Academy plans in the spotlight

AROUND 30 residents attended a meeting to discuss concerns about plans for a new academy in Royton.

The Question Time-style talking shop at the Oddies Club, Union Street, was arranged after Oldham Council’s consultation was branded “inadequate”.

The former Grange School in Rochdale Road, Oldham, reopened as Oldham Academy North in September.

It is due to move into a new building on part of the current Our Lady’s School site, Royton, in September, 2013.

Work is due to start in the summer but residents are concerned that only one of the council’s two-hour, drop-in consultation sessions on the academy will take place in Royton.

They do not believe that local householders will have enough time to properly air their views. Royton South councillor Steven Bashforth chaired the meeting which was organised by members of the iRoyton community news website.

He has obtained a plan — currently unavailable to the public — showing an outline of the building which stretches along Broadway from the new Baldwin Close development to the current Our Lady’s sixth form.

“It actually looks quite a nice development but there are concerns,” said Councillor Bashforth.

“Most of them are around environmental issues, access to the site and how people are going to travel there. The Shaw Road End/ Broadway junction is probably one of the busiest, if not the busiest, in Greater Manchester at peak times.”

Our Lady’s pupils will move into the borough’s new Catholic High School, Chadderton, in September.

Councillor Bashforth said there were also fears about social engineering.

Current Oldham Academy North pupils are predominantly Asian. He admitted that some people did not want the school to move to Royton

He added: “You can’t hide from that. That’s what people are saying. It is a concern which I promised to take to the powers that be. How you deal with that I do not know.”

He hopes that Royton pupils will also attend the academy and said: “If you can show that it has 21st century facilities for the people of Royton, I certainly hope that will make more local people go to it.

“Our future is with the children. Any problems people might perceive at the moment will be solved by children coming together, not adults.”