A UNIT for expelled pupils will officially be closed at the end of this month but a longterm replacement is still to be found.

Education officials have agreed to formally close Marles Hill Short Stay School, the pupil referral unit for Burnley, Nelson and Colne area.

The school shut its doors last October with the pupils moving to Hargher Clough school in Burnley and Oswaldtwistle School.

Temporary arrangements have now been made at the former St Theodore's RC High School's Ormerod Road site in Burnley.

Certain pupils requiring support for behavioural difficulties have been housed there during the last summer term at a cost of around £30,000.

Proposals are in place to establish a new intervention support and alternative curriculum centre (ISAAC) at St Theodore's, which will become Blessed Trinity RC College under the Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF).

The referral unit plans are not a long-term solution as the St Theodore's buildings will only be available until August 2008, when Blessed Trinity is created.

Marles Hill was placed in special measures by Ofsted inspectors four years ago and last October pupils were removed from the unit for health and safety reasons', to benefit both youngsters and staff.

Alternative provisions were provided for Key Stage Four pupils at the former Hargher Clough school in Burnley and only Key Stage Three youngsters had remained at Marles Hill.

After the October decision to close Marles Hill, fourteen Key Stage Three pupils were transferred to Oswaldtwistle School.

Children at Hargher Clough and Oswaldtwistle School will move to the new intervention, support and alternative curriculum centre.

Pat Jefferson, the county council's executive director for children and young people, said: "Beyond August 2008, further suitable temporary accommodation has been identified, linked to the BSF programme - a permanent solution is also being explored, again linked to BSF."

The county education authority is required to publish official notification of the decision to close Marles Hill on August 31. The building is being declared surplus to requirements.

Funding which had been used to support Marles Hill will be used to pay for the ISAAC provisions at Blessed Trinity.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council added: "We are currently completing legal formalities relating to the disposal of the former Marles Hill School site which was sold at auction on June 6.

"Provision at Marles Hill was transferred to other sites at the end of 2006 and we have no further use for the property."

The Marles Hill site was valued at up to £750,000 by auctioneers. Planning permission for residential usage there was refused by Pendle council last May.