SDAG statement on Saddleworth School planning application

Existing buildings on the new Saddleworth School site in Diggle

Save Diggle Action Group (SDAG) has responded to the news that Oldham Council is to reconsider the planning applications relating to the proposed new Saddleworth School in Diggle.

“In a statement sent to Saddleworth news, Keith Lucas, of the SDAG commitee said: “Oldham Council have now had to face the consequences of attempting to drive through a fatally flawed planning application for the new secondary school.

“Cllr Hibbert’s press statement does not mention that SDAG’s legal team’s letter gave OMBC the option to either adjourn the planning committee or defer their decision to give themselves time to consider the “complex legal matters” it raises and seek expert legal advice.

“Instead they decided to go ahead and determine the applications, on the advice of their legal department who could, they claimed, see no legal difficulties with Planning Officer’s report.

“SDAG have tried again and again to hold OMBC to account for their inept and autocratic actions in seeking to impose this ill-considered scheme on the people of Saddleworth. Everyone in Saddleworth wants a new school, this has always been SDAG’s position.

“Surely the Council should now see sense and acknowledge that the school can be built, now, if they agree to build it where the majority feel it should be: in Uppermill. Why persist with a flawed proposal that threatens our landscape, heritage and the safety of children?

“Since the Council made their decision, supporters of our case, who are prepared to fight all the way to get OMBC to accept that the school could and should already have been built in Uppermill, have been pledging money to support our legal action. OMBC must recognise that we will continue to challenge and fight them because their plan is destructive, incompetent and dangerous, they need to stop and rethink - not just for Diggle and its environs but the benefit of all of Saddleworth’s children.”