School consultation extra time victory

Keith Lucas - open letter

A parish councillor says an Oldham Council decision to extend the current statutory consultation on Saddleworth’s controversial new school is “a victory for reason and fair play.”

More than 100 people signed a protest letter supporting newly-elected Councillor Keith Lucas’s complaints on planning issues at the £19 million site at Diggle.

Councillor Lucas had written a public letter to council leader Councilllor Jim McMahon, council officers, the school builders and the Education Funding Agency. In it he urged the council to invalidate the planning application until all the documents were available for public scrutiny.

The letter said a high proportion of the documentation was unreadable and images and graphs supporting statistical data indecipherable because of the poor quality of the copies. The public consultation had already begun, with a cut-off date of August 27.

“The urgent question is what happens to the public statutory right of 21 days consultation when the date has been set for it to start without the information available? This information should not be only accessible on a web page but at local libraries, with proper planning application notices posted in the location area for public view.”

But in a response Councillor Dave Hibbert, cabinet member for planning, said: “An issue with viewing graphs in a couple of supporting documents has been highlighted. “Though this only affected a small part of the wider planning application, we’re happy to extend the consultation period until September 4.

“We also understand some people may wish to see a hard (paper) copy for themselves. These can be viewed at Oldham Council’s planning office, but we’re also making a copy available at Saddleworth Parish Council offices.”

This will be available between 9am-4.30pm, Monday-Friday and when the offices are open for meetings.

Viewing here will be by prior arrangement only (arrange on 01457 876665) from August 14