Demands are being made to return Lancaster’s redundant Skerton High School to community use and a public meeting is being organised tomorrow, Tuesday 17th September – and Lancaster City Council will be pressed to take action at its next full council meeting on Wednesday 25th September.
Exactly five years since the school closed, councillors and residents are campaigning for the site on the A6 in Owen Road to be used again for education or health purposes.
City councillors in Skerton say the school was held in high regard by the local community for 80 years.
“Since it closed, Lancashire County Council have done nothing with the building, leaving it to fall into a state of disrepair.”
County Council representatives, community leaders and other interested parties are being invited to the public meeting at Father’s House in Owen Road, which will start at 7pm.
County Coun Phillippa Williamson, the county’s new Cabinet member for children, young people and schools, plans to attend.
“We also want to hear the views of local residents,” say the councillors.
They believe the site has massive potential to be used again mainly for education but also possibly as a community hub to promote health and well-being, sports and the environment, providing a local economic boost for residents in north Lancaster.
The Skerton councillors, Abbott Bryning, Robert Redfern, Sandra Thornberry, Phil Black, Mandy King and Jean Parr, will urge the full council meeting to call on Lancashire County Council to bring the site back into regular use as soon as possible.
They want the city to actively seek out and support potential partners and occupiers.
“It could be a centre for children with education, health and care plans, a campus for one of the universities, a technical college or a community centre with woodland or town green,” they said.
Renovations or developments should comply with the the city’s ambitions, particularly relating to local spending, employment standards and the climate emergency.
County councillors at the vigil included Coun Erica Lewis, leader of Lancaster City Council, and Coun Lizzi Collinge, prospective Parliamentary Labour candidate for Morecambe and Lunesdale.
“The saddest thing for me,” said Coun Collinge, “is seeing the playing fields not being used, despite the Chadwick Centre on the site and an obvious user for the outside space.
“It feels like a waste of money for the County Council to maintain the site without at least allowing community use of the playing fields,” she said.
A vigil was held outside the school’s gates to mark the anniversary of the closure on Saturday 31st August.
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