Pendleton Road South to be closed?

6.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 11th Apr 2008

The plans for the £6.5million rebuilding of North Road Primary School are subject to early controversy.

The first set of plans for the school showed the total closure of Pendleton Road South so that the school buildings and playing field could be directly linked. This would make it much easier than now for pupils to get to and from the playing fields.

However, some residents were unhappy about this, because it meant their direct through-route towards town would disappear.

Councillors Fred Lawton and Mike Barker had meetings with Council education officers to try to resolve this problem.

The plan now is to have a fenced-in cycleway and footpath along the current route of Pendleton Road. This maintains the direct route, while the fence provides security for the children.

It does mean that pupils will have to be supervised across the path, though. The majority of School Governors are unhappy about this and have written to the Council to complain.

Stop Press: It now seems likely that the plans will be changed yet again, despite protests from both the disabled and cycling lobbies. The educational merits of having unfettered access from the new school to the playing fields seem likely to win the argument.

Grass Street Park

The area of Grass Street Park is being incorporated into the school grounds. A new play area on St Paul's Terrace will be created.

Fred and Mike are working to ensure that the new play area and equipment are a good enough replacement. At the same time, the new play area must not cause annoyance to nearby residents.

Community facilities

It is important to us that the community can make good use of facilities within the new school. Fred and Mike are part of the team working with the architects to ensure that there are good meeting rooms, sports and changing rooms for local people to use in the new building.

The proposed new school hall is bigger than in the Council's original plans. It will now be suitable for adult sport use.

We will continue to work hard for decent facilities for local residents.