Green light for £6.5m primary school in park

3:02pm Wednesday 24th October 2012 in Local

A £6.5 MILLION scheme to build a new primary school has been given the go-ahead.

Clarendon Primary School in Clarendon Street, Great Lever, will move 250 yards from its current site to a new building in Heywood Park.

Bolton Council bosses have been working on the project since 2008 and now planning chiefs have given it the green light.

Cllr Cliff Morris, leader of Bolton Council, said: “This has been a long time coming and I am very proud of this project.

“I would like to congratulate all those who have worked on it and got it to this stage. When this building is complete, it will be an asset the whole town can be proud of.”

Great Lever councillor Mohammed Ayub added: “It is a real shame we cannot preserve the Clarendon building, but it is not in the best of states. With this new facility, we will be the luckiest ward in Bolton.”

Before making the application, education chiefs held consultations with residents who live by the park and sports groups who use it.

They will spend £400,000 converting the park’s artificial grass pitch into a stateof- the-art mini-football facility that can be used by pupils and the public at different times of the day.

A multi-use games area will be provided and, while crown green bowlers will lose one of two greens, they will get a new hut.

But a resident who lives in Bridgeman Street and asked not to be named, said: “There is a road safety and traffic element that hasn’t been considered.

“The school is likely to have a severe impact on the residents of several properties as well as schoolchildren, with cars being parked by parents going to and from school.”

In a report, council chiefs said 60 parking spaces and three drop-off points will ensure there would be no problems.

The school, which will also have a 39-place nursery, is set to open at Easter, 2014, and will have 420 pupils, compared with 208 now at Clarendon, and 39 extra staff.

Comments (1)

11:28am Fri 26 Oct 12

Xbolton says...

This school will not be built before time. It is needed! The council, especially Cllr. Cliff Morris, needs to be asked about all the wasted money spent up until now on the school. Architects fees for a building that never saw the light of day, and other large expenditure. Originally, the school was to be a flagship school, not only in the authority, but possibly in the country. Not now!. A huge waste of time, energy and money.
This school will not be built before time. It is needed! The council, especially Cllr. Cliff Morris, needs to be asked about all the wasted money spent up until now on the school. Architects fees for a building that never saw the light of day, and other large expenditure. Originally, the school was to be a flagship school, not only in the authority, but possibly in the country. Not now!. A huge waste of time, energy and money. Xbolton

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