Parents pressure council again to rethink school plans
Nov 13 2008 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
Save our school pressure grows
PARENTS last night piled on the pressure to keep their children’s school open.
They told Kirklees Council to think again about closing Castle Hall School in Mirfield.
In September the council’s Conservative-run Cabinet announced a £200m shake-up of schools in north Kirklees. The proposal would see 11 schools closing, including Castle Hall.
But last month the Tories agreed to draw up new plans to keep the school open after parents gathered nearly 4,000 signatures against its closure.
And there was no let up in the campaign at last night’s monthly council meeting, with parents and children from Castle Hall protesting outside Huddersfield Town Hall.
Inside parents kept up the pressure on councillors.
Alan Wilkinson, whose 11-year-old daughter Jasmine has just started at Castle Hall, said that merging with Mirfield Free Grammar would be unworkable.
He said: “At a consultation meeting on November 6 a council official said that if the plans go ahead Mirfield Free Grammar will have to stagger start times from 8am to 10am, with some children not finishing until 6pm.
“I’m gravely concerned about this. I ask the Cabinet to keep Castle Hall in its current site with its current leadership.”
