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Forced out!
Reporter: KAY DINGSDALE
Date online: 05 February 2013
Shocked firms given a month to leave run-down centre
ANGRY businessmen forced to quit their premises have accused Oldham Council of not doing enough to support small firms.
The one-man bands at Acorn Business Centre, Barry Street, have been given a month to leave. The council, which leased the building, is handing it back to its owners.
Currently 13 businesses operate from the units: several of them are struggling to find new premises and some fear they might have to close.
The council says it costs too much to lease the centre, which requires major repairs, and insists it has offered help to find suitable relocations.
George Blatch, a service engineer for the printing trade, who lives in Oldham, has had premises at Acorn for years and says the closure will force him into an early retirement he doesn’t want.
“I like what I do,” he said. “There have been rumours about these premises, which have been gradually run down over the years. We have been very badly treated.”
David Wright, who lives in Royton, runs an equestrian-wear business from Acorn: “The closure has been very poorly handled. They knew the lease was up but didn’t have the bottle to tell us and have only given us a month’s notice.”
Councillor Dave Hibbert said: “The council has decided not to renew its lease. We are reviewing our entire property portfolio and each asset must provide value for money. Despite the rental income this facility is a significant cost to the council.
“The site needs investment, and major repairs aren’t affordable. We will do whatever we can to help and are talking to all the parties involved.
“We have sympathy for the individual tenants and are working hard to help them.”
Comments
“each asset must provide value for money."
So I can expect plenty of pay cuts and redundancies at the top and management levels in the council then?
OMBC are an absolute sham. No busines can really find suitable premises and relocate there within a month. Its not logistically possible, plus all the hidden costs like letter heads, moving exspences etc. This really is the bottom for OMBC. No wonder our once superb, popular borough is now on its knees.
ps. We even dont have 4 sides to our football ground........
Is this a labour council shambolic no worries Debbie Abrahams is in this press more than once a month championing small businesses see if she put into practice what she preaches not,all talk this labour lot dave even states in 1 sentence council money not taxpayers council money
Can Flake give examples of where money has been wasted? Can't people for once applaud the Council for saving £100m whilst protecting front line services and lining up significant future investment? Why do people in this town always look for the negatives and moan? If they poured a lot of money in to repairing this building for no long term financial benefit they would get abused again!! No win situation
@Bramble - 350k overspend on Dunwood Park. £3.5 million on Metrolink fancying up. "Go for a walk" farce around the borough. General demise of the borough creating income shortfalls.......
Bramble just this last week we have reports of the council wasting around a million pounds.
A £350K overspend by poor project management on a park refurb.
£250K added by the council to a fund of £650K to 'kick start' projects.
£120K on the war memorial which could have been raised by public subscription.
Just 7 days and three quarters of a million pounds needlessly spent/wasted.
Isn't Metrolink majority funded by Greater Manchester Transport?? Isn't investing in kick start projects a good thing? Think you're being ambitious assuming the public would cough up £120k for war memorial? I agree Dunwood Park is poor project management but its a drop in the ocean compared to the billions lost by private sector financial companies.
These businesses to my knowledge are on monthly in and out terms so that must work both ways. O.M.B.C could not turn around and make a big deal about it if one of these businesses turned around and said they were leaving after ten years or so.These are on monthly terms to make it easier on both parties instead of a business being tied down to a three or five year lease. Being badly treated that seems harsh when some businesses have left and come back to the same centre owned by the big bad wolf
cant understand anyone wanting to open a buisness in oldham,with a council that dosen't support local buisnesses.
@Bramble - Metrolink yes. Fancying up the route no. As for more general since you went there Brown created the deficit and debt with massive overspends. When income collapsed from the false tax from false bank profits that he supported all his overspending got exposed and debt rocketed. Brown was the biggest disaster this country has ever had!!!! He spent, spent, spent when he should have saved some for a rainy day
@max damage agree about Brown and the deficit but aren't you forgetting that borrowing and the debt are both increasing under the Coalition despite the volume of austerity cuts?? Even the IMF is recommending spending on capital to get out of recession. P.S what do you mean by "fancying up"????
@Bramble. No as the coalition is a complete shambles aswell. As for "Austerity cuts" that I am afraid is a sick joke. Foreign aid, mass wellfare to new immigrants, Child benefit going abroad, etc, etc. They have all spent on welfare/aid and cut infrastructure spending. Big, big mistake. All 3 are utterly useless and not fit for purpose imho and are in it for themselves
I'm a tenant in that building, and I’m heartened that a lot of readers feel the same way and it’s not just us. Just to put the record straight, the 1 month license was intend3ed to help businesses grow or shrink at short notice. ie if you were growing you could move to a bigger unit in a month.
As for the centre turning a profit, think about this, no centre manager for 2 years saving a salary of £28K pa. Where has it gone? On to Unity Partnerships private partners bottom line?
Have Your Say
But most commercial leases are fully repairable, and once the lease is ended and dilapidations carried out, the council will have to pay the cost of the 'major repairs' anyway. So it looks like someone isn't being as truthful as they might be.
Over the past month we have seen the council waste money hand over fist, yet when it comes to supporting business they can't walk away quick enough.
Surely the owners of the site will want to lease the site so why can't owners negotiate directly?
By Flake @ 05/02/2013 13:21:41