Mayor welcomes return of the Chronicle

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The Mayor of Oldham, Cllr Shadab Qumer, has spoken of his delight at seeing the return of the iconic Oldham Chronicle to an online platform.

The ‘Chron’ returned earlier today, and Cllr Qumer welcomed the move following the former newspaper’s sad demise after 163 years on August 31, 2017.

Cllr Qumer said: “I’m absolutely delighted to see the Chronicle back online.

“It’s been missed by so many. In my role as Mayor I’ve had so many conversations with people since its downfall.

“It’s very important. In fact it’s a way of life, certainly it’s been in my family ever since I was a child.

“It’s so important to find out what’s going on in and around town.

“The way people are these days, leading such busy lives, online is where the Chronicle needs to be, and I think you’ll be surprised how many hits there will be.

“There have been rumours and people have been looking forward to it coming back.

“I had family round recently and they wanted to know what was going on because they wanted to take the kids out.

“Apart from my prior knowledge, they didn’t know what was on.

“The new Chronicle website will certainly service that.”

Locally-based tv and theatre actress Sue Devaney – who is currently starring in ‘The Kitchen Sink’ at the Oldham Coliseum - was also present at the launch to offer her good wishes.

“I always loved the Chron from an early age,” she said.

“We were always in it, from the Oldham Theatre Workshop days through to all the shows I’ve done at the Coliseum. It was brilliant.

“It’s just so nice to see it doing what it does best, and that’s telling the local news.

“It is about local news. It’s all right knowing what’s going on around the world, but sometimes you just want to know what’s going on right on your doorstep.”

Email your stories to the Chronicle newsdesk at: news@oldham-chronicle.co.uk

Watch our video featuring the Lord Mayor and Sue Devaney for more thoughts on the the old Chronicle and the return of the new online version.