100 signatures reached
To: Cllr Stephen Atkinson, Leader of Lancashire County Council, and Cllr Matthew Salter, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, Lancashire County Council
Build the secondary school North West Preston was promised
Lancashire County Council must bring a costed, dated project plan for the North West Preston secondary school to Cabinet before the end of 2026, and confirm the site at Maxy Lane Farm remains safeguarded and the £3.8m developer funding remains committed to it.
Why is this important?
In 2017, Lancashire County Council and Preston City Council approved a masterplan for 5,322 new homes in North West Preston, on the promise of a new secondary school alongside them.
Nine years on, the homes are here. The school is not.
There is still no secondary school anywhere in Cottam, Lea, Ingol or Bartle. Children travel across the city or out of Preston altogether, some families paying up to £950 a year in bus fares. Last October the council delayed the school again, to 2031 at the earliest, citing insufficient demand.
But the council’s own documents say otherwise. In August 2026, responding to a Freedom of Information request, it confirmed in writing that the surplus of places it reports to government is based on “total physical capacity”, and that “when we look at PAN, which reflects the actual number of places offered, there is a shortfall in every year.” Its own forecasts show Year 7 exceeding the number of places available in every year to 2031.
In September 2025, the council’s own school planning team told a Planning Inspector that Preston needs 9.5 forms of entry and that “the scale of demand cannot be addressed by expansion of existing schools.” One month later, Cabinet chose expansion instead of building.
The council holds no document reconciling that shortfall with the surplus it reported to government, and no assessment of the funding risk from the delay. Both answers came only after the council admitted breaching the Freedom of Information Act.
The land is already set aside, 14.5 acres at Maxy Lane Farm, Higher Bartle, between Sandy Lane and Tabley Lane, and £3.8 million has been secured from developers.
Lancashire County Council will itself be abolished in April 2028. Its own report says a new school takes at least three years to build. Unless this is progressed now, the site, the money and the unfinished work pass to a new authority under no obligation to deliver any of it.
We are not asking for anything new. We are asking for what was promised when the homes were approved.
Every figure here comes from the councils’ own published documents.
Nine years on, the homes are here. The school is not.
There is still no secondary school anywhere in Cottam, Lea, Ingol or Bartle. Children travel across the city or out of Preston altogether, some families paying up to £950 a year in bus fares. Last October the council delayed the school again, to 2031 at the earliest, citing insufficient demand.
But the council’s own documents say otherwise. In August 2026, responding to a Freedom of Information request, it confirmed in writing that the surplus of places it reports to government is based on “total physical capacity”, and that “when we look at PAN, which reflects the actual number of places offered, there is a shortfall in every year.” Its own forecasts show Year 7 exceeding the number of places available in every year to 2031.
In September 2025, the council’s own school planning team told a Planning Inspector that Preston needs 9.5 forms of entry and that “the scale of demand cannot be addressed by expansion of existing schools.” One month later, Cabinet chose expansion instead of building.
The council holds no document reconciling that shortfall with the surplus it reported to government, and no assessment of the funding risk from the delay. Both answers came only after the council admitted breaching the Freedom of Information Act.
The land is already set aside, 14.5 acres at Maxy Lane Farm, Higher Bartle, between Sandy Lane and Tabley Lane, and £3.8 million has been secured from developers.
Lancashire County Council will itself be abolished in April 2028. Its own report says a new school takes at least three years to build. Unless this is progressed now, the site, the money and the unfinished work pass to a new authority under no obligation to deliver any of it.
We are not asking for anything new. We are asking for what was promised when the homes were approved.
Every figure here comes from the councils’ own published documents.
