Consultation on the new Edgar Wood Academy at Birch / Bowlee in Middleton.

Overview

Rochdale Borough Council is now undertaking pre-application consultation in relation to an outline planning application that will shortly be submitted for a new secondary school. Proposals have been developed for the selected site following public engagement and the site was approved by the Council's Cabinet in 2018.

The site is located to the south of Whittle Brook and north of the Bowlee Playing Fields, and is on current grazing land.  The land is accessed off Heywood Old Road at Birch where it is proposed that a new access junction will be created.

Why your views matter

The Council is consulting at the pre-application stage before submitting an outline planning application for a new secondary phase school, for 11 – 16 year olds, at Birch / Bowlee in Middleton. The proposed school name is the Edgar Wood Academy and it will be run by the Altus Education Partnership who run Rochdale Sixth Form College.

The total capacity of the school will be 900 places and the school will take 180 pupils per intake year group. The Department for Education will deliver the new school and the year of opening is currently not agreed.

It is the Council’s intention to formally submit the outline planning application shortly after the consultation is completed.  Once the outline planning application has been submitted, in August you will be able to view the application documentation and formally comment to the Local Planning Authority here:

http://publicaccess.rochdale.gov.uk/online-applications/

If the outline planning application is approved, the Department for Education will develop detailed proposals for the scheme, which will confirm the site layout, parking provision, appearance of the building, and sports provision.  These detailed proposals will be the subject of a further planning application in due course and there will be a further opportunity to comment on these in the future.