TOWN hall bosses have taken a further formal step towards re-locating Queensbridge School to a new site in Farnworth.

Bolton Council has not received any objections to a proposal to move the school to open land in St Germain Street and, at an executive meeting, town hall chiefs decided to press ahead with the plans.

Bridgewater Nursery and Queen Street Primary School amalgamated to form Queensbridge School last summer following a primary school review. Despite the amalgamation, pupils are still being taught in their respective buildings. The new building would bring the pupils together onto one site.

Headteacher Sheila Holland said: "It is going to be a long while yet before the building is completed -- we think it will be finished in 2004."

Funding for the new building has already been approved by Government education chiefs. Designs are well advanced and a contractor has been appointed. The building design will be based on the same plan as The Gates Primary School, Westhoughton, which has just been completed and will be officially opened later this month.

The Gates, off Manchester Road, is one of the first schools in the country to be designed to cater fully for disabled children