AS MUCH as £200,000 could be spent to look at plans to build a satellite grammar school in the Royal Borough.

Officers are in talks with Sir William Borlase, a grammar school in Marlow, to expand onto a second site in the Royal Borough and need the funds to carry out consultations, work to find a site and complete paperwork.

The council's children’s services overview and scrutiny panel heard a report on Tuesday last week following Nicky Morgan, secretary of state for education’s approval of a satellite grammar school to be opened in Kent.

David Scott, head of services for families and young people, said: “This follows a series of reports that have addressed the borough’s ambition to give a choice over places of where their children can access quality education.

“Proposals that have been on the table for a number of years now have secretary of state approval.”

The borough consulted with a number of schools in surrounding areas, but the Marlow school was the only one that went further with the discussions and that was with the condition that the site would be in Maidenhead.

The creation of a new school would cost in the region of £20m and that would exclude the cost of acquisition of a site.

The school would not be able to open until September 2019 at the earliest but officers think it is more likely to be September 2021.

Time will be needed for approvals to be made to the plans, consultations, as well as building.

David Scott, head of services for families and young people, said: “We are trying to be realistic, there are a number of decisions needed which are out of our control.”

Cllr Lynne Jones, who represents Old Windsor, raised concerns at the meeting that the plan had ignored Windsor.

She said: “This is a council that’s supposed to be for parental choice but there’s been absolutely nothing done about giving a choice to Windsor.”

Alison Alexander, the council director of children’s services, told the panel that the borough invited grammar schools across the boundaries to have a discussion around possible expansion opportunities.

She added: “At that point there was only confirmed interest by one school and they were very clear that they would see an expansion in Maidenhead as their only viable expansion in terms of a satellite grammar.”

The discussion was added to the agenda of the overview and scrutiny panel as an emergency item, meaning that councillors did not have time to read it before the meeting and have been asked to e-mail any further comments to council officers.

The report was set to be heard by the Royal Borough's cabinet at a meeting last night.