Fears are mounting over the future of children’s education in the borough after another failed funding bid for a new secondary school.

The government released a list of 42 schools prioritised for cash under the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP), but the proposed school for the North Kingston Centre site, currently an adult education centre, was not one of them.

Kingston Council had been relying on the money to finance the eight form entry school, which is due to open in September 2015 to help address the shortage of school places in the borough.

Kingston’s executive member for education, councillor Liz Green said the government "unfairly" changed the funding criteria and demographic needs were not considered when allocating the money.

She said: "It’s a bit of a shock. We could have been told several months ago. To say we were disappointed is an understatement."

The announcement leaves the already stretched local authority needing to find an alternative way of raising the £30m for the new school.

It is expected that works will need to start in September 2013 for the school to open on time.

Tory Councillor Andrea Craig said the news was "hugely disappointing" and said she was fighting to get the council to "think outside the box" for alternative funding options.

She said: "The frustration for me having been a parent wanting this school for a very long time is that basically the council has failed to plan for the future, that’s the reality."

Coun Craig described the shortage of school places across the borough as a "deepening crisis" and warned that the situation would only worsen unless planning was improved.

She said: "We have got to start using our brains and to protect the community. We are the nappy valley of Surrey and we are not building with the forethought and sight of what we will need."

Both Coun Green and Craig said they were still confident a new school would be ready by September 2015.

Director of education at the council, Duncan Clark, said other routes for providing the secondary school places were being explored and the council would continue to lobby central government on the issue.

He said one option could be a free school, for which there is separate funding available.

He said: "The council remains open-minded to all options and would especially support a proposal that would increase the capacity of non-selective, co-ed places in the borough that were open to all resident children."

PSBP uses private finance to rebuild the most dilapidated schools in the country and was set up to replace the Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF).

Education Secretary Michael Gove cancelled the BSF scheme in 2010 leaving schools across the country, including Kingston, in the lurch.