THE failed Bolton Wanderers Free School is half-a-million pounds in the red.

Figures seen by The Bolton News show that the school owes £495,000 to the Education Funding Agency, a debt which the Government said it is trying to "minimise".

The free school — which was marked inadequate by Ofsted — announced this week that it was shutting in August after failing to recruit enough students, leaving it "financially unviable".

The school, which was set up just three years ago, currently has 95 students on its books, fewer than half of the 200 recommended in its first year.

Figures released by the Education Funding Agency showed that it was in the process of "clawing back" £566,207 after pupil numbers were lower than expected.

Funding agreements are based on estimated pupil numbers and the Education Funding Agency calculates adjustments to bring the funding in line with the actual pupil numbers on roll, known as the Pupil Number Adjustment (PNA).

The EFA recovers funding in instalments from the following academic year's grant allocation. The PNA for this academic year will be released to schools in spring.

The school has paid back £70,776 of the £566,207.

A letter from the Education Funding Agency shows that the trust running the school was "not in position to repay their 2015/16 PNA by August 31" and extended the payment deadline to August 31, 2018.

A spokesman for the department for education said: "We are working with the trust to ensure all outstanding liabilities, including PNA repayments, are minimised."

Toni Carr, principal, said that students in Year 13 would complete their courses in the summer term and Year 12 students would be moved to other colleges.

Following the Ofsted report, Zubair Hanslot, provost of the University of Bolton, was brought in as the new chairman of governors to help turn it around.

A University of Bolton spokesman said: "The Bolton Wanderers Free School is an independent free school established by the Eddie Davis Educational Trust.

"The university has offered assistance to the school since it became apparent that it was in difficulty.

"Sadly, such was the situation at the school that we have been unable to rectify matters, hence its closure."

Bolton Wanderers Free School was the first free 16-19 provision to open in Bolton under the Government's flagship free school programme.

It opened inside the Macron in September, 2014, with the plan to move into a purpose-built development with room for 400 students

Tom Hanley, from Bolton Trade Union Congress, which has strongly campaigned against the opening of state-funded independent schools, said: “The TUC position’s is exactly the same as the position of teaching unions and Unison which was free schools were a suspect experiment initially.

"This is an example of a free school being established for which there was no particular demand in the area.

“The idea of a state school being established and not being sustainable for several generations is unprecedented.

“In this world of free schools, there should not be a penalty to the tax payer if it closes.”