LIVERPOOL has been told to scrap plans for 26 schools to be rebuilt or completely modernised under Building Schools for the Future.
Only two planned academies, the £23m De La Salle project due to open in Croxteth in 2011 and the £25m new Enterprise South Liverpool Academy in Garston, due to open this year, have survived with the government to discuss these projects further.
Axed projects listed by the government are: Archbishop Beck Catholic Sports College, Walton; Abbotts Lea school, Woolton; Archbishop Blanch, city centre; Ashfield school, Woolton; Bellerive Catholic College, Sefton Park; Bluecoat, Wavertree; Broadgreen International; Calderstones; Childwall Sports College; Clifford Holroyde, Knotty Ash; Fazakerley High School; Holly Lodge Girls’ College, West Derby; Mill Road pupil referral unit (PRU), Everton; Notre Dame Catholic College, Everton Valley; Palmerston Special School, Woolton; Parklands High School, Speke; Redbridge High School, Fazakerley; Sandfield Park PRU; Shorefields Technology College, Dingle; St Edwards College, Sandfield Park; St Francis Xavier, Woolton; St Hilda’s, Sefton Park; St John Bosco, Croxteth; St Julie’s, Woolton; St Margaret’s, Aigburth.
The first two schools that had been set to be transformed were Archbishop Beck, in Walton, and St John Bosco Arts College for Girls, Croxteth, both due to open in 2013.
Before yesterday’s axe, Archbishop Beck was due to have a new £25m building on land occupied by a council depot in Long Lane, Aintree.
Features were to include two sports halls and traditional gymnasium which could be combined to create a theatre seating 1,000 as well as a sports venue to have included an Olympic-standard basketball arena.
Archbishop Beck’s headteacher Paul Dickinson said: “I am devastated, we have literally put in thousands of hours worth of work into this.”
Opening the same year in a £20m scheme as part of efforts to boost community cohesion in Croxteth and Norris Green, St John Bosco would have been partially rebuilt with planned facilities including an 800-seater theatre.
