Residents vow to continue school fight

VILLAGERS will not give up their fight against the plan to build a new £17 million secondary school in Diggle.

Oldham Council announced final legal agreements had been signed last week, which means the purchase of the site in Huddersfield Road, Diggle, can go ahead at any time once planning permission has been granted.

Detailed design meetings will now take place to draw up vital works so the Education Funding Agency (EFA) can provide the new school for 1,500 students aged 11-16.

Residents attended a Diggle Community Association meeting to voice their concerns over the school’s move from Uppermill.

One worried resident said: “It is going to be a blot on the landscape for years. This decision will affect generations to come. Our feelings have not been considered by Oldham Council and it shows their arrogance not to consider local people in this huge decision. It feels as though local democracy is dead.”

Another added: “We want a school that is safe for our children. It is not safe for them walking into Diggle.”

Save Diggle Action Group (SDAG) has put forward plans for redevelopment of the school in Uppermill and insists it will continue to push for this option.

Mike Buckley, spokesman for SDAG and an independent Saddleworth parish councillor, said: “It is only done when the planning is approved — and that is months away. An awful lot of things are up in the air and there doesn’t seem to be any very clear plan on anything.”

Councillor Alan Roughley said people should accept Diggle is the preferred site or risk losing a new school for the area: “The EFA are offering a deal which many other places in the country have not got. I have not said Diggle is an ideal site or that we should build it there, but we have to go where EFA want to build it and this is the site they have accepted.”