Saying it with flowers

OLDHAM shoppers have probably noticed our town centre has become decidedly more colourful recently.

Pretty paintings now adorn the once tatty old town hall and new trees and hanging baskets have popped up in Yorkshire Street and around the Spindles area. It is clear that Oldham is setting out its stall for the upcoming North-West in Bloom competition, but not everyone is backing our bid.

Labour Councillor Dave Hibbert has slammed the £200,000 cost involved in preparing our entry, while the ruling Liberal Democrats insist that it would be just the ticket to get people coming to the town centre again. But what does the man on the street think? Jennifer Hollamby headed to the town centre to find out.


Beryl Jackson (66), from Chadderton, was certainly enjoying the flowers.

She said: “I think it looks good and I don’t think people should be knocking it. You go to other towns and they spend their money in this way and they look really good.

“Oldham never gets any good publicity. Our reputation is always getting a hammering. You can see the age groups who come into town, and it tends to be mainly older people because the young people don’t want to come here. It is good that they are trying to make it more appealing.”

Brenda Monaghan (68) regularly comes from her Middleton home to shop in Oldham and said she noticed how much better the town centre looked.

“You see flowers like this and it makes you happy,”she said.

“I’m happy to come into Oldham and think it looks a lot nicer than it did a few years ago. If they keep this up it might encourage people to keep the streets clean as well and throw their litter in the bins.”

But Charles Clarke (79), from Grasscroft, was less than convinced.

He said: “I came into town via the new meadow they are creating in St Mary’s Way as part of the scheme and I didn’t notice any major difference.

“I travel around a lot and you go to places like Huddersfield and Doncaster and their floral displays look really striking.

“From the changes made so far, I don’t think Oldham can compete with that.

“I also think you need to do more about the approaches into the town. They don’t look very good and it gives a bad first impression.”

Patricia Fogg and Janine Lax, were also not sure that the money was well spent.

Patricia (71), from Heyside, said: “We need other things in this town centre like a cinema.”

Janine (25) from Coldhurst, said: “They could spend that money on improving facilities for children and making estates and parks look better.

“It’s no use having a nice town centre if you get home and look out of your window and it’s a mess. People mainly come into town centre for shopping anyway, not to look at flowers.”

Sarah Rankin (19), from Broadway, Chadderton, (pictured left) says she is in two minds.

“It’s a good idea to make the town centre look better, but £200,000 seems like a lot of money.

“It would have been nice to see some of the money being spent in other district centres. Chadderton could be improved and it needs more bins.”

Nathan Hill (19), from Shaw, said: “I don’t think it will make much difference.”

His friend Shaun Butterworth added: “It seems like a ridiculous amount of money to spend on something like that.”

Raymond Rudge (77), from St Mary’s, said: “I do think the town hall looks very nice, but it was long overdue. It seems like a bit of a waste of money when there are so many shops closing down. When you look down Yorkshire Street, you notice the metal shutters in front of Woolworths and Ethel Austin much more than the flower beds.