A multi-million pound Government cash injection could fund a new Wharfedale secondary school to help meet demand for places in the valley.

Bradford Council has been awarded £15.86 million by the Department for Education to build a new secondary school in the district and expand primary and special schools in areas suffering from a pressure on places.

The Council says no site in the Bradford District has yet been identified for the proposed 1,050-place secondary school.

Bradford Council’s executive member for children’s services, Councillor Ralph Berry, has confirmed Wharfedale has not been ruled out as a possible site for the new school.

However, he stressed the Council will base its eventual decision on figures showing which area has the greatest demand for school places.

“We’ve got to analyse where the greatest demand pressures are,” said Coun Berry (Lab, Wibsey). “I have to say at the moment, on the recent figures, the Ilkley area is in balance. Ilkley Grammar School has not had a problem with people not being able to get in this year.

“We’ve got to be guided by the facts, really, and that’s what we’re doing.”

But he acknowledged that pressure for places at the overcrowded Ilkley Grammar School is set to increase, as birth rates are rising in the town.

Coun Berry said he was mindful of the numbers, and the pressure for places in Ilkley which exists.

Bradford Council will use the primary and special schools funding to expand Cullingworth Village Primary, Princeville Primary and refurbish the former Netherlands Avenue special school site as a satellite site – with the creation of an additional 35 places.

It plans to create an extra 105 places at Cullingworth Primary School, making it a two-form entry with a total of 315 places. Princeville Primary would become a three-form entry school with a total of 630 children.