Squatters turn special school into ‘drinking den’

Nov 20 2008 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

VANDALS and squatters have turned a former special school into a rundown eyesore.

Now a Kirkburton councillor is demanding to know what Kirklees Council is planning to do with the old Turnshaws Special School site.

Green Party councillor Derek Hardcastle said the buildings had been repeatedly broken into.

“The place has been used as a drinking den and there is graffiti scrawled all over the old classrooms,” he said.

“It is a sad sight to see a place that once provided education and support to some of those in the greatest need fall into such a poor state. There needs to be a plan for the future.”

The school at Turnshaws Avenue, which taught children with severe learning difficulties aged two to 19, was built in 1971.

It closed in July 2006 when the school merged with Highfields School, Edgerton, to form Castle Hill School, which was built between Newsome and Berry Brow.