Call for community to support school plans

BRIAN LORD

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GOVERNORS at Saddleworth School have called on everyone in the community to work together in order to get a new school built for children and generations to come.

Controversial plans to build a new school at Diggle were approved last year by Oldham Council, despite some opposition from the local community.

Harm

Save Diggle Action Group took the case to the Royal Courts of Justice, which ruled that the council's planning committee had "never addressed" the potential harm to heritage assets at the proposed Diggle site and quashed the approval, meaning plans for a new school at the site must be resubmitted.

Brian Lord, chair of governors at Saddleworth School, said everyone at the school is "disappointed" that the has been a further delay and urged the community to work together following the decision.

He said: "It's clear from conversations that I've had this week with the local authority, staff and parents from the school, that we remain absolutely determined to get the new school built. I believe that we all now need to work together to make this happen.

"The delays have gone on for too long. We need now to act positively together to get a new school that can be used by our children and grandchildren for generations to come."

He added that although there is no "perfect" site for a large secondary school in Saddleworth, an independent feasibility report concluded that Diggle would offer the best site.

Mr Lord added: "It's not that the new school can't be built in Uppermill; it is that it has been judged by independent specialists to be neither reasonable nor appropriate to do so.

"There are many reasons for this and they've been voiced many times.

"The only place in Uppermill where the school could have been located is at the far end of the site, up a steep hill. Usually, new schools are built on the flat playing fields of existing sites.

"The topography and size of the Uppermill site makes this impractical."