A market town where there are plans for hundreds of new homes needs a new school to rectify its educational “cold spot” status, says a parish council.

Parents in Cranbrook are concerned about a lack of pre-school, primary and secondary places – and the fact pupils at non-selective secondaries face at least a 10-mile bus trip to get to school, many standing the whole way.

The Snowfields Academy, a special school for children on the autism spectrum which has just received an outstanding Ofsted report, is based on the site of the former non-selective High Weald Academy.

But Kim Fletcher, chairman of Cranbrook and Sissinghurst Parish Council, said: “Ever since the High Weald Academy closed in 2022 there has been no local non-selective secondary school for our area or our neighbouring communities.

“We are classed as a ‘cold spot’.

“Parents in the area – and potentially new parents moving into the 600 or so extra houses we are about to have – are very concerned at the lack of pre-school, primary school and skills-based secondary schools.

“One of our pre-schools, the Rainbow Pre-School, shut in July after losing its premises. Our primary school was supposed to be extended but there are currently no plans for this to happen.

“Non-selective senior school children from Cranbrook have to be bussed to Mascalls in Paddock Wood, Homewood in Tenterden, Cornwallis in Maidstone or Uplands in Wadhurst.”

Those schools are 11.4 miles, 10 miles, 10.9 miles and 12 miles away respectively.

Cllr Fletcher said: “Due to over-crowding on the school bus service, at least half the students going to Mascalls have to stand the whole way – a journey of 35 minutes or so.

“Of course adding our students to their school rolls is having knock-on effects for the other towns.”

The parish council has called a public meeting on the issue to be held in the Vestry Hall, Cranbrook, on Wednesday, October 4 starting at 7.45pm.

Cllr Fletcher said: “The aim is to gauge public feeling, collate data and see how best to approach the Department for Education to remedy the situation.”

The parish council has a number of ideas about what should be done.

It suggests a new school for 11 to 16-year-olds and an extension to the primary school should be built on the Long Field, between the primary school and the A229, which is already owned by Kent County Council.

It also suggests the Department for Education (DfE) should take back parts of the former High Weald Academy site not being used by the Leigh Academies Trust, which runs Snowfields.

The unused technical block could be used for work skills training by the new school, plus a youth club and a boxing or martial arts gym, suggest the parish.

The unused sixth-form centre could house a new pre-school on the ground floor and an adult education centre on the first floor.

Furthermore, the parish suggests the school’s unused tennis courts should be leased to Cranbrook Sports Club to at least get them back in use.

The High Weald Academy started life as a specialist sports school and had extensive playing fields and sports facilities, all of which were gifted by the DfE to the Leigh Academies Trust.

Ironically, although it has no non-selective school, Cranbrook, with its population of more than 12,000, does have a second specialist school taking only students with a local authority Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

The Belle Vue School in Jockey Lane is an independent school that opened in January 2021. It has 32 pupils and was also classed as Outstanding in its last Ofsted inspection.

Cranbrook also has the highly-respected Cranbrook School – a grammar school with the history and stature of an independent school.

Many wealthy parents move to Cranbrook simply to get their children into the school’s catchment area. The result is that property in the area is very expensive.

Zoopla says the average price of a house sale in Cranbrook in the last year was £517,300. Many went for more than £1 million.