HUNDREDS of children could be left without a primary school place if Lewisham Council does not receive more funding, its mayor has warned.

Portable classrooms have been built at primary schools across the borough as the council struggles to cope with demand for places.

And the situation is only expected to worsen with the borough estimated to be around 700 places short in future years as the birth rate continues to soar.

A government report leaked last week named Lewisham as one of four boroughs in England facing a severe shortage of places.

In June, Mayor of Lewisham Sir Steve Bullock passed a £4.35m package to fund 525 extra primary places, partly through buildings a host of ‘modular’ portable classrooms.

Last week he went on a tour of some of the classrooms which have been installed in nine schools, with four more to follow.

Elsewhere schools like Brindishe in Lee have been forced to take in 30 extra reception children.

Sir Steve warned: "The situation in Lewisham is very serious and will continue to be so until we get additional government funding to provide more primary places.

"We have opened 18 additional classes on time so that every child due to start reception this year has a place. This was only achieved through the hard work and commitment of Lewisham headteachers and governors.

"The birth rate in Lewisham is now around 4,800 a year and if 80 per cent of these children apply for a place in a Lewisham school, we will have 3,840 applications for 3,156 places each year. This is an unacceptable situation.

"The government needs to understand the urgency for more primary places and this has to be a priority for the Comprehensive Spending Review.

“We were in discussion with the previous government before the election but had not been successful by the time the election was called.”

Any extra funding is likely to go on expanding current schools rather than building others, due to a lack of sites.

But concerns have been raised about the impact current plans may have on children’s play areas, reducing open space in school grounds.

Secretary of the Lewisham NUT Martin Powell-Davies said the current plans were a “sticking plaster”.

He said: “We’ve been warning them for some time and it’s a real problem.

“The other possibility might be larger classes or more mixed age classes but there is no easy solution.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “The government is aware of the great need for more good primary school places across the country due to the increased birth rates.

“That is why we have launched an independent review into how we spend school capital so that it is focussed on addressing this urgent demand for more primary school places - a problem we cannot afford to ignore.”