Stockport Council was given over £2m for a new school/new school places in North Reddish. They spent it on something else, which is not illegal, but they then had to replace that money.
There were two possible sites for the new school – on without toxic waste in situ, with no dangerous traffic problems and with plenty of room for expansion. They sold that off for housing – The Fir Tree site. The other site was a still-gassing toxic waste dump. It was a Jackson’s Brickyard. When they stopped making bricks they filled in the claypits with rubbish at a time when no records of what was tipped were kept. In the early 1970s, the law on tipping changed. They couldn’t meet the new safety standards, so the land was grassed over and became public open space, local sports facilities and a recreation ground. There were terrible, existing traffic problems at the location even before the new 500 + pupil school was built. Obviously, the totally LibDem executive committee decided to put the new school on the toxic site.
