Council insists "all options are on the table" over location of new Preston secondary school, as two primary facilities in the city expand

It emerged last month that Lancashire County Council had received a mixed response to its suggestion that the 600-pupil facility should be constructed on land currently occupied by the former Tulketh High School in Ingol.

The authority said that it was “considering [its] options” in the wake of an informal consultation into the proposal, which had seen some parents indicate that they would prefer another plot.

However, just four weeks later, County Hall’s Conservative cabinet has agreed to commit the cash needed to clear the Tag Lane site of the crumbling school so that a new one can be built in its place if members ultimately plump for that option.

As well as demolition of the old Tulketh High building - where the bell rang for the last time back in the summer of 2008, by which point it was known as Tulketh Community Sports College - the preparation work will involve moving and securing a gas main and other utilities.

The estimated cost of the clearance has not been made public, pending the appointment of a contractor to carry it out. However, Preston West division representative John Potter - who is aware of the figure as a county councillor - described it at a cabinet meeting last week as “a lot of money”.

The Liberal Democrat politician has previously criticised the proposed location for the new school over the traffic it would generate and said that allocating significant funds to ready the site gave the impression that the county council had “already decided what it wants to do and is not interested in what the public believes is appropriate”.

The risk of that perception was recognised in a cabinet report, which went on to stress that the investment would not be “wasted” because of the need to demolish the derelict building in any case.

Deputy leader - and cabinet member for resources - Alan Vincent said that the site had to be cleared in order to make it “viable” for sale should the new school ultimately be built elsewhere, adding that it was “completely false” to suggest otherwise.

The meeting also heard for the first time details of the outcome of the public consultation into the additional secondary facility - and what people thought of putting pupils back on the Tulketh High site, but in a new building.

Fifty-seven percent of an unpublished number of respondents agreed, while a further 11 percent “tended to agree”. However, even amongst those supportive of the plans, around one in six believed that the intended location was “not ideal”.

Of the 30 percent who disagreed or tended to disagree with the proposal, the suggested site was a factor in the reason for their opposition.

Amid cross-party disquiet over the Tulketh High plan - which has also been opposed by Preston city councillor Trevor Hart, a Tory for the Ingol and Cottam ward - the authority has revealed that it is still not in control of another plot of land, one-and-a-half miles away, which has already been earmarked for a new secondary school.

As the Lancashire Post revealed last year, the proposal to bring the former Tulketh site back to life runs counter to a long-established blueprint for where a high school should be located as part of the expansion of North West Preston.

A 2017 “masterplan” guiding the development of the 5,500 homes coming to the area over the two decades up to the mid-2030s suggested an indicative location for a secondary facility in Higher Bartle.

To that end, in January last year, planning permission for a 320-home estate between Sandy Lane and Tabley Lane was granted on the basis that space for a school was reserved within the development, in order to fulfil a key aim of the masterplan. Under an agreement secured as part of the permission, 4.88 hectares of the site is to be handed over to Lancashire County Council for a “peppercorn fee”.

However, cabinet member for education and skills Jayne Rear told the meeting that the “trigger point” for the transfer of the land had not yet been reached and that she had “no clear idea at this point” when it would be.

Details of the planning obligation, known as a section 106 agreement, are confidential between the developers of the site - Bloor Homes and Taylor Wimpey - and Preston City Council, as the local planning authority. But it could be that a certain number of properties have to be completed or occupied before the handover occurs.

The county council has previously stressed the need for the new secondary to be open by September 2025, because of demand for places driven by housing growth in the area and a previous boom in Preston's primary-aged population which is now on the cusp of post-11 education.

County Cllr Rear said that the consultation had enabled the authority to “understand the views of parents and the community” – and that the results were still being considered.

She added: “I am committed to providing more high quality school places in Preston. Until the planning system can work to bring the allocated site forward for consideration, I am keeping all options on the table.

"The number of school places in Preston continues to grow. We continue to engage with existing schools and to progress the development of plans to deliver new places through the expansion of [those] schools, where sites permit - as well as the establishment of new schools.”

No details have yet been given about the outcome of a concurrent informal consultation into a new primary school which the county council has proposed for land off Tom Benson Way, behind the Ancient Oak pub.

This, too, would be in a different location to either of those suggested for the two primary facilities deemed necessary by the masterplan, which posited potential sites just south of the M55 and north of Hoyles Lane. It also fails to take advantage of space for a primary school which was carved out of an estate of 200 homes to the north of Tabley Lane when permission for that development was granted in November 2020.

Speaking after the cabinet meeting, Cllr Hart - who has previously told the Post that the new primary and secondary establishments should be in close proximity to the new homes they would be serving in the masterplan area - said that the process of delivering new schools was “incredibly slow and frustrating”.

Formal consultations would need to follow before a final decision about building any new school in the area could be taken.

Meanwhile, cabinet members approved the funding needed for a temporary expansion of Cottam Primary School to provide an extra 30 places this September. A consultation is currently being carried out to determine whether the Haydocks Lane school should permanently become a two-form entry facility 12 months later. The work will involve alterations to an external play area and canopy, as well as the “internal remodelling” of the building.

Similar work was given the green light at Broughton-in-Amounderness Church of England Primary School, on Garstang Road, to allow that facility to provide a one-off additional 25 places during the next academic year.

Elsewhere in Lancashire, extra funding – required as a result of inflation – was also approved for the 241-place expansion of Colne Primet Academy which was agreed in September 2021 and requires a new block containing 15 classrooms and larger dining facilities, as well as internal remodelling and special educational needs provision.

For the same reason of increased costs, an unspecified amount of additional cash was allocated for the expansion of St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic High School in Billington, which will generate 141 additional places. That project involves the creation of a new building comprising six classrooms, a departmental office, stores, toilets and special educational needs classrooms with a “life skills space”.