Cornwall Council has been allocated more than £32m of Government funding which will help to create hundreds of additional school places across Cornwall.

As part of the national Basic Need Capital allocations for 2015-17, Cornwall will receive £32,299m to provide new school places between 2015 and 2017 - the highest level of funding which has been awarded to the authority in recent years.

Welcoming the funding, Andrew Wallis, the council’s cabinet member for children and young people, said “This is very good news for Cornwall and will provide much needed funding to meet the increasing number of children requiring school places in Cornwall.

"The amount allocated for 2015-17 is significantly higher than received in previous years (£1.2M per year in 2013 and 2014) and, as a result, will mean that the authority can now plan effectively to provide much needed school places.

“Areas such as Newquay, St Austell and surrounding areas, Truro, Launceston, Camborne, Bodmin and schools in West Cornwall are already under severe pressure to provide school places, together with forecasts of rising school numbers in other areas. This funding will enable us to address these pressures by building new schools and providing additional classrooms”.

The level of Capital Basic Need funding allocated to individual local authorities is based on information submitted to the Department for Education on current and forecast pupil numbers, which was submitted by Cornwall during the 2013 Summer term.

“We are pleased that the department has recognised the significant pressures we are facing in Cornwall and has awarded us such a high level of basic need funding” said Trevor Doughty, the Council’s director of children’s services.

The council will now begin to formulate its plans for expansion of some schools and consider the potential creation of new schools where evidence indicates they are needed most. It will be working with schools and their partners to identify how these places can be created.