AN eight-year saga surrounding controversial £19 million plans to relocate an Oldham high school could finally be over as environmental bosses reveal they can now support the project.

After six months of negotiations, officers for the Environment Agency (EA) have removed their formal objection to proposals to move Saddleworth School to a new site in Diggle.

They had previously refused to support the plan over flooding fears, arguing the location was "inappropriate".

But now they say they have enough evidence to show that the development would not increase the flood risk on the site.

The turnaround was confirmed by council leader Sean Fielding, who was met by cheers from Saddleworth and Shaw councillors when he announced the news at a town hall meeting.

Cllr Fielding said: “Hopefully we will soon be able to give local children in Saddleworth the school facilities they deserve.”

It is hoped the application can now go before the borough’s planning committee before the end of the year.

If approved it would see the end of a battle to relocate the school which has been rumbling on for more than eight years.

There have been numerous protests over the school’s proposed move from Uppermill to just off Huddersfield Road in nearby Diggle.

But teachers and pupils say the current school is "falling apart".

Former head boy Joe Wheeler, from Springhead, said the news that the EA had decided to withdraw their objection was "brilliant".

“I want Oldham council to do everything in its power to make sure it happens so the children of Saddleworth can feel the benefits of it sooner rather than later,” he said.

Joe, who is now doing his A-levels at Oldham Bluecoat sixth form, described the conditions within the ageing school building in Uppermill as "surreal".

He said: “The last time I went in was about a month ago, and it was a case of you could put your hand on the wall and the plaster would start crumbling.

“When it rains heavily the inside of the school would start flooding, with multiple classrooms closed at a time.

“And when it was windy there were actually tiles falling off the roof, so you couldn’t leave the school for safety reasons.”

During one class rainwater began pouring down the whiteboard and onto computer equipment, and on another occasion the ceiling of a maths classroom collapsed, Joe said.

“A state-of-the-art new school will benefit thousands and thousands of children in the years to come,” the 17-year-old added.

“The only reason that we all do what we do is to ensure the best future for Saddleworth and the surrounding areas.

“The school that we have got at the moment is absolutely substandard.”

The original school scheme for Diggle was first approved in March, 2015.

But Keith Lucas, from the Save Diggle Action Group (SDAG), took the council to the High Court and successfully halted the move in March last year in a "David and Goliath" ruling.

He had concerns over the location and said there were others places the school could be built, including the current Uppermill site.

The judge agreed with him that the council had not considered the potential harm to heritage assets on the Diggle site, and quashed the permission.

An updated application was lodged in July 2015, which needs to be considered afresh by the planning committee.

Saddleworth representatives from across the political divide told the Local Democracy Reporting Service they were "pleased and relieved" the EA’s objection has been withdrawn.

Conservative councillor Pam Byrne, who represents Saddleworth North, said: “I am very pleased and hopefully it can go to planning and we can get on with it.

“It’s been going on for many, many years and I have gone through it all. We have built ourselves up to a high and gone back down to a low.

“It is a constant fight and a constant drain on budgets to keep repairing things and keeping things up to the level of the law, when that money could be better spent elsewhere.

“It’s brought a lot of people together who now understand that we do want the school and more people want it than don’t want it.

“We look forward to digging the first sod, as we call them in this area.”

Saddleworth West and Lees ward representative, Labour Cllr Valerie Leach added: “Of course it’s a big relief, we want the thing to get going as soon as we can.

“As I understand, the full application from the Department of Education will come before the planning committee fairly soon.

“So I hope that means before the end of the year. Then we could start breaking ground and building early next year, which would be lovely.”

She added: “I am sure that there will still be a very vocal group of people who will continue to object, but I don’t think they have any mainstream political backing anymore.

“There are still people that believe it’s possible to build on the existing site and arrangements to be made for classes to continue while construction goes on but that’s clearly not a very satisfactory plan.”

The existing school has 1,350 places and is made up of 11 blocks of accommodation, most of which are in a poor state of repair.

The new school will have capacity for 1,500 pupils.

An EA spokesperson said: “The Environment Agency work closely at all times with local authorities, communities and businesses, to ensure that we invest where we can provide the greatest benefit to people and property at risk of flooding.”

They said they "diligently" assess any planning application in a flood risk area, and their initial objection had highlighted deficiencies in the original plan, including the excavation of the existing floodplain and "compensatory storage".

“The volume of displaced water is unknown and there remains uncertainties about flood risk being increased elsewhere,” they said.

However after receiving a 2D river model from a consultant, they were able to better estimate flood levels and routes, and EA officers concluded it now meets the requirements of the national planning policy framework.

The spokesperson concluded: “The outputs from this modelling work provided sufficient evidence and explanation to demonstrate that flood risk is not increased elsewhere.”