It has been well over a year since the brakes were put on plans for a new secondary school in Littleborough – and things still haven’t changed.

Star Lakeside Academy was first mooted in 2019, but has seen a string of delays and ‘pauses’ with a tumultuous period in national politics being the source of problems. The new secondary school in Bowlee was proposed at the same time, but unlike Star Lakeside Academy it opened in 2021.

The Department for Education (DfE) was supposed to provide an update in Spring 2025, but still they remain tight-lipped about their decision. DfE has not provided a comment when requested, but the Local Democracy Reporting Service understands authorities will be updated soon.

The school proposed for the playing fields behind Littleborough Community Primary School faced significant challenges linked to cost and access, causing delays. This was further complicated when between July and October 2022 a total of five different Conservative MPs held the role of Secretary of State for Education.

The last of these before the general election, Gillian Keegan, made the decision to ‘pause’ certain building programmes to assess their viability, one of which was in Littleborough. By November 2023, with the review completed, Rochdale Council were informed that the scheme had been ‘unpaused’, but the subsequent general election meant that once again there is confusion as to the status of the much needed new school.

Littleborough’s demand for secondary school places is still as high as ever, begging the question why things still haven’t progressed.

In the Pennines township, which incorporates Littleborough, there were 584 pupils in Primary year 6 this May (2025) and 510 places available in Pennines schools this September, according to council papers. This means 14 per cent of families needed to be offered places outside of the Pennines.

The same documents highlighted that across Rochdale there were 1,444 Primary year 6 pupils this May, with 1,290 places offered in the area and a total of 1,193 children currently registered as being on roll. This means there are still 97 spare places in Rochdale Township schools and no spaces in Pennines schools.

Council papers read: “The Pennines and Rochdale combined forecast (above) for Year 7 shows there is a shortage of places predicted for 2027 (33 places needed), and for 2028 (6 places needed), with cohort sizes then reducing to 2031 before rising again.”

Rochdale’s MP Paul Waugh wrote to Minister for School Standards in autumn 2024 to request a meeting to unblock delays in building extra school provision.

In his letter, Mr Waugh pointed out that the lack of places for children going from primary school into Year 7 has now ‘become unmanageable’. Mr Waugh added that the current situation ‘leaves young children having to be sent out of the borough on two buses and commutes of an hour each way’, in some cases, being split up from their family members.