Politicians have clashed over the best way to tackle the classroom crisis.

Councillor Debbie Shears, leader of Merton Council’s Conservative group, said the council should have stuck with her party’s original plan for a new school in north Wimbledon - now just one of three options for solving the problem.

She said the latest costings for the three solutions did not take into account the economies of scale that would make a new two form of entry school in Gap Road cheaper to run than a smaller block of classrooms.

She said when her party was in power, before May’s local elections, it had examined the Haydons Road site but felt it was too small to use.

Coun Shears said the Conservatives would back the expansion of existing schools where it was “practical and possible”, but oppose moves to build on green space - and continue to campaign for a new school in Gap Road.

But Labour councillor Jeff Hanna said the opposition’s plans had been “grossly inadequate” as they had not announced how to provide for the bulk of extra children.

He also said: “The Gap Road site proposed by the Conservatives is a highly expensive way of providing additional school places, because the council would first have to buy the land, and then build from nothing.”