Schools out

SCRAPPED . . . plans to replace Saddleworth School have been axed

Building plans in tatters after funding axe

OLDHAM’S once-in-a-lifetime plans to sweep away its crumbling secondary schools are in tatters.

The Government has sensationally axed massive plans to rebuild or extensively refurbish all of the borough’s high schools by 2014.

And proposals for a new Roman Catholic secondary, three academies and improvements to North Chadderton — all due to open by 2013 — are under review.

Schools Secretary Michael Gove yesterday halted the £55bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Programme to rebuild or replace every secondary in England by 2020.

He insisted the cancellations were unavoidable because of the financial mess left by Labour and because the BSF scheme had been badly botched.

But politicians and head teachers are devastated by the hammer blow which has been branded a sad day for the borough.

Oldham schools are among 715 revamps already signed up to the scheme that will not now go ahead.

Plans for a new Saddleworth High School in Diggle have been ditched along with a new special school for pupils with behavioural educational and social difficulties in Chadderton.

Improvements to Blue Coat, Crompton House, Hathershaw and Royton and Crompton have also been scrapped.

Oldham’s “outstanding” Pupil Referral Unit for children excluded from school will miss out on refurbishment.

Improvements to New Bridge School learning centre for over-16s in Fitton Hill are out. The merger of Our Lady’s and St Augustine’s in a new Catholic high school in Chadderton is still being decided.

Major improvements to North Chadderton School hang in the balance.

Nationwide, 123 academy schemes are also to be reviewed on a case-by case basis.

These include replacing Breeze Hill, Counthill, Grange, Kaskenmoor and South Chadderton with three academies. These are are due to open in their existing buildings in September, moving into new schools in 2012.

Oldham West and Royton MP Michael Meacher said: “The idea that schools in my constituency, some of them which are in drastic need of rebuild or refurbishment, will be stopped because a tiny rich elite of bankers who got us into this mess and who are getting off scot free is outrageous.

“They are responsible for the mess. The government is not increasing taxes on the super rich but punishing children in my constituency. It is immoral, wrong and perverse. The money for the BSF is not there, but it could be by taxing the super rich.

“Children are paying the price for this mess and it is outrageous and wrong. It is wicked the government are behaving like this.”

Councillor Brian Lord, chairman of governors at Saddleworth School, said: “I am deeply disappointed. It is a really sad day because we were in the frame to have a new school with the Private Finance Initiative when the new Radclyffe and Failsworth schools were built.

“We were cut out of that and now we are being cut out of this.

“We are in a school that’s essentially 100 years old and bursting at the seams. We are struggling to provide all the things we would like to, not least the sporting side because we are bereft of sporting facilities.

“Each time Ofsted comes to see the school we get praise for the good work we do and slated because the facilities are so poor. We provide an outstanding education despite everything. You just wonder what we could do if we had good facilities.

“It’s not just the kids, it’s the facilities the staff are working in as well.”