ENFIELD is in with a chance of winning a slice of £200m of Government funding to pay for the shortage of primary school places.

Demand for places has gone up by 94 places to 4,061 from last year's September intake to this year's.

A further rise in demand to 4,327 places is expected by 2011.

Enfield one of the worst hit boroughs in London because our birth rate is one of the highest in London, and well above average.

Between 2001 and 2007 it rose by 29.6 per cent.

The average rate for London rose by 20.5 per cent.

Ed Balls announced the extra money last week but councils have been reporting a shortage for the past few years.

Enfield Council's education spokeswoman, Laura Berryman, confirmed that the council will "make the strongest case" for the cash when it applies for the money by the August 14 deadline.

All bidders will be expected to build extra permanent places by September 2011 and money will be held back from future capital funding allocations where actual pupil numbers fall short of predictions.

The DCSF will then assess applications from all the boroughs before announcing how much, if any, each will get in September.

Mr Balls said some local authorities did not plan or budget effectively for rising birth rates.

“Parents should be able to send their children to a local school they want – and by law, it is down to local authorities to make sure there are sufficient school places available to meet parental demand across their areas.

“This is not about bailing out poor planning. It is absolutely right to give additional funding, on top of record capital investment, to build extra classrooms and facilities in areas facing sudden increases in demand which could not reasonably have been forecast."

The east of the borough is suffering the most from oversubscription because of a more rapidly expanding population there.

To cope the council has asked several schools to add in an extra "bulge" class of 30 pupils, often taught in temporary classrooms.

Mrs Berryman added: "Temporary classrooms are being used on some of the expansion schemes while permanent buildings are constructed.

"Once schemes are completed they will be removed."