AFTER years of row and upset over the shortage of secondary school places in the Ribble Valley, a compromise solution is on the cards -- now that the County Council signals a move that promises some 250 more.

It is not clear whether this step -- entailing a new school, but not an extra one -- will satisfy either protesting parents or even the overcrowding situation itself if pressure for places continues to grow in the years ahead.

But there are some realities that must be addressed as county education chiefs now look to replacing Bowland High in Grindleton with a 600-pupil school -- almost double the present intake -- on a bigger site east of Clitheroe.

Among them is the virtual impossibility, stressed today by education chairman Hazel Harding, of Lancashire getting the funding for the completely-new additional school that campaigners have been calling for.

But if this circumstance is to be accepted, it must be because there is no foreseeable need for a totally-new school in addition to the existing Bowland and Ribblesdale high schools and Clitheroe Royal Grammar rather than a resources squeeze limiting the scope of the solution -- otherwise today's problem may only recur in future.

In short, are the 250 more places now promised in two years' time enough -- for the years beyond?

Mrs Harding suggests that, according to the projected numbers of children in the Ribble Valley, they will be sufficient. But, surely, additional steps should be made to ensure that they are enough.

For while the present plan faces difficulties in an ideal site being found for the enlarged and relocated Bowland High, its viability, surely, needs to be reinforced by stronger constraints on housing development in the Ribble Valley. After all, is not the lack of foresight in this regard the cause of the whole problem -- that of allowing a housing boom to take place while failing to plan for its effect on demand for school places?

Let's not repeat that mistake.