PLANS for Bournemouth's second free school have been put on hold after a six-month search for a suitable town centre site.

Hopes for the Livingstone Academy, a digital school specialising in technology and creative thinking, to open in September next year were dashed when those behind it failed to find a site.

Now it is planned to open the school in September 2018.

The school will be part of the Aspirations Academies Trust, which already runs the Magna and Ocean Academies in Poole and Jewell Academy in Bournemouth.

Chief Executive Steve Kenning told the Daily Echo: "The Aspirations Academies Trust, along with the Department for Education and Bournemouth Borough Council have been working hard with the EFA (Education Funding Agency) over the last six months to find a suitable site in the Lansdowne area of Bournemouth for the Livingstone Academy Bournemouth.

"It was originally hoped that the Academy would open for parents of reception age and Year 7 in September 2017. Despite several potential sites still being investigated there is now not enough time for the legal processes to go through in time for the Academy to open in September 2017.

"As a result the opening will be in September 2018. Parents can keep informed of developments by looking at the Livingstone Academy website."

The man behind the school is Ian Livingstone, who co-founded Games Workshop, and hopes to run a school "centred on computer science and creative thinking."

When plans for the school were first announced he said: "It is the combination of computer programming skills and creativity by which today’s world-changing companies are built.

"I encourage other digital entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity offered by the Free Schools programme in helping to give children an authentic education for the jobs and challenges of the future digital world."