URGENT action is needed to get a 2,500-home estate started or Wantage and Grove will face a school places crisis, it has been warned.

According to councillors, a failure by developers and council chiefs to get homes built at the former Grove Airfield has left local children without places at local schools.

Plans for the new estate were approved in December 2013, including two primary schools that will be built by developers Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon and a secondary school paid for by them.

But the firms have yet to persuade all 14 landowners involved in the scheme to part with their land, leading to delays in starting work.

It comes after concerns were raised that King Alfred’s Academy in Wantage – the area’s only secondary school – would be full by 2017.

And figures from Oxfordshire County Council show primary schools within two miles of Wantage and Grove were already over-subscribed on first preferences by eight per cent on average.

This week Grove Parish Council chairwoman June Stock said: “Nothing is happening and it is now stopping children from having the school places they need.

“It will cost a great deal of money to transport them elsewhere and I know it is now common for children to be sent to other villages – it is a big problem and we could be facing a crisis.”

Mrs Stock called on Vale of White Horse District Council to renew efforts to find a solution to the deadlock, which is believed to centre on a single unidentified landowner in control of a site vital for the new estate.

Senior figures have claimed the landowner will not sign a final deal with Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon,. They are considering a compulsory purchase order (CPO)but it could take up to three years.

Jenny Hannaby, district councillor for Wantage and Grove, raised concerns the ongoing delays could lead to more developments being approved near villages because housing supply was not high enough.

The Vale council also has yet to secure approval for its new Local Plan – which sets out where development can take place – from a planning inspector, making it more vulnerable to proposals for houses on sites not earmarked for housing.

Mrs Hannaby said: “We need a CPO now. Until then, we are going to have developers coming forward with proposals for all the villages around Wantage and Grove.

“We should be encouraging more self-build developments so we can have more houses to meet the government’s requirements.”

Vale council leader Matthew Barber said the local authority was doing “everything in its power” to bring forward the airfield development.

He added: “It is a significant site but I do not think we are yet at crisis point in terms of school places.

“There will come a point, however, where bringing forward those schools will become key.

“We have had lots of conversations with the developers about this issue, but unfortunately our hands are largely tied.

“The short answer is one of the landowners wants more money.

“I am not going to pretend there is any easy solution, but we are doing all we can and are considering all powers that we can use to get things moving.”

He added that council officers were due to meet with the developers again in the coming weeks.