Consultation starts on long-awaited Radcliffe high school
Star Academies hopes to welcome students to the facility off Spring Lane in summer 2025.
The education provider, in partnership with the Department for Education, has launched a consultation on its designs for Star Radcliffe Academy. The consultation can be viewed at consultations.tetratecheurope.com and will run until 29 August.
Proposals would provide the town with 750 school places for pupils aged 11-16, 10 years after the closure of Radcliffe Riverside School in 2014.
Plans also include the delivery of two outdoor all-weather sports pitches, as well as a multi-use games area, to also be used by the community outside of school hours.
There would be 97 car parking spaces provided, including six accessible and 12 electric vehicle charging bays.
Star Academies is working in partnership with the Department for Education. Credit: via consultation documents
The building would be constructed on the site of the town’s current leisure centre, which will see its facilities relocated to the future £40m civic hub in Radcliffe town centre.
The site is also occupied by the Spring Lane School pupil referral unit, which is set to be relocated to Spurr House off Pole Lane in Unsworth.
Star Academies expects to welcome an initial cohort of 150 year seven students next September to be taught in temporary buildings, before the opening of the permanent school in summer 2025.
The school will be built on the site of the town’s leisure centre. Credit: via consultation documents
Plans form part of Radcliffe’s wider town centre regeneration.
A Bury Council spokesperson said: “Plans for the school are advancing and a planning application has been submitted to enable provision of temporary accommodation, which would allow the school to open to its first cohort of Year 7 students in September 2024.
“Later this year a further planning application will be submitted for the permanent school building and associated outdoor and recreational spaces”, they continued.
“Alongside this, Star Academies will be consulting the community on admission arrangements that will apply to the new school, and parents will be able to apply for places early in the autumn term.”
The project team includes Tetra Tech and Ares Landscape Architects.
A quick look at the PDFs on the consultation site show that this application is dominated by motoring. A drop-off area inside the grounds enables more driving, when children should be walking or wheeling to school. And the longer-term plan shows an access road, but no separate provision for people walking and cycling. This guarantees conflict between motorists and vulnerable road users and should be changed. Children should not be forced to mix with motorists on school grounds – it is dangerous.
By Former radcliffe resident