Middleton primary schools amalgamation plan ratified

Rochdale Council Cabinet has ratified plans to merge two Middleton schools: Furrow Community Primary and Langley Primary are to amalgamate to form the new Bowlee Park Community Primary school - cutting hundreds of excess primary school places.

The Labour controlled Middleton Township wants the new school, on the site of the existing Furrow Community Primary, be a three-form entry school admitting 630 pupils arguing a three-form entry school was needed or else regeneration plans could be threatened as families would be put off the area, however, the Lib Dem controlled Councill Cabinet decided on a  wo-form school admitting 420 pupils.

West ward councillor Terry Linden said he was incredibly disappointed the cabinet had supported the two-form plan.

He said: "The decision not to give us a three-form school is stupid. This is all about filling empty school places across Middleton and the regeneration of Langley and its sustainability will suffer.

"People are not going to sign up their children for a new school if they know they won't be able to get their other children in - its casting a shadow over the new school before it’s even opened.

"Rochdale Council is giving millions of pounds of land on the estate, at no cost, to help the Langley partnership, of which the council is a member, to build new homes - without providing enough community school provision.

"If this was not our authority we would all be having a good laugh."

Terry Piggott, Rochdale Council Executive Director for Children and Young People's Services, said the council education department uses a specific formula to provide primary school places - which showed a two-form entry would provide sufficient cover.