A LEIGH high school has submitted plans to divert a public footpath.

Bedford High School, in Manchester Road, wants to redirect public footpath 139 so that it no longer runs between the buildings of its lower and upper schools.

As reported previously in the Journal, the school began erecting gates along the path in September following concerns about pupils' safety, without the necessary permission from Wigan Council.

Head teacher Helen Phillips said: "The concerns raised stem from the original plan to close the footpath and both the school and the local authority have listened to such concerns and acted upon them. As a consequence we have changed the plans to close the path into the diversion so these initial objections no longer apply.

"We appreciate that this is a popular footpath which is why both the school and the council have considered the options extremely carefully. The solution we have come up with is to divert the path so it no longer runs through the centre of the school but the start and end points will remain the same, so for the casual user, very little will change. "

But one resident who regularly uses the footpath is unhappy about the plans. "There is no justification for the path's closure, and as far as I am aware there have been no accidents on this stretch," he said.

The plans can be viewed at Leigh Life Centre. Any objections must be submitted by April 4.