from the investment are New Delaval Primary School, Horton Grange Primary School, Whytrig Middle School and Chantry Middle School.

The additional funding comes from the government’s Department for Education which allocated the county part of a £10.9 billion fund to ensure schools across the country could offer more places in a scheme called the Basic Need Capital Grant. Northumberland was allocated £15.7 million for the period between 2011 and 2020.

The move will end months of concern for parents in the South East of the county following a shortfall left behind by the previous Labour administration at the county council.

Education has been at the heart of this council’s agenda as they also approved funding of a new £6m first school on land at Loansdean in Morpeth to replace the current Goosehill school. Earlier this week work also started on a new building for Darras Hall Primary School in Ponteland.

Northumberland County Council’s portfolio holder for Children’s Services Wayne Daley said: “Taking on this portfolio after years of neglect and a vacuum of leadership has been a real challenge.

“We have worked hard to not only put right what was failing before, but actually create an education system that Northumberland families feel confident to entrust their children into.

“We accept that there are many challenges ahead, and we still haven’t really established just how far the old administration screwed things up, but we will make the difficult decisions now so that children in Northumberland can have the best opportunities possible.”  

Leader of the Council, Peter Jackson said: “We promised we’d deliver a county that works for everyone and a key part of that is allowing parents to feel confident that their children are getting the best education possible.”