£12m boost for deprived area

The Castle Hill Community Learning Resource Centre, in Tonge Moor, includes Bolton's first privately-financed school, a library, youth club and football pitch.

Contracts have just been signed for the project, on Castle Hill Street, and the ground-breaking will take place tomorrow.

Glasgow-based developers Melville Dundas will pay for the building and Bolton Council will buy it back over 25 years.

The new Castle Hill Primary School will be built first and is earmarked to open in June next year.

The current 1930s school building will then be knocked down and replaced with a playing field and a 268-space car park.

Behind the new one-storey school house will be a two-storey hall and youth club.

Next to that will be a three-storey building which will accommodate the library, offices and training facilities.

In total, the building will have 23 occupiers from sport to health organisations.

And there will be an 'open all hours' policy to maximise use so that as many members of the community as possible will be able to take advantage of the new facilities.

Council leader Bob Howarth said it is a high quality scheme which the council would not have had the resources to develop on its own and he hoped everyone in the area would reap the benefits.

He added: "The development will include a wide mix of facilities catering for all ages in the local community from young people to those who are retired."

Ken Macara, director of Melville Dundas, said the development would have a big impact on the area.

"We are both -- quite literally -- breaking new ground here. This is our first link with Bolton Council and the council's first experience of a PFI.

"It's a very exciting project and one which will be putting a lot into the local community both in the short and long term."

The scheme will also involve the creation of an extra set of traffic lights along Tonge Moor Road at the junction with Castleton Street.