I HAVE just read with interest the article "City schools compete for £28m in cash" (The Press, January 24).

I am very pleased for the schools which will eventually benefit from this money, but one thing greatly concerns me. I live just off Tadcaster Road, near the Askham Bar roundabout.

Very soon the old sixth-form college is to close and nearly 800 dwellings are to be built on that site. I have also looked with interest at the plans for the Terry's factory site.

As far as I can see, there is no provision for schools and I am left wondering where all the young children will go to school.

Dringhouses School hasn't any more room to expand and is probably already over-subscribed.

Mrs B A Caward, Ashfield Court, York.


A City of York Council spokesperson said: "The housing development on the site of the former sixth-form college will result in an additional 360 homes being built. On the basis of experience and the application of a nationally-approved formula, we anticipate this will generate 72 pupils of primary school age. As is usual when planning permission is granted for a development of this kind, the authority examined the options for accommodating this number of additional children in the neighbouring schools, which include Dringhouses and Woodthorpe. As your reader points out, Dringhouses is full and there is no room for expansion. However, looking ahead, the number of pupils living in the catchment area for Dringhouses is well below the capacity of the school and we anticipate that, in future, both Dringhouses and Woodthorpe will be able to accommodate the pupils from the new development."