New school will be built at Springhill

In a special meeting of the Council Overview amp; Scrutiny Committee, Councillors voted in favour of the Special Cabinet's decision last week to build a new school, as part of the Building Schools for the Future scheme, at the site of the current Springhill High School. The schools at Balderstone and Springhill will be closed and the new school, which aims to open its doors in 2013, will replace them.

The decision to ratify the Special Cabinet's choice of the Springhill site had to be put to a formal vote at the request of Councillor Allen Brett as he opposed the Cabinet's decision based on the clarity of the valuation of the two sites. Councillor Brett's motion for a formal vote was seconded by Councillor Alan McCarthy.

As expected, however, the committee supported the orginal decision to build the new school at Springhill; securing the vote comfortably by twelve to three.

Councillor Brett was the only councillor to truly scrutinise the decision. He said during the meeting: "What I would like to know is who valued the site? We [Rochdale Council] have not had a good track record in this area. How much confidence do we have in the valuation with our past record?

"I still believe Balderstone is the more attractive site for the development of a school. The public transport links are better and a new school would complement the redevelopment of Kirkholt.

"I am also worried for the co-location of libraries project; we won't be able to host a library at Balderstone if the building is not there to host it! If the site goes, so does the library and we have to accept that.

"As an area of economic deprivation I believe children and parents from Kirkholt will be reluctant to travel to Springhill for their education.

"I also believe Balderstone is a safer site, especially with the development of the project at Kingsway, which is close to Springhill."

Councillor Brett is a ward councillor for Balderstone and Kirkholt and is a governor at Balderstone Technology College.

Council Executive Director for Child Care Services, Terry Piggott, was on hand to try and allay some of Councillor Brett's concerns. He said: "The valuation has been done by independent valuers, not by the council, and I believe they have done a thorough job. The valuations were done by comparing the two sites on the same basis so even if they are inaccurate, they are equally inaccurate.

"In terms of the library we will be as helpful as we can in terms of co-locating. We can look at this in the intervening six  years before the new school is opened."

"The safety of children is of course important. The pupil population of the new school will be less than that of the current two schools combined so there will be fewer children crossing Kingsway, Queensway and Oldham Road. I can assure you that the new school will be as safe as it can be."

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Leader of the Council, Councillor Alan Taylor told Rochdale Online: "I've told all the members of the Liberal Democrat group that its up to them to take the decision that they want to take because we have changed through the process.

"We set off thinking it must be that one [Balderstone] but then no argument that was put forward justified Balderstone. I hope that when people get all the facts that they will agree and then we can go on to the formal public consultation."

The majority did agree during the Overview amp; Scrutiny committee meeting and now the formal public consultation process will begin.