Pupils on the roll at a planned new secondary school in Manningham will have to be bussed several miles to a closed middle school site.

From September, youngsters expecting to attend the Challenge School near Bradford Grammar School will use the Woodend Middle School site in Windhill, Shipley.

Parents living in Windhill had campaigned for a local secondary school but the schools review final decision was that there would not be one there.

Ward councillor Tony Miller (Labour) said bussing Manningham children to Shipley East while forcing Shipley East children to go elsewhere would look ridiculous.

But a Bradford Council education spokesman said: "Until the building is ready, it was always intended that the Challenge School would run from one of the sites being vacated as part of the reorganisation.

"It has now been decided that the Woodend Middle School site is the most appropriate and children in years seven, eight and nine will begin there in September this year."

She added: "The new Challenge School is to be built at North Avenue near Bradford Grammar School and will be ready for September 2001."

Coun Miller said he viewed reassurances from the education department that it was only a year-long measure with "deep caution and suspicion".

He added: "I accept the decision of the schools review but I don't accept that Shipley East children will not have a secondary school."

Allowing children from another area to use a Windhill school for secondary education while Shipley children had to travel to other schools sent out the wrong message, he said.

"It would have been better if the education department had a meeting within the local area to explain what it was doing," said Coun Miller.

He said most people in Windhill would be reading about the plan to site the Challenge School there for a year for the first time in the Telegraph & Argus. "I feel it could have been handled better," he added.

A managing partner, who will be responsible for the massive building programme in 135 of the district's schools, will not be appointed until the end of the month.

This will be a firm of project managers to oversee and take responsibility for the huge programme of new building and refurbishment needed in order to take the district into a two-tier system of primary and secondary schools.

All middle schools will shut in July, with many closing early to allow the transfer of equipment to new primary schools. Some schools will operate on split sites while the work goes on.

The deadline for tenders for the massive building project was March 8. A Council education spokesman said: "These will be evaluated in the next week and the interview process will be completed by the end of the month."

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