WEDS PM: New council plans to close Castle Hall and Birkdale

Mar 4 2009 By Barry Gibson

COUNCILLORS have just revealed their plans for schools in north Kirklees.

The latest proposal would see Castle Hall in Mirfield close - despite a massive campaign by pupils, parents and teachers to keep it open.

The new Labour-Lib Dem Cabinet unveiled its plan at 6pm to spend £200m of Government cash on schools in Mirfield, Dewsbury, Batley and the Spen Valley.

Parents, teachers and governors will be consulted on the proposal after Easter, with a final decision due later this year.

The plan includes closing Castle Hall and Birkdale High in Dewsbury. Batley Girls High would become a co-educational school for 1,350 pupils.

Labour and the Lib Dems toppled the Conservatives in January because they were unhappy with the Tory schools plan.

However - like the original Conservative plan - Labour and the Lib Dems have today proposed closing Castle Hall.

The Conservatives had previously alleged Labour and the Lib-Dems knew about their plans and backed them in secret before they were made public.

There are some differences with the original Tory plan. Labour and the Lib Dems have not proposed opening a new high school in Birkenshaw - a highly controversial part of the Conservative plan.

The coalition Cabinet has also proposed retaining St John Fisher Sixth Form in Dewsbury and opening a new sixth form college in the town centre.

Next page: Full Kirklees Council press release on the changes.

Click here for a photogallery of a protest march in October against the changes.

Or click here for a rally featuring local Labour MP Shahid Malik backing the campaign to keep the school open.

Have your say on the proposals in our forum below. We will print a selection in the Examiner newspaper.