A LONDON school was forced to move its playground to the building’s roof as a result of the Tory ban on new community school sites.

The school in Waltham Forest was forced to relocate its playground to the roof in order to build new classrooms on its only open space. 

The Local Government Association’s (LGA) decision is among desperate measures revealed yesterday taken by schools to find space for local kids. 

Two primary schools in the same London borough have also been forced to take PE lessons at nearby secondary schools. 

Town hall leaders said that 200,000 extra places are needed across England to keep up with a baby boom over the last decade.

But the LGA warned the building ban and the £1 billion funding shortfall will stop councils addressing England’s school places crisis. 

David Simmons, a Tory councillor for Hillingdon Borough, led the call for Education Secretary Nicky Morgan to move away from Michael Gove’s damaging policies. 

The LGA spokesman said: “Councils face a challenge to create places on time and in the right areas, in a climate where they are also short of money to do so.

“Additionally, much of the decision-making about new school places rests in the hands of the government.”

The LGA’s survey of 150 local authorities revealed the lengths leaders have gone to raise cash for more classroom places. 

Ealing Council borrowed £114 million to plug the funding hole — and a third of councils were forced to do the same. 

More than half of the councils abandoned other capital projects, such as school maintenance, to fund new school places. 

The LGA’s warning comes just two weeks after Labour revealed children in six English schools are being packed into classes of over 70.

The National Union of Teachers said the free-schools programme is piling extra pressure on helpless councils. 

General secretary Christine Blower said: “It allows for schools to be set up in areas where there is not the need for additional places at taxpayers’ expense.

“We need to see a return to coherently planned school provision overseen by the local authority.”