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Developers finally forced into action
Reporter: JANICE BARKER
Date online: 10 March 2010
Hoardings have gone up around Royton Assembly Hall as Oldham Council gets tough with developers Whispers.
The council threatened enforcement action in August last year to force the company to finish the job it started in 2002.
When it had still made no progress in February this year, the council chief executive Charlie Parker stepped in.
Exasperated with the lack of progress by the company, which bought the hall for £215,000, he called them to a meeting and got Whispers to sign up to a legal deed of covenant, and a schedule of works and timetable for completion of the development. The hall was originally supposed to be up and running as a restaurant, banqueting hall and conference centre by 2004, then by April, 2006, and nearly four years later is still half-finished.
As well as agreeing to the new timetable, Whispers was issued with legal proceedings for breach of the hoarding licence for the public square, and the obstruction of Middleton Road.
The fencing is part of these works, but a council spokesman said it could be summer before all the work is completed.
Comments
Yes but come on spill the beans.... when will it be open for business!! Is the summer deadline just for tidying up, or getting the place open?
Which party was in control when RAH was old off? Why no details of the actual schedule in this story?
See what happens when you sell things off into private hands? I can still remember catching a bus to watch a concert at RAH. Now you can't do either.
Have Your Say
A swift resolution is needed badly in all the recent cases of attacks, wether classed as racist or not. If not the problems papered over since 2001 will come once more to the fore. The authorities have got to tread a fine line to not give the perception on favouratism to one community or the other as this will only give rise to resentment from all.
By Chubby Chud @ 10/03/2010 14:27:51