The joint owners of St Gregory's Catholic Primary School have been asked to considering selling up.

Bollington Town Council has contacted the Catholic diocese and Cheshire East Council to see if they will sell the site to a privately funded Special Educational Needs (SEN) provider.

The Albert Road school was shut at the end of 2023, having been a 'cause of concern' for a considerable period due to its declining pupil numbers, inadequate Ofsted rating and three-year deficit budget.

It was then identified as one of three possible locations for a new SEN school, along with Vernon Primary School in Poynton and the old Cheshire East Council headquarters in Sandbach.

However, Cheshire East Council opted to concentrate any new investment in SEN provision on the latter of these sites.

Now, Bollington Town Council are hoping to revive the plans for St Gregory's, which has been deemed 'surplus to requirements'.

Town clerk Ruth Burgess said: "Bollington Town Council have contacted the Catholic diocese and Cheshire East Council to see whether, as the joint owners of the site, they might consider selling the site to a privately funded SEN provider (ideally, a charitable trust).

"Bollington town councillor Jon Weston has produced an outline specification for the conversion of the school and a list of local SEN providers.

advertisement

"Bollington town councillor Nancy Pemberton has also contacted one local charitable trust who had already expressed an interest in acquiring the site for these purposes.

"Obviously, Bollington Town Council does not have the financial resources or the necessary expertise to purchase or to run a SEN school, but we are hoping that by taking this initiative, we might be able to persuade the owners to look again at this option, rather than selling the site for more housing development."