Funding race as new Wirral university academy site chosen

Dec 29 2009 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

WIRRAL Council has selected the site of a Birkenhead school for its planned new academy.

The authority is now working “flat out” to submit the proposals before the end of the year in a bid to meet funding deadlines.

Councillors had been considering two possible locations for The University Academy, which will replace two secondary schools.

It will be sponsored by the Universities of Chester and Liverpool, along with Wirral Met College and Birkenhead Sixth Form College and Wirral Council.

Cabinet member for education, Cllr Phil Davies, said they had decided to locate the new academy at the site of Park High School, one of those schools it will replace.

Rock Ferry High School will be closed, and it is hoped that, if all goes well, the new school will be open in September, 2010.

Cllr Davies said the decision on the location had been in part pragmatic, given the tight deadlines they face in getting funding for the academy approved. He said the alternative location at Borough Road, in Birkenhead, had met with opposition from a local residents’ group and others had been “lukewarm” about the site.