FEARS have been raised about a school places crisis after plans emerged to group schools together and form new academy trusts.

Oxfordshire County Council has confirmed it is set to propose “a more assertive policy” for the next five years towards almost 200 of its remaining maintained schools. This would encourage them to become academies, taking them out of the Conservative local authority’s control and meaning their funding would come directly from the Department for Education.

At the moment, more than 75 per cent of the 36 secondary schools in the county have already converted to academies, but only about 20 per cent of the 234 primary schools have.

The council has previously committed to helping all schools become academies.

However, Liberal Democrat county councillor John Howson warned this could lead to a shortage of school places in Oxfordshire because the council would lose influence over how many places were created. He said: “All the evidence we have seen so far is academies have not played ball when asked to expand.

“It may end up costing the county council more in transporting pupils to schools further afield, because it would have lost control over every single school but remain responsible for finding places.”

But council spokesman Paul Smith said : “We have plenty of examples where academies are collaborating with the council to ensure there are enough places.”