Urban Splash seeks support for Ancoats school
Manchester Grammar School and the developer Urban Splash are holding an event to promote their proposed primary school in east Manchester.
They are working on a bid to bring a new, free school to the New Islington area of Ancoats but for the scheme to progress they must get expressions of interest from people living in the area.
Information about the plans will be available at Ancoats Health Centre, Old Mill Street on Wednesday, 25 January from 3pm-8pm.
Dr Christopher Ray, high master at MGS, said: "We are in the final stages of preparing our bid for this school now and a final show of support from parents and supporters in the local area will be crucial to a successful outcome.
"As one of the oldest schools in Manchester and the North West, we are relishing the opportunity to establish a new school for a new millennium community. We have worked closely with local state primary schools for many years and, whilst continuing this important work, we are now ready to provide focused educational support for a new state primary school in an area of need and development."
Richard Hattan of Urban Splash: "We want more people to know about our plans and to understand how they can support the school. It is crucial that the local community see the benefits that this could bring and how fantastic it would be to add to the regeneration efforts of the local area with a school guided by the unrivalled academic expertise of MGS. We look forward to meeting more people from the local area on the day."
The proposal is part of the government's free school plan where successful applicants get money for a building and annual funding.
let’s hope that their schools don’t leak as much as their apartments do…
By Gene Kelly
U/S seem to have found yet another way to finance their projects. In the interests of financial husbandry of public money I do hope that if they receive the grant to build the school they will not be able to then sell it back to the community thus incurring a double charge on the public purse. Furthermore were there not functioning schools in the area prior to the wholesale regeneration/demolition took place 6 or so years ago? What happened to them and the kids that attended them. The fact that you now have a large neighbourhood with no school goes to show how badly planned many regeneration schemes were.
By don draper