Go ahead for new school building in Sale Moor (From Messenger Newspapers)

Trafford's planning committee backs an application for a new school on the site of Worthington Primary School, Sale

12:00pm Friday 20th July 2012 in News

PLANNING chiefs have given the green light for the demolition and replacement of a Sale Moor primary school – little more than a year after its future was in doubt.

The £5 million scheme will see a new school built on the site of 107-year-old Worthington Primary School, on Worthington Road.

Pupils will continue to be taught in the old, decaying school – which was the first council built school in Cheshire – while the new one is built.

The new 315-pupil school, which will be financed with a Government grant, should be completed by September 2013.

The school’s headteacher, Clive Searle, told Trafford's planning committee that a new school would make an ‘enormous difference’.

He said: “We provide an excellent education in trying circumstances.”

The school is riddled with dry rot, with £126.000 spent on remedial work since 2003.

Cllr Rob Chilton said it was a shame the old school building had to be demolished, but added: “It is important for the children of the area that they have a school that is fit for purpose.”

There were eight letters of objection to the scheme from neighbours, on grounds including the loss of trees, the location of the new building, traffic and parking issues and the siting of the playgrounds.

But Cllr Phil Gratrix praised the school for the way it had consulted with residents.

In 2010 the school’s future was threatened by a proposal to close Worthington and two other primaries – Templemoor and Moorlands – and create one ’super school’.

Staff and parents were relieved, though, when this proposal was shelved in April 2011.