A TORY councillor has apologised to parents after controversial plans to change Leigh school catchment areas were dumped, following the release of new data.

The new data that came to light this month revealed the proposed changes would no longer need to go ahead.

Councillor James Courtenay, responsible for children and learning told the Echo the council had collected up-to-date data on birth rates for children starting school in 2021 after the consultation ended, which showed the changes were not needed.

In fact, some of the children were not born when the consultation began.

He said: “It is an emotive topic, I’m sorry for the people who have got concerns for their children and this consultation brought that issue to the forefront.”

The new data that came to light this month showed that there was no need for the catchment changes because the schools could cope with the amount of children born.

The consultation was launched because of Southend Council’s statutory need to consult on school catchments every seven years.

Their projected birth rates when the consultation began suggested a necessity for change because of oversubscription.

He said: “The original data suggested that we would continue having oversubscription and possibly that it would increase.

“The new data suggested that oversubscription is unlikely to continue in great enough numbers to make a case for change.”

The catchment changes had been proposed after West Leigh School was oversubscribed by 27 children for the September 2016 intake.

Parents were only informed the 27 children would not be admitted into the school in March last year.

However, following the new data about admissions for 2017, Mr Courtenay has now found the school is in fact undersubscribed.

He said: “At West Leigh in 2016, there were 27 more children who lived in catchment who could not get into the school.

“In 2017, that data showed the school was actually undersubscribed.”

Mr Courtenay admitted the consultation was based on “predictions” for future years instead of concrete numbers.

He said: “If I had the firm data then we could just do the maths and work it out, but right now, we do not, so we have look at it and in the most rational way, make a decision.”

The £4,000 consultation brought a lot of anger and anxiety from parents who did not want their catchments changed.

Mr Courtenay, who delayed publication of the report until the “last-minute” to gather the data for 2021 births and school starters, said the changes were a “knock-on” effect of the oversubscription faced by West Leigh in 2016.

He said: “With catchment changes, there is a knock-on impact and then we have look at the effect it will have on the next school and then the next school.

“You cannot get it precisely right every year, if we have one or two that cannot get in one year, it is not that big of a problem, 27 children not getting in cannot carry on.”

Mr Courtenay also recognised the opposition felt by the parents of West Leigh, Leigh North Street, Chalkwell Hall and more towards the proposal.

However, he said that the plan for school catchment changes were dropped mainly because of the new data.

He said: “The level of controversy and difficulty is probably why it was good to have the consultation done, I do not shy away from that.

“Of course, the consultation played its part, that is why we had one, but considering data, I felt it was not right to make these changes.”