PLANS to open a new high school in Radcliffe took “great strides” forward this week as political leaders met to discuss future options.

Bury South MP Ivan Lewis and Bury Council leader, councillor Rishi Shori, held talks on Tuesday with the Education Minister, Lord Agnew, to explore a series of proposals.

The town has been without secondary school provision since Radcliffe Riverside closed in 2014, and more than 1,700 high school age children that live in Radcliffe are currently educated outside the town.

Mr Lewis, who has been lobbying extensively for such a meeting, described the talks as “entirely positive”.

He added: “They set out the potential options available to deliver a new school and made the clear commitment to support myself and the council in developing any future bid.

“Radcliffe has been left without a secondary school for too long, with children having to travel too far for their education, but I feel we have made great strides today towards changing that.”

The school plans propose to create 600 secondary and 210 primary school places, which could be expanded to 1,050 and 420 places respectively in the future to meet growing demand.

Cllr Shori, who represents Radcliffe West, confirmed that a location for the school had been identified at the former Riverside High School site, and said that Bury Council had committed to fund the initial set up costs.

He also noted that Lord Agnew was “clearly impressed” by Radcliffe regeneration plans and described that meeting as a “success”.

Cllr Shori said: “The next steps are to create a business case to support the development of the school and find a partner to run it.

“I have instructed Council Officers to begin discussions with the Regional Schools Commissioner and with the support promised by the Department for Education we should be able to move things along at pace.”

Attempts had previously been made to bid for a free school in Radcliffe in conjunction with the Chapel Street Community Schools Trust. However this was unsuccessful.

At present 15.5 per cent of high school age children in Bury schools live in Radcliffe.

Of these children, 36 per cent currently travel further than 2.5 miles to attend a high school outside the town ­­— compared to 18 per cent of pupils in other areas of the borough.

However 79 per cent of primary school age children attend a school in Radcliffe.

Historically, significant numbers of pupils from outside the borough, resident in neighbouring local authority areas, have secured places at Bury high schools. But this trend is reversed for Radcliffe residents, with 18 per cent of pupils travelling outside Bury.

Political leaders say that the proposed new school for Radcliffe will further help to meet increasing school place demand from population growth and the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework proposals.

This is particularly pertinent as a disproportionate number of brown field sites in the town have extant planning permission, compared to the wider borough, and the GMSF proposes substantial housebuilding in Radcliffe, leaders say.