Everything Oldham is spending its £20m government boost on

A brand new outdoor market, a ‘cultural quarter’ around the Coliseum and an ‘ambitious’ sports campus are among the projects Oldham will spend a multimillion pound government boost on.

The ‘exciting’ array of projects were confirmed by council leader Arooj Shah at a cabinet meeting on Monday,  March 24. 

Cabinet members ‘gratefully accepted’ the ‘game changer’ £20m grant from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government during the meeting.

Shah said: “This £20m investment into our borough is not just something that we really welcome. It’s going to be a real game changer. The funding is split over seven different projects and supercharges our ambitious regeneration plans as well.” 

The seven projects are: £5m towards SportsTown; £5m towards building town-centre housing; £4.5m into local community projects in all of Oldham’s five districts; £2.5m to create a ‘Cultural Cooperative’ around the Coliseum; £2m to help market traders move to the new Spindles venue and £1m towards a new outdoor market on George Street. 

An additional £100k will go towards a new scheme to crack down on rogue private landlords by ordering them to repay rent to tenants if they are failing to fulfil their legal duties. 

The recently announced ‘SportsTown’ is the start of a £70m project to transform Athletic FC’s Boundary Park, with ambitions for a 3,000-seat sporting arena for netball and new sports pitches that could one day bring 25,000 visitors flocking to Oldham each week. The initial £5m funding will go towards improving football grounds, creating a new netball court and ‘a state of the art sports, health and education facility’.

Meanwhile the £5m going towards new town-centre homes will fund ‘preparatory works’, with ground prep due to start at the Civic Centre and former Magistrates Court within the next few months. 

Some of the funding will go towards a brand new ‘cultural quarter’ in the town centre ‘with the Coliseum at its heart’.

“£2.5m will create a cultural cooperative model in the area around the Fairbottom Street theatre and around Yorkshire Street,” coun Shah explained.

“Vacant retail units will be brought back into use with income from rent supporting the Coliseum’s running cost, ensuring that we’ve got a sustainable future for our beloved theatre.”

The council has also pledged to ‘take the expenditure and extra burden’ from traders at Tommyfield market, who are due to move to their brand new venue at the Spindles shopping centre later this year. The £2m will help fund new equipment and ‘state-of-the-art’ stalls.