BOLTON'S battle to remove surplus places in local schools has been welcomed by the Government. Schools Minister Charles Clarke has praised authorities who have stepped in to tackle the problem and threatened to take action against those without an action plan. Figures released today show Bolton has 1,574 empty primary desks with seven schools over one quarter empty.

Two secondary schools have over 25pc spare capacity but plans for Woodside school to take over part of the Deane and a bulge in older pupil numbers should take away many of the 1021 empty desks.

The main problem is the primary sector where there are six per cent more desks than pupils. The figure for Bury is four per cent.

But many nearby authorities have a much bigger problem and Wigan the figure is 13pc, Manchester 18pc and Salford 14pc.

Nationally there has been a reduction in surplus places over the past year but Mr Clarke warned councils to target schools over one quarter empty.

He added: "Empty school places represent a poor use of resources, especially where those schools with high levels of surplus are also performing poorly or where parental preference is not being met as the authority as a whole.

Planning

"When planning school provision, authorities should initially focus on those schools with a quarter or more of their places unfilled, having particular regard to standards at those schools.

"The Department recognises that authorities will want to take into account any unusual circumstances, for example geography and social make-up".

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