The opening of a new 900-pupil capacity high school in Bolton will be delayed by at least a year after ‘delays in the construction process’.

Kings Leadership Academy, a free school, was granted planning permission in February last year to be built close to Freshfield Avenue and the Great Lever and Farnworth golf course.

The school opened in September 2019 and is currently operating at a temporary site at Lever Edge Lane as staff and students await the completion of the new buildings.

Letters sent to nearby residents to the temporary school state that Kings Academy is to submit a planning application for a new building at the site so that they can receive a fourth intake of students in the autumn.

The letter reads: “A planning application is shortly to be submitted to the council to provide additional accommodation for a fourth year intake of pupils.

“The Department for Education is planning to build a new purpose built secondary school in Bolton run by the Great Schools Trust.

“However, due to delays in the construction process and to meet the existing educational need, the temporary school at Lever Edge Lane will be required for a further academic year from September 2022 to July 2023.

“The existing school buildings will be retained on the site for a further 12 months and an additional teaching block is proposed for the fourth year intake of pupils who are due to join the school in September 2022.”

At the time when plans for the school were approved, Bolton Council highlighted the need for additional school places.

Officials said: “The new campus will enable the school to deliver a high quality education which we believe will be the same standard of the best of independent or grammar schools.

“The school is critical to addressing an educational need and forms an integral part of our planning.

“Without the school opening by September 2022 there will be a shortage of around 500 secondary school places in Bolton, this rises to more than 1,000 by 2023.”

The plans to to build the school include ‘modular’ off site construction.

The buildings are to ve pre-engineered, as unit modules are manufactured off site.

They will then be delivered to site and assembled to form a building.