A HIGH school is showing off the progress of its multi-million pound expansion.

Construction of Westhoughton High's new building is progressing, according to the school.

The application to build the state of the art block was approved in December of last year, with building commencing this year on a field to the back of the school.

The skeleton of the building is now in place, with scaffolding being raised to the planned full two-storey height.

The brand new classroom block being built will accommodate an additional 200 pupils over the next four years. A total of £2.4 million is being spent on expanding the school but because of demand for school places, Westhoughton High School has already started to admit higher pupil numbers.

Concerns have been raised that, despite the expansion of the school, there still will not be enough capacity to cope with all of the children in Westhoughton.

Town mayor and Westhoughton councillor David Wilkinson, who is a former student of the high school, said: "The expansion is definitely needed — the number of kids in Westhoughton is growing. We've had quite a bit of house building in Westhoughton to put it mildly, and that brings more children. There are people who are starting families and bringing families to Westhoughton.

"If things carry on at this rate, how will we cope with the increase? Eventually there will not be any more room for expansions and there will be no land to put another school on."

When the £2.4 million bid was approved by Bolton Council, fellow Westhoughton councillor Anna-Marie Watters said: "The extra spaces created by this extension will only meet our current need for desperately needed school places."

Starting from this academic year, each Year 7 intake will have an extra forty children. Other schools which have been expanded to meet demand include Turton School in Bromley Cross and Canon Slade in Bradshaw.