A LEADING councillor has welcomed new figures which he says “put to bed” the “scaremongering” over whether schools will cope if hundreds of houses are built at Inverkip power station.

Councillor David Wilson, chairman of Inverclyde Planning Board, was commenting at a meeting of Inverclyde’s education committee which was given a report on predicted pupil numbers at schools for the next 10 years.

ScottishPower want to develop a village at the power station site. Their application has still to come before the planning board amid increasing opposition from residents in Wemyss Bay and Inverkip. [Read More About The Power Station Plan]

Councillor Wilson said: “This report gives reassurance. There has been a lot of scaremongering about proposed house building at Inverkip, that the schools will never cope. This belies the rumour that’s going around and puts it to bed.”

Education department experts expect the three primary schools which would serve a new village will have plenty of room if the development goes ahead.

They say Inverkip School and Wemyss Bay school should have roughly the same number of children in 10 years’ time as they do just now and St Ninian’s, Gourock to have fewer children.

Inverkip school can accommodate a total of 317 children. This year it has 250 children and in 2022 it is projected to have 247 pupils, operating at around 78 per cent of capacity.

Wemyss Bay school has room for a total of 330 children. This year it has 155 pupils and in 2022 is projected to have 151, operating at less than half capacity.

St Ninian’s can take a total of 429 pupils. This year it has 325, a figure that is expected to fall to 298 by 2022, around 70 per cent of capacity.

The committee heard that it was difficult to operate a primary school at more than 90 per cent of its capacity.

It was also told that it would be many years before the full impact of a new village at the power station would be felt as it would take a long time for all the houses to be constructed.

This put the timescale outwith the period with which experts can safely project pupil numbers.

The committee also heard that the number of pupils at Clydeview Academy, Gourock, pictured, is expected to fall to a level matching the school’s capacity by 2014.

The school – a merger of Greenock Academy and Gourock High – opened in August with around 1,200 students despite being designed to accommodate 990.

Concerns were raised by pupils and parents about corridors being crowded when pupils made their way between classes and lack of space at lunchtime. Safety experts were brought in to monitor the situation and improvements were made

It is projected that Clydeview will have 1,116 pupils from August 2012, dropping to 1,027 in August 2013 and reaching 979 in August 2014. It's roll is expected to continue decreasing. The figures assume the current levels of Primary Seven to First Year inward migration (including placing requests).

A report to the committee stated that all the figures for the schools are based on current trends and patterns. It added: “They are subject to possible variation due to a range of factors for example, revision of General Register Office birth projections, changes to placing request patterns, migration level changes, etc. Officers monitor and review this annually as an integral part of the projections exercise.”