PLANS to boost the capacity of a primary school by 120 pupils look set to take a further step forward.

Wrexham Council wants to increase full time pupil numbers at Barker’s Lane Community Primary School from 210 to 315.

Meanwhile, the number of nursery children would go up from 30 to 45 to meet a growing demand for school places in the town.

The local authority recently held a consultation which received 27 responses and its executive board is now being asked to enter a statutory notice period.

Cllr Phil Wynn (Ind), lead member for education, said the most frequent issue raised by residents was regarding the impact on parking outside the school.

He said a new larger staff car park could be introduced on the site to alleviate the problem.

Cllr Wynn said: “There were 27 responses in total and five were supportive of our proposal, 19 didn’t actively object and were just commenting and three were against.

“Of those 27 responses, 15 were from local residents and again the largest concern raised was about parking issues.

“We will do our best to ensure the parking issues are addressed as best we can.

“At the moment we would be looking to place quite a large staff parking facility.

“A lot of teachers have to park on the lane at the moment , so if they’re parking on site then that will free up space on the lane for parents to park instead.”

As part of the proposals, an extension would be added to the current building and the first year in which numbers would be increased would be September 2020.

During the latest round of admissions, the council’s education department was unable to meet the demand for places at Barker’s Lane.

It meant some pupils whose parents chose it as their preferred school had to be refused.

Cllr Wynn said new houses planned for the town centre meant the demand was expected to grow further.

He said: “The schools within the town centre are hitting capacity.

“There are obviously further windfall developments within the town centre, which build up year on year and create new pupils in the town centre who need spaces.

“There are also people that have relocated to Wrexham for work or whatever reason.”

The extension to the school would be funded by the Welsh Government.

The authority’s executive board will be asked to approve moving to a statutory notice period at a meeting on Tuesday.

A planning application will then be submitted at a later date.