EDUCATION bosses are planning to bring in a mobile classroom at a cost of £80,000 to cope with the rising number of pupils at a special school in Bolton.

The number of pupils at Firwood School has risen from 69 to 85 over the last year. The mobile unit will include two classrooms, additional toilet facilities and storage space. Two extra teachers and an education care officer are also to be recruited at the school which is for 11 - 19-year-old pupils with a range of learning difficulties.

Education chiefs did not want to carry out building work at the school in Tonge Moor, as they intend eventually to move the school to the site of Withins School in Newby Road, Breightmet.

But the increase in pupils at the school, as a result of the council's policy of trying to avoid placing pupils outside the borough for special needs education, has meant urgent action is needed.

Work was supposed to begin in 2003 to co-locate Firwood at Withins but so far the plans have not been able to progress, because education bosses have changed their plans for the future of Withins.

Originally education chiefs were going to extend Withins to accommodate Firwood, but now discussions are taking place to re-build Withins as an academy. The co-location would have to be modified if the Academy went ahead.

At present, decisions regarding the possibility of Academy status are expected to be made in the Autumn. Academies are funded by the public and private sector and businesses have an unprecedented hand in the running of the school.

Susan Sollazzi, Manager of Asset Management and Planning wrote in a report: "In these circumstances, the Authority had hoped not to undertake any significant work at the current Firwood School, to conserve capital funding for the new build.

"However, the changing situation at the school has necessitated increased revenue expenditure and relatively minor capital investment."