More than 500 new primary school places are being made available in Basildon and on Canvey as part of a £200million scheme by Essex County Council.

Through the new initiative, Ghyllgrove Community Junior School in Chatterford End and Whitmore Primary School in Whitmore Way, Basildon, as well as Northwick Park Academy in Third Avenue on Canvey will create a total of 525 new school places in the 2017 to 2018 intake.

The three schools are among 24-schools in the county delivering 2,535 permanent and 300 temporary places for mainstream school pupils in this academic year.

The additional pupils will join schools as part of the project to take “bulge” year groups.

Over the next three years, £230million will be spent by the council to complete the project.

With the first term of the year coming at the beginning of next month, already £74million has been spent to help offer the huge number of school places by then.

Ray Gooding, the council’s cabinet member for education, said: “Essex is growing fast and I am delighted a number of the county’s schools will be able to take extra pupils this academic year to help meet the rising demand for places.”

Ghyllgrove and Northwick will take in another 210 pupils.

Whitmore will accommodate a further 105 pupils.

Building work is currently ongoing at certain schools in the county as part of the project.

It has so far allowed for more places to be offered than ever at schools countywide.

Mr Gooding added: “Our continued investment in new school places such as these meant we were able to offer a record percentage of pupils a place at their parents’ preferred primary and secondary schools for this September.

“However, we do recognise that even more places are going to be needed over the coming years.”