BOLTON TUC is shocked by the proposed closure of Bolton Wanderers Free School after only three years .

We are shocked that students are having their education disrupted at a crucial time in their development; we are shocked that staff are now to be made redundant through no fault of their own, but most of all we are shocked that a school can be established with public money which clearly was neither needed by the community nor able to fulfil its basic promise to provide a quality education.

There was no demand for the school, which has claimed funding for pupils it has failed to recruit.

Parents and students will struggle to understand the probable loss of £500k of tax payers' money as the school fails to pay back what it has already spent on this failed vanity project. This will be especially difficult as education budgets are under greater pressure than ever, and successful schools are being forced to contemplate redundancies with no money to pay staff.

Bolton people should ask themselves if they can remember any local authority school being established that didn't last for generations, becoming a key part of the community it served. Contrast this with the cascade of Free Schools which are starting up and closing seemingly in the blink of an eye. University Technical Schools in the north west have been particularly short-lived.

The commodification of education through Academies and Free Schools has brought chaos to rationally planned school provision across towns and cities; it has brought disruption to the schooling of too many young people; and taken millions of pounds out of an education system already struggling to provide ever better education tomorrow than it does today with already overstretched budgets.

Bolton TUC, on behalf of all Bolton parents, teachers and students, asks William Morris, Brett Warburton, Richard Hurst (senior members on the governing body), and their advisors from the University of Bolton (especially governor George Holmes, Vice Chancellor) two questions: On what basis did they consider the school viable and how will they repay the half a million pound debt amassed?

There is a more fundamental question too: what checks did the government make before giving the go-ahead and generous funding to Bolton Wanderers Free School?

Education must be returned to democratic local authority control. It is too important to be left to market forces and "inspirational" leaders .

Tom Hanley

Bolton TUC