Site of former school where ‘anarchy diary’ sparked teacher’s strikes due to be flogged for housing

Oldham Council is seeking a fresh start for a site once home to two notorious schools. The land on Butterworth Lane in Chadderton is being flogged for development and could accommodate up to 175 new homes.

The 10.8 acre area, last estimated to be worth more than £4m by council sources, is being advertised by commercial property sellers LoopNet as a ‘prime redevelopment opportunity’.

Cllr Elaine Taylor, Cabinet Member for Decent Homes, said: “The former South Chadderton school site is a vacant brownfield site which has been identified as being suitable for residential redevelopment. Oldham is in a housing crisis, and it makes perfect sense to re-use the land, which has been vacant for seven years, for much-needed new homes.

“We are currently marketing the site to potential developers and would like to see high-quality low carbon housing, including a mix of affordable and private sale homes, built on it. Any decision on who develops the site will be subject to Cabinet approval and the selected developer securing full planning permission, which will include detailed consultation with the local community.”

The land, which borders Rochdale Canal, Hollinwood Avenue and Whitegate End Primary School, is now just a field. But the site was once home to South Chadderton School and the Collective Spirit School.

Both schools faced controversies while they were open, with South Chadderton hitting national headlines in 2007 after being linked to a teacher’s leaked ‘anarchy diary’. The journal by ‘Teacher B’ logged a catalogue of horrible abuse faced by teachers and pupils by certain kids at the school.

The incidents included a pupil pouring urine over another child, overt sexual threats made to female students and teachers being