CALLS for a new school to be built as part of the development of the Winnington Urban Village have fallen on deaf ears.

The public were asked for their views on plans to enlarge six primary schools in Cheshire, including Winnington Park, Winsford High Street and Cuddington Primary.

Under the proposals the capacity at Winnington Park would increase from 210 places to 420 places from September 2018.

The planned expansion of the school would cost £2 million, and people have the chance to lodge their objections or comments with Cheshire West and Chester Council until January 18.

A Cheshire West report said Winnington Park had already admitted children in excess of its current published admission number in September 2016, and proposed to do the same in September 2017.

Members of the public attended a consultation event on the Winnington scheme, and people commented online, by email and sent their views to the council.

The Cheshire West report said a number of people believed a new school should have been built as part of the development of the Urban Village.

“Whilst the council has sympathy with the view it was not possible to reach an agreement with the developer that would have enabled this to happen,” said the report.

It added that the council consequently believed the proposal to enlarge Winnington Park school ‘represents the best option for ensuring that those children living in the development have local access to primary education’.

A Winnington resident contacted the Guardian to express his disappointment over the report’s conclusions.

He said: “As a resident in Winnington I feel totally betrayed by the council and feel there will be lots of other residents in the area who would be interested in learning about CWAC’s plans to axe the proposed new school - specifically the hundreds of new residents in Winnington Urban Village.

“Instead they will all need to travel to Winnington Primary School, which will further increase the gridlock on our local roads.”

The report said the most common concerns from the informal public consultation related to traffic congestion and parking.

“These issues will be more properly addressed as part of the planning process, when it is anticipated that consent would be conditional on a review of the school travel plan,” it said.

The proposals for Winnington Park would increase the published admission number of the school from 30 to 60 for Reception Year entry for September 2018.

The published admission number for subsequent years would be 60, and the school would cumulatively grow to reach a total capacity of 420.

“It is not considered the proposal will have a negative effect upon the four neighbouring schools in the local school planning area,” added the report.

“Whilst there is currently some surplus capacity in these schools it is anticipated that the child yield from a number of proposed local housing developments will ensure that the full capacity of all schools will be required to ensure a sufficiency of local places.”

The Winnington Park plan is subject to planning permission.

The Guardian requested a comment from Cheshire West and Chester Council, but had not received one by the time of going to press.