n EDUCATION bosses in Bury are considering plans to replace the eleven-plus examination in the next two years.

Bury Education Committee approved plans to replace the selection system in time for the 1970-71 school at a meeting on Monday.

However it was agreed to keep the current verbal reasoning and head teacher’s assessment-based exams for next year.

The decision follows a Bury Headmasters Association resolution calling for an “immediate abolition” of eleven-plus selection.

But the suggestion was ruled to be impracticable “having regard to the present organisation of secondary education with the authority’s area” by Bury’s Selection Panel of headteachers ­— the body which recommends school selection methods.

n IN other education news Bury Education Committee has agreed to later start times for the town’s junior and infant schools this winter so that pupils will not have to travel to school in the dark.

If approved by the town council schools will be able to set back class times to 9.15am during the darked months of December, January and February.

n WORK on Angouleme Way, Bury’s new town centre road, is expected to get underway in the next six weeks, engineers say.

Demolition gangs are already busy clearing property in the path of the proposed second phase, including on the former coach builder’s works of Wilson and Stockall where the new carriageway will link up with a roundabout in Rochdale Road.

The first section of Angouleme Way, named after Bury’s French twin town, which runs from Market Street to Princess Street, was opened in July and cost £220,000.

Workmen are still undertaking ancillary work on this first phase, such as laying pavements and putting the finishing touches to subways and barrier rails.

Completion of the road will be a major boost to Bury’s transition from cobblestones to carriageways which has received many setbacks over the years.

n A 40-strong party of people has spent a week in the eastern French wine-growing region of Burgundy on a trip organised by Bury wine firm the Corkscrew Company.

During the trip, centred on Dijon, the group visited various vineyards and tourist attractions, including a 14th century hospital.