Plan to let community run council buildings

Under-used council buildings should be given to the community to manage, a group of councillors has suggested.

And the first group to benefit could be the Springhead Community Association which saved the Springhead Lifelong Learning Centre in Ashes Lane from closure last year.

Councillors who review the authority’s policies and decision making say that any disposals of surplus property should be at market value.

And any council support such as a grant should be tapered and time limited.

Oldham’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Board will consider the recommendations on Tuesday and decide whether to support them.

Key issues, according to the report, would be whether organisations have management skills, will all the community be represented, how will groups get access to capital funding to refurbish and develop buildings, and what is the benefit to the council.

Springhead Community Association needs an urgent decision because it cannot apply for grants and funds until it has a long term lease on the building, which needs £261,000 worth of work. In a separate report, the board will also consider how to bring derelict and vacant land back into use.

Councillors have discovered that outside the Saddleworth area, there is no comprehensive census of land in Oldham which can be used in future for developments.

Although the council knows what land it owns, the estimate of 221 hectares of underused or derelict other land in the borough is said to be a 20 per cent underestimate.

But a review by a qualified team of surveyors would be too expensive. Instead the recommendation is to continue Oldham’s high record of using brownfield sites for new housing.

But suggestions that other sites should be cleared and grassed over and used for informal public areas is not supported by legal officers.

They say this could lead to challenges if public open space is developed, and could lead to people applying for land to be registered as town or village greens.

Both reports will be studied before being passed to the Cabinet and then Oldham Council.