YORK-based portable-building specialist Portakabin Hire has delivered a record number of school buildings and classrooms to accommodate around 22,000 school children in the last academic year.

Demand was so high that in the two months prior to the start of the new autumn term, Portakabin Hire installed more than 1,000 modular units at schools from Penzance to Penrith, accommodating nearly 9,000 children, This was a 40 per cent rise on the same period last year.

Robert Snook, director and general manager of Portakabin Hire, said: “The rising birth rates and demographic changes are still putting acute pressure on primary school places nationwide but particularly in London and the south-east.

“The provision of modular teaching accommodation for short-term use is a highly effective solution that more LEAs and schools are turning to.

“This allows them to react very quickly to place planning issues, which can be very difficult to predict.”

In the London Borough of Lewisham, Portakabin Hire provided a complete, self-contained primary school in just eight weeks from receipt of order to handover.

Margaret Brightman, Strategic Places manager at Lewisham Council, said, “We needed the decant school very quickly to be able to provide additional school places in time for the start of the new academic year.

“Portakabin already had a stock of primary school buildings ready configured and for us to use.

“The Portakabin team worked exceptionally hard to bring the project within our targeted budget and to our deadline.

“They are a very responsive company to work with and I would have no hesitation recommending the approach and the facilities to other schools and LEAs.”