PARENTS will have their say on whether another school will be built in Whiteley to help ease the shortage of places for children.

Hampshire County Council leader Ken Thornber has reassured Whiteley parents that he has not "closed the door" on the possibility of building a new primary school in the area.

Councillor Thornber said there was still a chance that a new school could prove the best solution to the shortage of primary school places for children in rapidly expanding Whiteley - and that parents could influence their decision.

He said: "I don't want to mislead parents as we are not ruling anything in or out at this stage. If people are saying we need a new school then we would look at that very very carefully. I don't want parents to become anxious that we have closed the door."

Education chiefs have now promised to launch a public consultation exercise.

As well as looking at the possibility of a new school - Cllr Thornber will look at other options, including using spare capacity in schools in the Western wards of Fareham. But this is not a popular option for worried parents.

Angela Peckham, of Lipizzaner Fields, Whiteley, helped spearhead a parents campaign after her son Ben failed to win a place at the school in September 2002.

Ben has now transferred from Sarisbury Infant School to Whiteley Primary School.

Mrs Peckham said: "What worried me was that if anything happened at school it would have taken me 15 or 20 minutes to get there. When Ben was ill recently I was with him in the office in about two minutes.

"If there was any sort of hold up, you just couldn't get through to the school from Whiteley.

Figures still show there could be demand for another 210 places by 2009 as homes continue to be built within the school's catchment area.

Whiteley Primary School opened in 1997 and has 630 places.