A NEW school built to house 315 Ilkley youngsters will start next term with almost a whole class of pupils over the capacity, a councillor has revealed.

Ilkley parish councillor Pat Stevenson says All Saints Primary School will have 340 pupils when it opens its doors for the spring term in January.

The school is currently situated on Leeds Road, but will leave its home of 130 years and move to a state-of-the-art new school building on Easby Drive on November 4.

Coun Stevenson said at Ilkley Parish Council's meeting on Monday that there had always been concerns about the size of the new school building before the reorganisation of Bradford's schools started.

She said: "It has got to be noted that the new school was built for 315 pupils and it's going to open its doors on November 4 with 338.

It's going to grow to 340 with the January intake. That's nearly a form larger than the school was built for.

"There were protestations that it should be built as a two form entry school."

Coun Stevenson said the figures were discussed at a recent meeting of the school's governors.

However, she said the new building features up-to-date learning aids such as broadband Internet access and interactive electronic whiteboards.

Councillor Mike Lynes asked the parish council to discuss methods used to calculate the local school age population with Education Bradford.

He said around 200 planning applications for houses in the Ilkley area had gained planning consent in the past year, and wanted such factors to be taken into account when calculating the need for school places, as well as the local birth rate.