Call for public vote on Diggle school plan

KEITH Lucas, referendum call

CAMPAIGNERS opposed to building the new school in Diggle today urged all Saddleworth residents to demand a public referendum.

Keith Lucas, spokesman for Save Diggle Action Group (SDAG), slammed the EFA’s feasibility study in the wake of a clash between the group and parish councillors at last week’s council meeting.

45 objectors who want a new school on the existing site in Uppermill, warned of traffic and access problems at the Diggle site.

Mr Lucas said: “How can a report be published that will change Saddleworth forever without any involvement from the population it affects? Opinion polls have shown 80 per cent of the local population wants the school to stay in Uppermill. Where is that recognised in the report?

“Seventy-nine percent of PSP school builds are built on original school sites: so how has that become a major problem for Uppermill?

“The EFA and Oldham Council should allow a proper and full public consultation to go ahead before they continue this scheme.”

Parish councillor Mike Buckley, and a SDAG supporter, declared: “The report confirms the school can be built on any of the four sites. No allowance appears to have been made that the playing fields will be in a flood plain. No traffic survey has been done beyond the superficial one carried out five years ago.

“The proposals for pedestrian safety are woefully inadequate.”

But Brian Lord, chair of Saddleworth school governors and a local parish councillor, said: “We have gone through this with the EFA and are happy with the choice.

“It will give us a site twice the size of the Uppermill site, not require any encroachment on to the green belt, and provide us with virtually all the things we need to have a top class building.

“The EFA had again increased the amount for the project which helps to give us a better building.

“We are now sitting down with Interserve, the builders, to work out the detail of the design and need the residents to get on board and work with us. We want to be good neighbours.”