Deputy Leader of Council slams Parish Priest

Father Paul Daly

Deputy Leader of Rochdale Council, Lib Dem Councillor Irene Davidson slammed a Heywood Parish priest for recently taking the Lib Dem Cabinet to task over the reduction in the number of places being allocated at the new faith school in Heywood. In what one opposition councillor called an “ill-advised and intemperate rant at a well respected clergyman” Councillor Davidson said she would not “be told what to do”.

The row over numbers has come about because the Lib Dem Cabinet recently agreed to reduce the number of places available, after agreeing publicly when the school was announced to a higher number. Father Paul Daly, Parish Priest at Saint Joseph’s, Heywood had accused the Lib Dems of “undermining faith-based secondary education in Heywood while basking in the glory of being pioneers in the first RC/CE College in the county" in an article published on Rochdale Online:

• http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/News/news.asp?ID=4558

Waving the article at the full council meeting, Councillor Davidson raised eyebrows when along with describing Father Daly’s comments as garbage she also said his attack was cowardly!

Father Daly had also emailed Councillor Davidson, along with Councillors Wera Hobhouse and Dale Mulgrew, with his concerns having received the BSF update from the education department that he said has "so many holes in the argument in for reducing the places at Holy Family that it amazes me that no one asked the officers for clarification before nodding it through".

He concluded by saying: "Can I point out that we elect the councillors, not the council officers and certainly not Partnership for Schools. This is no criticism of them; they are doing their job. I just wish you would scrutinise, challenge and make the right decision even when it is not the ones that your staff are telling you to take. That's why some people voted for you!"