Plans for Darwen school site (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Plans for Darwen school site
10:40am Wednesday 25th July 2012 in News
By Dan Clough, Reporter
GOING? The former Darwen Moorland site at Holden Fold
A FORMER school site in Darwen has been earmarked for disposal by the council.
Teaching began at Holden Fold in 1965 when it was Knowle County Secondary Modern, later becoming Darwen Moorland High School.
But Moorland became Darwen Academy in 2008 and subsequently moved to Redearth Road in 2010.
The site was then taken over by Darwen Vale High School as renovation work began under the Building Schools for the Future scheme at its site in Blackburn Road.
But with work at the Earcroft site all but complete and the school year coming to a close last week, teaching at Holden Fold has now finished.
And the Lancashire Telegraph understands that council bosses are looking to sell the site, although a temporary use for the buildings is being sought.
Tony Humphrys, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s executive member for education, said: “The main priority at the moment is the move back to the Darwen Vale site and we will look at the future of Holden Fold in due course.
“Darwen Vale High School students and staff have had a very successful and productive two years at the site with some great exam results, and everyone is now looking forward to moving into the re-built and updated school on Blackburn Road in September.”
Darwen town councillor Simon Huggill, who is also a member of the Darwen branch of Civic Voice, said: “One of my big questions is, what are we going to do with the sports hall?
“That was only recently built and cost a great deal of money. Are we just going to demolish it?
“One of the beauties of Darwen is its rural location and it would be sad to lose that if the land was sold to a housing developer.
“I want the council to have meaningful consultation with the people of Darwen about the future of the site.”
Comments(16)
badref
says...
11:09am Wed 25 Jul 12
A Darener
says...
11:16am Wed 25 Jul 12
badref wrote:Plus amalagamation of all the day care centres for the disabled community.
If the sports hall is new why not keep it and adapt other areas of the site to make it a multsports orientated. There ought to be a surge of interest in various sports after the Olympics and as a nation we do not service that demand very well. A gym, a couple of 3g pitches, a climbing wall etc would not be too costly yet would be of enormous benefit to an increasingy sedentary and obese population. Retaining a couple of classrooms with IT facilities would allow the delivery of coaching courses, for example, which would help in the future continuity of provision.
All under one roof.
Happychappy65
says...
11:23am Wed 25 Jul 12
EssexStreet
says...
1:03pm Wed 25 Jul 12
And a Mosque???????
There are plenty in Bolton, Blackburn, Accington, etc,etc, etc. . I do not wish to affend any one but the site should be a school with multi faith
EssexStreet
says...
1:10pm Wed 25 Jul 12
milano
says...
2:16pm Wed 25 Jul 12
Excluded again
says...
3:15pm Wed 25 Jul 12
EssexStreet wrote:Essex Street, the 'suggestion' of a mosque is made by a poster on this thread.
Hi every one, I was one of the 1st first years at Knowle School which became Moorland High. The education I recieved afforded me to teach around the world. Why, oh, why, are Blackburn with Darwen going to pull it down?
And a Mosque???????
There are plenty in Bolton, Blackburn, Accington, etc,etc, etc. . I do not wish to affend any one but the site should be a school with multi faith
Some people think that each and every spare piece of land that comes up for sale is going to have a mosque built on it. There were strong rumours that the current Darwen Academy site was going to be used for a mosque.
Darwen has a small Muslim population, mainly based near the town centre. Why they would be remotely interested in buying a site way too big or their needs miles form where they live is a question that only a paranoid racist could answer.
johndarwen
says...
5:22pm Wed 25 Jul 12
They do not deserve anything good, not the way they have turned in the past 15 years.
They are not a monoroity any more they are killing the English way of life and the English culture.
Looking at other feed backs people are not happy that they are given everything, because they are muslim. Let them live in a muslim country and not spoil ours !!
A Darener
says...
5:29pm Wed 25 Jul 12
johndarwen wrote:They do live in a Muslim country. We just don't realise it yet!
It would be better pulled down than turned into a mosque.
They do not deserve anything good, not the way they have turned in the past 15 years.
They are not a monoroity any more they are killing the English way of life and the English culture.
Looking at other feed backs people are not happy that they are given everything, because they are muslim. Let them live in a muslim country and not spoil ours !!
badref
says...
10:43pm Wed 25 Jul 12
You hover over these pages day after day peddling your hatred of a culture you do not understand or have never even tried to embrace.
As has been said here, there is no suggestion this site would ever be re-developed as a mosque. Some of us have tried to make constructive suggestions as to possible development. Those who have exploited this thread as another lily-livered opportunity to undermine community cohesion are utterly reprehensible.
english rose 1
says...
11:55pm Wed 25 Jul 12
Ironically, given this was the site of a school, racists have extremely low IQ.
Darwen Malc
says...
12:00am Thu 26 Jul 12
Excluded again
says...
7:00am Thu 26 Jul 12
In 2012, several years later after the Council has used the site for other purposes, the Council says that it is considering disposing for the site, but have not said what for. It could be for housing, it could be for something else.
A pretty thin conspiracy unless the Council gave an undertaking that hell would freeze over before the site was ever used for housing.
english rose 1
says...
12:30pm Thu 26 Jul 12
Darwen Malc wrote:Darwen Malc is right - it was just a rumour. Darwen folk are good at them !*
It was always strongly rumoured that once all the housing around Hannah Street was purchased and demolished and the Academy was built, and the pupils moved from Moorland into there, that the Moorland site would be up for sale for housing. BwD council always denied this and temporarily relocated Vale school pupils into there whilst their Blackburn Road site was rebuilt. Watch the council now do a massive U turn and sell it for housing as has always been the (denied) intention!
The Council has never ever said what the future of the school site would be once Vale moved back to their original site.
*
Only the site of the actual school bulilding + a small area adjacent can be developed.
*
The rest of the fields surrounding the school is greenbelt land.
Judge Nic Sanders
says...
3:38pm Thu 26 Jul 12
jimpy0 says...
10:56am Wed 25 Jul 12