Equity calls on Oldham Council to act fast to save Coliseum

Today (Wednesday 15 March) Equity, the trade union for performing arts, has called on Oldham Council to act urgently now that Arts Council England have revealed they will consider a new funding bid for Oldham Coliseum.

In crunch talks with the union in Manchester last week, Arts Council England (ACE) revealed that they had placed no block on the £1.8m funding ringfenced for Oldham Council going to Oldham Coliseum, raising the possibility of a last minute reprieve for the theatre company.

Following this development, Equity has called on Oldham Council to “urgently” submit new bid to ACE that could save jobs and livelihoods at Oldham Coliseum, ahead of a Full Council meeting tonight.

Equity’s North West Regional Official Paul Liversey said: “Oldham Council must act fast to submit a new bid that could save this producing theatre company and keep paid work for actors and creatives in Oldham, where it should be. The longer this takes, the less likely it is that Oldham audience goers will have any of the 2023 theatre season left. I am appealing to Cllr Amanda Chadderton to save the 2023 panto by putting in a new bid for the Coliseum urgently.”

Equity’s senior elected representative for the North West, Vicky Brazier (NW Councillor), said: “Oldham Council have now got another chance to save this theatre company. It is so important that creative workers in the North West have an opportunity to work locally, earn locally, and spend their wage locally. Having Oldham Coliseum, a local producing house that employs people in the local community, allows us to do this.

“To lose the Coliseum would be so damaging to the North West’s creative economy. 'the people of Oldham, like the people of London and the people of Manchester, deserve a producing theatre on their doorstep and the community groups which work with the Coliseum deserve to be able to continue without a break.”

The union’s appeal comes following its crunch talks with ACE last Thursday, where Equity General Secretary Paul Fleming held a press conference criticising Arts Council decision making, saying the decision to defund Oldham was a symptom of an overcentralised system and that “nobody in this part of the world would have chosen to make this decision that is very clear.

“Culture funding should be regionalised and put into the hands of the communities and the artists who make it, not in the hands of people several hundred miles away.”