Reason behind new school hold-up revealed as fresh delay pushes project back

Plans to develop a new secondary school in Preston were held up for a year by a delay in handing back a small plot of land - temporarily acquired for a roadbuilding project - to its original owner, the Lancashire Post can reveal.

- by Paul Faulkner

Lancashire County Council said last October that a site in Higher Bartle would be its preferred location for the long-awaited 600-pupil facility - if it could be acquired soon enough to ensure the school, which has since been put on hold until at least the early 2030s, would be ready for what was then a planned September 2027 opening.

Three missed deadlines for a decision followed over the next 12 months, during which the authority - which was run by the Conservatives until May this year and has since been controlled by Reform UK - repeatedly stressed that the main roadblock to its plans was that it did not yet have control of the site where the school was to be built.

Politicians said that meant the authority was unable to get unfettered access to the land in order to undertake the assessments needed to confirm that the plot was suitable for the education development.

It also prevented the county council from ditching a fallback option of constructing the new establishment on the former site of Tulketh High School, in Ingol, which closed down 17 years ago.

The Higher Bartle plot - known as Maxy Lane Farm, which sits between Sandy Lane and Tabley Lane - was reserved for a secondary school within an estate of 320 houses to be constructed by Taylor Wimpey and Bloor Homes.