Take pride in the arrival of the trams

THE FRIDAY THING: FINALLY, the tram has arrived. It has certainly been a long and harrowing wait and we users and would-be users, while mourning the loss of a train service similar to those enjoyed in both Ashton and Rochdale, hope the new service will bring to Oldham the benefits we have long hoped for.

Those who doubted the benefits of the 10-year project, insisting it would take people out of Oldham rather than bringing them in and thus offering no real benefit to the borough, have always had a point.

But the arrival of the trams, coinciding as it does with some major and much-needed developments in Oldham town centre, comes at the right time.

The combination with a new-look Oldham (new owners and new developments for Spindles/Town Square, a multi-screen cinema, long overdue revitalisation for Oldham Coliseum, a new town centre hotel bringing jobs and apprenticeships, and the prospects for a long overdue improvement in the shopping experience) will provide plenty of answers for the nay-sayers, who have long relished Oldham’s failings and shortcomings far more than its prospects and potential.

And let’s not forget Oldham’s magnificent market hall, which has prospered over the last decade and is now a key element of Oldham’s shopping experience.

It is genuinely the dawning of a new era. Those who have supported the tram development from the start (including the Chron, if not all of our readers) can take pride and pleasure in the arrival of the tram line and its potential for growth.


FINAL WORD: Happy though I am to see Caroline Ball restored to the role of Chief Supt in Oldham (she will also be head of Tameside police in what is a major bid to save money) I find myself wondering why, if we are so strapped for cash, we have a crime commissioner who costs us a very big fortune and whose role the vast majority of local folk do not understand.
Council leader Jim McMahon cannot see the sense in restructuring so that one senior officer is put in charge of both Tameside and Oldham without any consultation on the consequences for policing in both areas, especially in terms of it distancing police from other agencies and local politicians.

True, money is being saved, but at what cost? And can we really afford a crime commissioner when we already have an excellent chief constable in Sir Peter Fahy.

Couldn’t that money be better used elsewhere?