Moray Council has drawn-up plans to cap school rolls and change catchment areas to try to cope with a boom in pupil numbers.
Members of the local authority were warned yesterday that numbers at primaries in Elgin would soar to 500 over their capacities within seven years unless action was taken.
They were also told the town needs at least one – and possibly two – new schools to prevent existing ones reaching breaking point.
The capping move was unveiled just a fortnight after Moray Council’s Independent-Conservative administration failed to secure backing for a shake-up of rural education provision – and on the same day another member of the ruling coalition announced he was quitting.
Members of the local authority’s children and young people’s services committee were told capping “placing requests” was a necessary measure.
The requests – where parents choose to send their children to schools outwith their catchment area – can distort school capacity and pupil number forecasts.
The plans for capping and rezoning were welcomed yesterday by Conservative councillor Douglas Ross – who was expelled from the administration over the rural school closure plans – and SNP Elgin City South member Graham Leadbitter.
At yesterday’s committee meeting, Paul Watson, the council’s continuous improvement team manager, said the current zones dated back to pre-Grampian Regional Council days and were in “dire need” of updating to reflect new housing development.
“There is a fairly lengthy consultation process to be undertaken before these can be changed,” he said.
“But failure to address this capacity and zoning issue will increase the cases of local children not being able to attend their nearest school.”
Members agreed to delegate roll-capping of Elgin primaries to the director of education and social care Laurence Findlay.
A report on proposed new zones for Elgin catchment areas will be presented to the next committee meeting in February.
If approved, a consultation would be held with all those potentially affected before the new zones were implemented.
Forres independent councillor and committee chairwoman Anne Skene said it was too early to say where any new schools would be built.
She said growing demand for places was due to new housing developments in Elgin – and said building firms should be making a contribution to the cost of providing new schools.
Councillor Skene said she hoped the Scottish Government would part-fund any developments, a position backed by Councillor Ross.
He said: “There is no doubt that we need to address the anticipated shortage of school places in Elgin.
“When councillors agreed to a moratorium on school closures earlier this month we also agreed that we would urgently need to address the situation in Elgin.
“Changing the zones of schools is often a contentious issue but I think it’s right in 2014 to look again at it and it may help to redress the balance that sees some schools struggling to fill places with others turning pupils away.”
Councillor Leadbitter said it was time to take action over the lack of school places in the town.
“Yes, there will be some challenging decisions on zoning for both councillors and parents in the schools to deal with, but we are reaching a critical point,” he added.
“Fundamentally, what is needed is either urgent and major expansion to existing Elgin schools or the construction of a new school to address the long-term and significant shortage of school places which will reach the hundreds.
“Sorting out school zoning and capping of out-of-zone placements is merely a stop-gap measure and plans for new school capacity must progress rapidly at the same time.”