A FAILURE to build a new secondary school in north Colchester is causing families to send their children four miles away to get a place.

Essex County Council said, in 2013, a new secondary school would open at the Chesterwell site in Mile End this year.

It now says the school, Trinity College, which is set to take 180 pupils per year, will not open until September 2021.

Some parents on the 1,600-home estate applying for places in Year Seven this year have been offered Colchester Academy - even though there are three schools closer, the Gilberd, St Helena and St Benedict’s.

A total of 2,314 Year 6 pupils applied for one of 2,398 places available at 11 secondary schools, including selective schools, in the Colchester borough this year.

Essex County Council confirmed Colchester Academy and Philip Morant are the only schools with spaces still available.

Leah Manning, who lives on Chesterwell, said her daughter Aila, who attends Boxted Primary School, has been offered a place at Colchester Academy - despite not listing it as a preference.

She said: “Children in our postcode area have fallen into a black hole where we’re in no catchment area and are expected to suck it up and accept a place at a school no-one else wants.

“We live 1.1 miles from the Gilberd School, and until this year would have been in catchment as several of my neighbours’ children attend the school.

“The hundreds of new houses recently built between us and Gilberd are the cause if us not getting a local school.

“We were number six on the waiting list for Gilberd on March 1 but have sunk to 21st.

“We put down five schools on our application back in October 2018 and were offered none of them - which is shocking.”

Fellow Chesterwell resident Emily Voyce said her daughter Evie, another Boxted Primary pupil, has been offered a Colchester Academy place too.

It was not on her application list, which included four schools and the Gilberd was second choice. East Bergholt High was her first choice.

She said the prospect of attending Colchester Academy has given her daughter, 11, sleepless nights.

She said: “When all these houses were being built we were told that the new school would be ready by September this year.

“If it was not ready we were told they would be in the catchment for the Gilberd School.

“When you go on the county council website you put in your postcode and the only school that comes up is the Gilberd.”

Mrs Voyce moved from Highwoods to Chesterwell two years ago and has refused her daughter’s offer.

She is waiting to hear which other school the council will propose but has been told it could be any other in the borough – even Thurstable in Tiptree.

Mrs Voyce said: “There are not enough schools.”

A county council spokesman said there are sufficient school places in Colchester and pointed to expansions at the Gilberd, Stanway School (fives miles from Chesterwell) and Philip Morant (five miles from Chesterwell).

He said there has been “no delay” in the scheduled opening of the Trinity College.

The Gilberd School had 375 first choice preferences and 234 second choices with a capacity of 312.

St Helena School had 184 first choice preferences and 187 second choices but only has a capacity of 200.

St Benedict’s had 116 first choice preferences and 160 second choices with a capacity of 180.

Colchester Academy had 95 first choice preferences and 40 second choices with a capacity of 240.