A new neighbourhood on the way for Oldham?

The former site of two notorious schools could soon be transformed into a brand new neighbourhood in Oldham.

Developers Rowland Homes plan to turn land off Butterworth Lane, once home to South Chadderton School and the Collective Spirit School, into almost 150 new homes. 

The 149 dwellings would be a mixture of two, three and four-bedroom houses and apartments, according to plans submitted to Oldham Council.

If approved by town planners, the developers would construct a set of new roads, with an arrangement of detached, semi-detached and mews style houses and blocks of flats. 

Rowlands say their aim is to create ‘a high quality, vibrant and sustainable community, responding to the needs and character of the area where everyone can feel at home’. 

The homes would come with parking spaces and landscaping, though the neighbourhood is designed to be ‘pedestrian friendly’. 

And 40 per cent of the plots will be classed as ‘affordable’, available for social rent, affordable rent or shared ownership.

These include 21 three-beds and 18 two-beds for lease and 21 three-beds for sale. 

The plans, which are now under consideration by town planners, would be a brand new chapter for a plot of land once home to two controversial secondary schools.

South Chadderton School hit national headlines in 2007 after being linked to a whistleblower teacher’s ‘anarchy diary’. 

The journal by ‘Teacher B’ catalogued a series of horrible incidents at the school, including a pupil pouring urine over another child and teachers being physically attacked in hallways. 

The school later merged with another local secondary, Kaskenmoor, and became Oasis Academy Oldham, now located in Hollinwood.

The new school has a Good Ofsted rating.

The building at Butterworth Lane was then taken over by the Collective Spirit School in 2013 but closed down only three years later after being placed into ‘special measures’ by Ofsted. 

Problems uncovered by the watchdog included ‘inadequate’ safety measures and meals that were of such poor quality that children were throwing them away and going hungry.

Oldham Council re-acquired the land rights in 2020, demolished the school and sold the plot to Rowlands in February this year. 

Coun Elaine Taylor, deputy leader of Oldham Council, previously said: “Oldham is in a housing crisis, and it makes perfect sense to re-use the land, which has been vacant for seven years, for much-needed new homes.”

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