New council leader's bid to save 'unique' QE Hall

The iconic Queen Elizabeth Hall site in the centre of Oldham

The Oldham Council Leader-elect has revealed that he wants to save Queen Elizabeth Hall from the wrecking ball as he continues to review the authority’s current masterplan.

Councillor Sean Fielding is due to take up his new position next week after being voted in as leader of town’s Labour Party just after the local elections earlier this month.

As part of his first order of business when he steps into the role, replacing Councillor Jean Stretton, the Failsworth West Councillor is expected to pause the £350 million town centre masterplan and begin a review into the finer details of it.

The plan, in its current form, calls for a number of buildings to be demolished and some others to be moved - they include the likes of Tommyfield Market, the old Magistrates Court and Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Back in March, councillors were told “significant project spend would still not bring the hall into a position where it could effectively compete in the local and regional market.”

However, Councillor Fielding believes there is still a place for the QE Hall in Oldham.

He said: “It is a unique facility, not just in the borough but also in the region, and its very popular among all sections of our community.

"It’s important that we retain it.

"It would be great shame to pull it down with no guarantee that it would be replaced with a facility that could offer the same things that that could, and that is why I’m not willing to accept that it must go at this point.”

Indeed, the new leader has already instructed officers at the local authority to begin drawing up plans for how the building can be saved and, possibly, modified for future use.

Councillor Fielding has also rubbished suggestions that pausing the masterplan project would waste more public money, instead insisting that getting the plans right before the redevelopment begins would help the town bring in more finance in the long run.