Liberal Democrat councillors in Haringey are urgently requesting that Haringey Council explain the huge disparities between the school place figures given earlier this year and those given in answer to a written question at the council meeting on 19th July.

Cllr Engert, who has been working closely with parents in the Muswell Hill area over this issue, contacted Haringey Council in April requesting information on children not allocated places at any of the schools on their preference list in the Muswell Hill area. Haringey Council informed her that 35 pupils had not received their first choice places. Considering the maximum size of a class is 30, residents and Cllr Engert were extremely concerned at Haringey Council’s lack of forward planning which had produced such a large deficit in places.

However, the situation appears to be considerably worse than first thought. The figures quoted in response to Cllr Engert’s question suggest that as many as 85 children from the Muswell Hill area were not offered a place in one of their three preferred schools.

Although Cllr Engert accepts that many of the 85 children may have received places after being put on schools waiting lists, the original figure given of 35 did not show the scale of the problem in the area. She is concerned that due to either the Labour-run council’s incompetence or manipulation of figures the true scale of the problem is only just being realised.

Along with fellow Lib Dem Councillor Lynne Featherstone, Cllr Engert also wants an explanation from Haringey Council as to why there is such a huge disparity between Haringey Council’s two sets of overall figures for children without places in the borough.

Cllr Engert comments: “This is a crisis which could have been avoided. Through lack of planning, Haringey Council has left dozens of children without a local place to start school this year – and have no intention of doing anything about it. The numbers are changing and the Council is not being open about the extent of this problem.”

Cllr Featherstone adds: “With the number of new development in the area, any short term fix for next year will be just that – a short term solution. Haringey Council needs to start planning much further ahead, otherwise these crises will become a running sore over the next few years.”