A CALLINGTON councillor has called on central government and Cornwall Council to take urgent action to deal with soaring school numbers at an East Cornwall school.

Cllr Andrew Long, who represents Callington on Cornwall Council, has made the call following the publication of the latest roll numbers at Callington Community College and also has concerns about the rising numbers at another East Cornwall school — Saltash.net.

'Both Callington Community College and Saltash.net are running at 97 percent capacity on years 7 to 11 with several year groups over subscribed and, with numbers increasing at the feeder primary schools, we need to take action now to ensure that places are available for students as close to their home as possible,' Cllr Long said. 'Both of these colleges are now academies so have to rely on bidding into central government and I know that Callington has already been unsuccessful on a bid for a new sixth form centre.

'This part of Cornwall has been targeted for major housing growth but our education establishments are already struggling to provide places for the current population. This is clearly unsustainable.'

He said there was already a 'time bomb' of education affecting the colleges with a number of feeder primary schools at or above the 100% Published Admission Number (PAN) maximum and added to this was the influx of students from across the Tamar which he said further limited the number of places for local students.

The latest numbers for Callington College show 1,164 students on the roll for years 7 to 11, with both Years 7 and 11 over subscribed as against the PAN number of 1,205.

In addition, Callington has a thriving sixth form which pushes the numbers above 1,400 at the college.