School site ‘too small’

Stumbling block . . . objection by local councillors could bring plans for the Waterhead Academy to a halt

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Academy will cause havoc, say councillors

SADDLEWORTH councillors have hit out at plans to start work on the state-of-the-art Waterhead Academy ahead of this week’s planning decision.

Saddleworth Parish Council have recommended that consent be refused for the new five-star school, due to open on the site of the former Orb Mill in Culvert Street in 2012.
With its sleek and impressive design, the new academy will boast courtyards and a roof terrace as well as sports pitches and a BMX track.

But councillors say the size of the development is inappropriate for the site and argue that increased traffic will cause havoc on the already busy road.

Councillor Alma McInnes said: “I know the site well, I used to work at Orb mill and I think that the site is too small for what they are planning to do there.

“I am not against the academy, but there will be lots and lots of pupils attending and it is a very built-up area.

“I don’t think enough thought has gone into it, but I don’t see anywhere else it could go.”

The project came before the parish council as it straddles the Saddleworth border.

Oldham Council’s planning committee will make a decision on the application at a meeting tomorrow.

Angry local residents protested against the multi-million-pound project when it was first announced that one academy would replace Breeze Hill and Counthill schools.

They argued that Oldham Council had left them in the dark about the planning application and that the catchment areas were too far away from the site that would not be served well by existing bus routes.

Now Saddleworth Parish Council has instructed its clerk to write to the Director of Education to complain that they have not had sufficient consultation.

Councillor Ken Hulme was one of the councillors who opposed the plans.

He said: “It’s just a preposterous place to put the academy.

“It’s bizarre, it’s not a good place for traffic, the playing fields will not be very good and it will be a very cramped site.

“The parish council had a huge table of papers dumped on us as if the council regarded us as a joke, as if there was going to be no meaningful consultation.

“We were treated like a rubber-stamping process.

“If you are going to create an academy you want something better, and this looks like Oldham Council have got a piece of land and are trying to slot something into it.”