A NEW school D-Day has been put back.
Planners have deferred making a decision on whether a new school should be built on playing fields at Atherton.
They want to study additional correspondence and the legal situation.
And Cllr Sue Loudon wants consultations with locals before the matter is reconsidered in three weeks time.
Covenants dating back over 70 years would need to be lifted for ancient Chowbent School to be relocated on Douglas Street playing fields.
The Education Authority wants to replace the old school - dating back to 1720 - with a more suitable single storey building.
But their preferred site on the 'rec' off Douglas Street is protected by covenants dating from 1926 and 1927, when Lord Lilford and Robert Greenhalgh left it for locals' use.
Site objectors claim the land ought to be given village green status and have bombarded the planning department with objections.
The single storey infants and junior school proposals would accommodate up to 200 children.
It would replace the 183 pupil school which has been condemned by building surveyors and fire experts as unsafe and unsuitable. And experts claim repairing the old school isn't financially feasible.
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