Schools take a giant leap into the future

£230m project gets green light

OLDHAM’S £230 million secondary schools overhaul has been given the green light.

The Government has approved the council’s once-in-a-lifetime plans to rebuild, replace or refurbish all of the borough’s crumbling high schools by the end of 2014.

Potential bidders will now be asked to tender for the contract to deliver the programme.

Three will be chosen to work with the council and schools to propose detailed designs, with one selected in April, next year to build the schools.

The first to open in September, 2012, will be the new £30million Catholic secondary on Broadway, Chadderton. It will replace St Augustine’s, Werneth, and Our Lady’s, Royton.

This will be followed by the extensive refurbishment of North Chadderton on its current upper school site in Chadderton Hall Road, due for completion in 2013.

The next phase will see New Bridge Special School, currently spilt over two sites, merged and extended at Hollinwood, along with the remodelling of Blue Coat, Crompton House and Hathershaw.

The new Saddleworth School will then be built and work carried out at Royton and Crompton.

The three new academies to replace Breeze Hill, Counthill, Grange, Kaskenmoor and South Chadderton will be commissioned through a separate bidding process due to start in the summer. The academies will open in the current schools in 2010 before moving into new buildings in Royton, Hollinwood and Waterhead in 2012/13.

Council leader Howard Sykes said: “This is a huge achievement.

“This is the biggest gift that we can give to the next generation of students.

“It is also important that we establish Oldham Council as an organisation with the capacity, know how and leadership to deliver on major projects of this type. This is a very significant moment for the borough.”

The council’s outline business case was approved by Partnerships for Schools, set up to deliver the Government’s flagship Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

Councillor Kay Knox, cabinet member for children young people and families, said: “This decision means that we can now start to turn our plans into reality.”