Each school in Phase One of the BSF Programme will show their plans to students, parents and the wider community during a 90 minute drop-in session. Members of the community are encouraged to attend as this is their opportunity to help shape plans to improve leisure, sport and adult learning facilities in their local area through this investment into schools.

Ladybridge High and Rumworth Special schools, who will share a site as part of their refurbishment, will kick start the open days on Wednesday, March 3 with a session specifically for the community.

The event starts at 7pm at Ladybridge and will finish at 8.30pm.

Sessions will also follow on Wednesday, March 17 for Ladybridge parents and on Thursday, March 25 for Rumworth parents.

Open sessions, for parents and the community, will be held at Bolton Muslim Girls School on Thursday, March 4; Westhoughton on Tuesday, March 9; Little Lever on Tuesday, March 16; Smithills on Thursday, March 18 and Sharples on Tuesday, March 23.

Each open evening runs from 7pm to 8.30pm and will provide parents and the community the opportunity to find out more and have their say on the ideas put forward by each school.

The open evenings follow a successful BSF design day held recently, which saw the pupils present their ideas to an audience of local authority representatives, other schools from Phase Two and Three and Balfour Beatty Education, the company selected to deliver the BSF Programme in Bolton.

The plans are still being developed and people are encouraged to register their views by March 31 at www.bolton.gov.uk/bsf

RBS

Jackie Pearcey, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Bolton West, has hit out at plans to sell off Royal Bank of Scotland branches – saying that it could result in the removal of banking services for many communities.

“Over the last decade, branch closures of all of the main banks have resulted in many urban communities without local banking facilities,” Pearcey told this website. “The proposal for the Royal bank of Scotland appears to include yet more branch closures.  There are now inner urban communities which have almost no local access to any sort of banking facilities and further branch closures will make it worse.”