THE site of a former school in Blackburn is set to be demolished.

Plans to knock down the old Crosshill Specialist School in Shadsworth Road have been approved by Blackburn with Darwen Council.

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The council, which owns the site, applied for permission to its own planning department to carry out the work in June this year.

The school moved from its former site into the new building housing Blackburn Central High School in Haslingden Road when it opened its doors in September 2012.

It will be replaced by a £4.3 million single-storey specialist unit creating 60 places for children on the autistic spectrum with 10 classrooms.

It is expected to open in May next year and the unit will aim to tackle a shortfall in the council’s provision for children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome.

Executive head teacher Diane Atkinson said: “I feel this is a really positive move supporting vulnerable young people with special educational needs in our local community.”

The then head teacher at Crosshill, Ian Maddison, said at the time that he was thrilled with the opportunities the children would have in the state-of-the-art building.

According to documents included with the application, the work is due to take 14 weeks and will be carried out between 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and from 9am to 1pm on Saturdays.

The new school building was one of the last in the country to be built in the last Labour government’s Building Schools for the Future scheme.

In 2007 it was announced that the school would move to a new site under the scheme after fears that it could be facing the axe.

The opening had been delayed after £24,000 of computer equipment was stolen.

Crosshill is a Foundation Trust Special School which caters for students aged 11 to 16-years-old.

In 1999 it was the first special school to receive specialist technology college status.