Three Plymouth primary schools will take on extra pupils in september to help tackle a shortage of places.

City councillors have agreed to ask Montpelier, St Mary's and Victoria Road to admit 30 extra children - it's thought around 2500 extra places will be needed by 2018.

At yesterday's cabinet meeting, ambitious plans to build thousands of new homes in Plymouth over the next five years were also approved.

And cabinet members have agreed to start looking for a contractor for a new glass recycling service, which could be up and running by 2014.

But it's not yet clear whether this will involve a new recycling plant being built or whether this will be managed at an existing facility.

A three million pound investment in new software and ICT facilities was also approved by cabinet and will now need to be given the go ahead by full council.

The local authority has said ultimately it will make them more efficient, by reducing the number of software applications from more than 200 to one.