A MULTI academy trust is applying for a special status to enable it to potentially take over the running of a new school in Launceston.

The wish to see the proposed school at Hurdon built as soon as possible was raised again at the meeting of Launceston’s Community Network Panel in the Guildhall on September 21, with one councillor saying there is a ‘desperate’ need for new classrooms in the town.

Referred to locally as Hay Common School, it is set to open when built as a four-class school, after local councillors were told Cornwall Council would not be able to fund an additional three classrooms to bring it up to a seven-class school.

Cornwall Council has said when the classrooms were needed, they would be funded by the government.

Debbie Branch, of Altarnun Parish Council, told the community network panel meeting she knew of 15 children leaving preschools, having to attend 13 different primary schools, adding: “Because the schools in the town cannot take them.

“Parents are putting four-year-olds in taxis to send them to outlying schools,” she said.

Town councillor John Conway said: “This town is desperate for these classrooms. Seven classrooms at Hay Common is needed by the town.”

At the September meeting of Launceston Town Council, Cllr Paul O’Brien, chair of the board of directors for the An Daras Multi Academy Trust, said the trust is applying to the Department for Education for a status to allow it to potentially take over the running of the new Hay Common School, when it is built.

Cllr O’Brien said: “It has to become a sponsoring academy. That process of seeking that status has started. Steps are in progress.”

However, Cllr O’Brien told the Post that, assuming the status was granted to the trust, it would not necessarily mean the trust would then make a bid to run the school, or that such a bid, if made, would be successful.