Fresh hope for new school site

SCHOOL plans: the former Diggle pallet works

THE former Diggle pallet works site is back on the agenda as a new home for Saddleworth School.

Oldham Council has confirmed it is talking to the consortium which owns the Huddersfield Road site.

Plans to move the school there fell through when the Government’s multi-billion pound school building programme was axed in 2010.

But Saddleworth was told last year it would receive money from a new £2.4 billion schools rebuilding fund — hopefully enough to rebuild, rather than refurbish the school buildi ngs in Uppermill.

Councillor Hugh McDonald, the Cabinet member for education, said: “We are waiting to see what money the Government is going to allocate us. Refurbishment is not an option so we are looking at a new school at the old pallet site.”

One option could be a land swap for the current school site.

Saddleworth School would have to furnish any new school itself and the council would have to provide the land.

Councillor Brian Lord, chairman of governors at Saddleworth, said the school could be put back into a later funding wave if the council didn’t secure land.

He added: “It is not easy to find somewhere as big as we would need. The other problem is the cost of land, because Oldham is already in financial difficulty.

“I think everybody realises we need a new school. The current one is 100 years old and we really need somewhere with proper space because many of our classrooms struggle to hold 30 children.”