'Kids are growing up without any sports facilities': Call to fast-track pitches after new secondary school plans put 'on ice'

Desperately-needed community sports pitches should be fast-tracked after plans for the new secondary school earmarked to host them were put ‘on ice’, a council boss has said. Coun Janet Emsley, deputy leader of Rochdale council, says the local authority cannot ‘leave it to the whim’ of the government, following its decision to pause plans for the 750-place Lakeside Academy, in Littleborough.

The free school - which was set to be built at Littleborough Playing Fields and open in 2025 - was signed off in 2019, as concerns mounted over the area facing a shortfall of well over 100 pupil places. But the Department for Education rowed back on the decision last November -citing a projected drop in demand for places - much to the fury of Lakeside ward councillors.

While the school would be run by Star Academies, an agreement allowing the community access to its sports facilities would be required as part of the planning permission process. Coun Emsley told a meeting of the Pennines Township Committee the council needed to take matters into its own hands.

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“We can’t keep waiting for a decision to be made by Whitehall,” she said. “We have got kids that are growing up without any sports facilities. They lost the sports village at Milnrow, at Wildhouse Lane. It’s a shrinking of facilities that is happening.She added that new pitches were needed by ‘various organisations’ in the area, including Wardle FC and Mayfield FC.

“We need a joined up conversation with all these people, because there are organisations that want to use those pitches now," she added. "We can’t be at the whim of a government department that has put this school on ice.”

Speaking following a