Pupils and parents at an Arborfield Green school have become pawns in a power game', two councillors have said amid claims that a planned new sixth form will now not open this September.

Bohunt School – an academy run by the Bohunt Education Trust – was given permission to expand by Wokingham Borough Council last year.

But now an apparent funding dispute between the council and the Trust appears to have scuppered its planned opening this year – just two months before pupils had hoped to start.

Liberal Democrat councillors David Cornish and Ian Pittock issued a “sincere and painful apology” on social media to parents and pupils, as they had promised to ensure the sixth form would open.

But they claim that Bohunt Trust had taken the decision not to open the sixth form without informing the council.  Bohunt Trust has not yet confirmed these claims regarding whether the sixth form will be opening or not.

They said: “When we stood for election in May, we promised that we would ensure the delivery of a sixth form option at Bohunt for this September. Until last week, we were confident that this would happen.

“That is a failure which we take personally but which is of far more serious consequence to pupils who thought they had a sixth form option there but now do not.”

They added: “We will go into the whys and wherefores of this in the days to come, but it is disgraceful that the needs of parents and pupils have become pawns in a power game between the Bohunt Trust and Wokingham Borough Council over money.”

Councillor Cornish also told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the council had 'done as much as it reasonably could do to get it to a place where the sixth form could open in the Autumn'. But he added there was a “funding gap” that the council had not been able to fill.

READ MORE: Alarm raised as Wokingham school expansion may be in doubt

Conservative opposition councillors blamed the ruling Liberal Democrats for the failure of the sixth form to open. A statement from the Conservatives said that “lack of action by Wokingham Borough Council was wasting time and causing costs to increase.”

Conservative councillor Charles Margetts from Finchampstead North said: “This is a damning indictment of the Liberal Democrats running Wokingham Borough.

“These kids and their parents deserve better. My local Conservative colleagues and I have campaigned for years to secure this desperately needed extra provision for children from Finchampstead, Arborfield and Barkham.”

Neither Wokingham Borough Council nor Bohunt Education Trust had provided comment to the Local Democracy Reporting Service at the time of writing.