Community meeting to discuss future of school site

Members of the community have attended a meeting to discuss the future use of the Balderstone Technology College site.

The meeting, held at St Thomas Church, Kirkholt, was attended by several interest groups, Rochdale Council’s strategic housing service and the lead officer from the Council’s Building schools for the future programme.

There was a broad consensus from the community representatives present that the site should be retained in some form as a potential community hub.

Councillor Dale Mulgrew, who organised the meeting with fellow ward Councillor Pat Colclough, said: “This was a positive opening discussion setting out the community’s aspirations for this key site.

“I was really encouraged to see a good attendance at this meeting, and I felt every contribution to the discussion was really constructive.

“This is the start of a process, which I hope will lead to some firm proposals for this site for the future.”

Councillor Colclough added: “This was a good start, but I am glad we will be meeting again in a couple of months, as there is a lot of detail we still all need to be made aware of.

“We also need to include other Council agencies at the next meeting such as Link4life, the youth service and other relevant bodies, so that we have a better picture of their plans for the site.

“By the next meeting, we hope that we will have a timeframe for when this site will become vacant and an idea around how much of the site can be used for community purposes in the future.

“This is a critical location for the surrounding neighbourhoods of Kirkholt and Balderstone, and in the future it could possibly offer local access to sport, learning, training and community activities.”