Bolton modular school to advance  

The 46,000 sq ft building, to be constructed for Kings Leadership Academy on 16 acres of Green Belt south of Freshfield Avenue, would allow the school to increase its capacity to 900 students from 540.   

Bolton Council has recommended the six-form entry facility for approval, stating that the “very special circumstances put forward by the applicant clearly outweigh the recognised harm [to the Green Belt]”. 

The applicant for the scheme is modular construction firm Elliott Group (OSS Modular), on behalf of the Department of Education.

Kings Leadership Academy, operated by The Great School Trust, was established in 2019 and currently occupies temporary accommodation on the site of the former Hayward Grammar School off Lever Edge Lane, where it will remain until 2022.  

Elliott Group, headquartered in Peterborough, aims to hand over the completed two-storey school in time for the 2022/2023 academic year, subject to planning approval. 

The school would comprise 156 individual modules, built at Elliott Group’s factory in West Yorkshire from March before being delivered to the site between December 2021 and February 2022.

The plans, drawn up by DLA Design, also feature a pair of sports pitches and a 70-space car park. 

DPP UK is the planning consultant for the project.