COUNCIL officials insist a town’s school-age population will drop – despite plans to build up to 1,400 new homes.

Kirklees Council wants to close Castle Hall School and expand nearby Mirfield Free Grammar.

Council officials have justified the proposal by saying the number of 11 to 16-year-olds in the town will drop from 1,000 in 2007/08 to 800 by 2018.

But at the same time, in the Local Development Framework, Kirklees has drawn up plans to build over 1,000 new homes in Mirfield.

Karen Rowling of pressure group Retain Education at Castle Hall said: "Everyone knows new houses bring young families, which means more children who need school places.

"It doesn’t make sense, the council’s figures don’t add up."

There are currently 1,950 children aged 11 to 16 at schools in Mirfield – 900 at Castle Hall and 1,050 at Mirfield Free Grammar.

If the Kirklees education plan goes ahead, by 2013 there will be 1,500 high school places in the town – all of them at Mirfield Free Grammar.

Commenting on the additional housing Mirfield Conservative Clr Martyn Bolt said: "There will be a massive influx of people.

"There’s a lack of foresight from Kirklees officials, they haven’t future-proofed the Mirfield schools plan."

Clr Bolt added that the birthrate in Mirfield was not falling. He said: "There has been no drop-off in births in Mirfield. Neither has there been a downturn in births in Ravensthorpe, which is in Mirfield’s catchment area."

The Castle Hall closure was proposed last year as part of Kirklees Council’s £200m schools plan for north Kirklees., which included closing the successful Castle Hall School in Mirfield.

A Brighter Futures consultation document, sent to thousands of parents in north Kirklees by the council, predicted there would be fewer young people in Mirfield in 10 years’ time.

It read: "An analysis of the number of births and the number of children in the school system shows that the demand for school places in Mirfield will decline in the future.

"For example, in the school year 2007/08 there were about 1,000 11-16-year-old children living in Mirfield. However by 2018 this number will fall to about 800."

But the council is also drawing up the Local Development Framework, which will determine which land will be earmarked for housing, industry and commerce between 2011 and 2026, has since been revealed by the council.

And Kirklees is currently consulting on four alternative plans – three of which would see 1,100 new homes in Mirfield, while the fourth envisages an extra 1,400 properties in the town.

A Kirklees spokesman said: "The projected 11 to 16 population for north Kirklees as a whole shows a significant increase over the next 10 years.

However, the projected 11-16 population resident in the Mirfield catchment area over the next 10 years shows a significant reduction.

"We need more places to serve the growing communities in several parts of north Kirklees, but we will need fewer secondary places in Mirfield.

"Currently, just under half of the 11-16 pupils in Castle Hall and Mirfield Free Grammar are resident in Mirfield.

"There are regular exchanges of information with colleagues in Kirklees Planning and Development regarding strategic plans for housing allocations and the impact of housing upon school provision.

"We have also built into the proposals a continued level of surplus capacity to allow for population movement and growth."