Car group set for summer opening

ON site . . . Jean Stretton and Stephen Pettyfer

WORK is progressing well on Oldham's new £8m Audi dealership, which will create more than 80 new jobs.

The 17-car showroom and 24-bay service workshop, off Chadderton Way, will be run by Jardine Motors Group, one of the largest dealers of the German-marque in the UK.

The new premises, which will also offer a full after-sales and pre-delivery inspection service, is set to open in the summer of 2017.

Councillor Jean Stretton, leader of Oldham Council, recently met with Stephen Pettyfer, group property director at Jardine Motors Group, to see how work is coming along.

She said: "It's great to see how much construction work has been done on site already.

"In 2014, Jardine Motors Group informed Oldham Council they were interested in coming to the borough, so it's great to see all the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes is coming to fruition.

"Audi is the type of high-end global brand we are looking to attract to the borough.

"We've done it already with Odeon in the Old Town Hall Cinema and this shows that blue-chip firms see the borough as a place where they can do business.

"Jardine have also confirmed that they are committed to our Get Oldham Working campaign, and are looking forward to working with local colleges and supply chains, which is great news for jobseekers and the local economy."

Mr Pettyfer said: "I'd like to thank Councillor Stretton for coming down to the site to see its progress.

"This will be a key site for Jardine Motors Group, and we are working closely with Audi to develop a new dealership that will be a benchmark for the future of automotive retailing.

"Our ambition is to include the latest technology and introduce tailored customer services for buyers, to really shake up and modernise the car-buying industry - moving away from the traditional one-size-fits-all approach when buying a new car."

The new premises - on a four-and-a-half-acre site that formerly housed Westhulme Hospital - will add to Jardine Motors Group's existing Audi businesses across the region and will create approximately 87 jobs and see millions of pounds invested in the site.

Oldham Council officers worked with their counterparts at the NHS trust, which owned the site, to facilitate the deal, paving the way for the surplus site to be brought back into use.

As part of the deal, a grass kick pitch, serving the local community, is proposed to be built on another part of the site by Oldham Council, which was a planning requirement from a previous land deal the council concluded with the NHS.

A new access junction off Chadderton Way will also be built.