Parents in Bristol are still waiting for information about a planned new school eight days before the deadline for applying for primary places.

Bristol City Council wants to provide 30 reception places at a site close to City of Bristol College at Ashley Down and Gloucestershire County Cricket Club to meet heavy demand in the area but has not yet finalised arrangements.

More than two weeks ago, after the Bristol Evening Post revealed the scale of uncertainty for families looking for schools for their four-year-olds for next September, the council pledged to give parents information "in good time before the closing date of October 23".

It stated: "The city council is confident that the new facilities will be built and that effective arrangements will be made to run them."

At a meeting on Monday, Clare Campion-Smith, the member of the ruling Lib Dem cabinet responsible for schools, told fellow councillors she remained optimistic the new classrooms would be ready on time.

"There are discussions going on but I cannot jeopardise them by being too specific. We will be giving people information as soon as we are certain about it," she said.

But as of last night, no statement had been issued either on the council's main website or the page for school admissions.

A planning application for a 210-place school on a site known as the Brunel field will be heard on Wednesday, October 21. Officials are recommending approval, in spite of 25 objections.

If approved, the Bristol Local Education Partnership will start building at the end of the year.

The council does not have time to create a standalone school for next September so it needs the new reception class to be run as an annexe to another school. The new school would eventually to be managed in federation with a neighbouring infant or primary school.

The Post understands that governors at schools nearby have been holding emergency meetings to decide if they can help meet the need for additional places.

The council had hoped Bishop Road Primary in Bishopston would run the Brunel field facility but its governors refused after the authority published an advice booklet saying this would be the case, when it had not been agreed.

The Bishopston situation is part of a wider problem across many parts of north, central and east Bristol, where there are not enough primary school places for children living there.

Last year, several schools had to take extra pupils in temporary classrooms at short notice and many have been asked to do the same for 2010. An independent review is looking into how and why the council failed to anticipate the crisis last year, which meant hundreds of families were not offered a school place in March.