Funding problems mean a new sixth form in Arborfield Green may not open in September, a leading councilor has said - but the council is "still working" to find a solution with the academy trust responsible.

Two Wokingham Borough councillors claimed on social media that the planned new sixth form would not open this year.

Rising construction costs now mean the expansion may not go ahead – with just two months before it is set to open.

Liberal Democrats, David Cornish and Ian Pittock said parents and pupils had become “pawns in a power game” between the council and Bohunt Education Trust, the academy trust that runs the school.

Now, Liberal Democrat councillor Prue Bray, Wokingham Borough Council's executive member for Children’s Services, has said that Bohunt School could provide a sixth form in September. But she explained the Trust may decide not to go ahead if it can’t be sure it can build new facilities for future years.

If the sixth form doesn’t open, councillor Bray said pupils who’d hoped to attend could find space in Wokingham Borough’s other schools.

Councillor Bray said: “The truth is that we are still working with Bohunt School to try to find the best way for it to provide a sixth form.

“It is entirely up to the Multi-Academy Trust whether to open a sixth form or not and it could do so in September this year within its existing facilities.”

READ MORE: Bohunt Arborfield sixth form pupils ‘pawns in a power game’

She added: “But we completely understand that the school needs to be confident that a new facility can be provided when needed in the future and that is where there are problems: spiralling building costs and failing supply chains are making it very difficult to plan and pay for large building projects.

“If the school decides that this doubt over the long term sixth form building is too problematic and therefore does not open its sixth form in September, we can at least reassure those parents and pupils affected that there is capacity in most of the borough’s other sixth form schools.”

Councillor Bray said that the council had agreed to provide some funding for the new sixth form, and that the Trust would also contribute some money. But she said that funding agreement is “no longer likely to be enough to pay for what we had all hoped to provide.”

She also said that she would update the council’s Executive – its leading body of councillors – at a meeting on July 24, but that this “will only be an update, and not a final decision, as the situation is still evolving.”

Bohunt Education Trust had not responded to requests for comment at the time of writing.