BURY education bosses have been accused of intervening to stop a rival college from launching adult education classes at a high school in Ramsbottom.

And Michael Austin, principal of the Accrington and Rossendale College which was forced to abandon the programme, says the action of Bury Local Education Authority (LEA) will mean adult learners and pupils at Woodhey High School losing out.

Under the original agreement with school headteacher Mr Frank Bennett, the college promised to install a suite of modern computers.

But on Monday night (Sept 1), adults who turned up to enrol learned the programme had been cancelled..

Mr Austin said: "Advertisements were placed in local papers, teachers were arranged and detailed plans for the programme were prepared.

"At the end of last week, Bury LEA intervened and effectively stopped the programme, apparently on the grounds that it competed with what was being offered by the Community Education Service (CES).

"We had chosen a programme which, in the view of the college, was different from that offered by CES. It was certainly cheaper."

In the leaflet given out this week to disappointed adult learners, Mr Austin stated: "I believe the apology should come from Bury Education Authority, along with an explanation of why they want to deprive the Ramsbottom community of the chance to attend a wider range of courses than has been available before and why they have chosen, by so doing, to deprive the pupils of Woodhey of access to state-of-the-art equipment."

Bury LEA claim they approached the govenors of Woodhey High School to suspend the classes until the completion of a borough strategic review of education.

However, the CES has been enrolling people for its own courses at Woodhey.

Borough Education Officer Mr Harold Williams said: "We are grateful to the govenors for suspending the programme until our review is carried out.

"Afterwards, the school will be able to make a more informed decision about what both Accrington and Rossendale College and the CES can offer."

However, Woodhey headteacher Mr Bennett believes the school could accommodate both.

He said: "Obviously, the school governors grabbed the opportunity of having free use of computers.

"But it seems they were aggrieved that another borough college was using the school for courses at a lower price than that offered by Bury CES."

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