£17.5m school overhaul plan

Royton and Crompton School exterior

COUNCIL chiefs are planning to not only rebuild but expand a dated school as part of a huge £17.5million overhaul.

Councillors will convene at a Cabinet meeting on Monday to discuss whether they should approve proposals to invest an additional £3.5million of council money on top of the £14million earmarked by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) to rebuild Royton & Crompton secondary.

Oldham Council applied for Priority Schools Building Programme funding for three schools in 2014 with only Royton and Crompton successful in 2015. The cash would be used to build a new school on the current site with an eight-form entry of 240 pupils per year. However, the council has asked the EFA to consider increasing the construction to accommodate a 10-form entry of 300 pupils a year after anticipating a shortfall in the provision of secondary school places. It would mean 1,500 pupils attending the school in total.

The EFA confirmed this would require additional funding from the council at an estimated cost of £3.5million.

If approved, the full rebuild could include a new sports hall and see the current synthetic pitch ­- which is partly unused due to maintenance issues ­- replaced with a new one at a cost of £170,000 to the council.

Councillor Amanda Chadderton, Cabinet member for education and early years, said: "This year we have seen improved GCSE and A-level results and our best-ever set of Ofsted inspections at secondary level.

"Following the launch of the Oldham Education and Skills Commission earlier this year, we have made great strides forward and this project would only further improve our education system.

"In April, 2014, Oldham Council applied for Priority Schools Building Programme funding for three of our schools.

"The EFA informed us in February, 2015, that one of the applications ­- Royton and Crompton ­- had been successful.

"We are still in negotiations with the EFA and are working very hard with them to deliver a Royton and Crompton School the community deserves."

Lib-Dem councillor Howard Sykes ­- who lobbied for funding for a new school to be prioritised at a council meeting in February, 2015 ­- welcomed the decision to consider the plans at Cabinet.

At the council meeting, Councillor Sykes described the school as being in a "parlous" state and highlighted the need for investment.

On the funding being discussed at Cabinet, Councillor Sykes said: "It is a shame that 18 months will have had to pass before a report on this matter will be brought to Cabinet, but it does at least represent progress ­- albeit slow progress.

"I now hope that a funding bid can be made in the very near future and that we will not have to wait another 18 months to hear the news that funds will be made available to build the new school which the children of Royton and Crompton so richly deserve."