£700,000 to shape town hall future

BIG plans . . . for Oldham Town Hall

OLDHAM’S crumbling town hall is set to get a £700,000 injection to make it stable and weatherproof.

The money has been earmarked after a survey was carried out to discover just how bad the condition of the Grade II listed building is.

It would then need another £900,000 to get it into a good enough state to attract a developer.

A damning at-risk list drawn up by the Victorian Society in October, 2009, named the former town hall as one of the nation’s top 10 endangered buildings.

Opened in 1841, it is a copy of the temple of the Greek god Ceres near Athens and a blue plaque at the entrance commemorates where Winston Churchill stood when he was elected MP for the town in 1900.

Oldham Council moved from the building to the civic centre in 1978. Small rooms were then used by a variety of groups and the courtroom — added in 1880 — was a satellite crown court.

However, it has been festering since it closed in 1995.

In 2008, the Oldham Chronicle was given access and found water running down the walls, roosting pigeons and wet and dry rot. Original features had collapsed and there were huge cracks in the ceiling.

Councillors are set to approve the initial £700,000 at the Cabinet meeting on April 14 as part the 2010 to 2013 capital programme.

Councillor Lynne Thompson, Cabinet member for finance and resources, said a second phase, which could cost £900,000, would then bring it up to a fit state for redevelopment, possibly as a family leisure facility.

She added: “The public could not have told us their priority more clearly. The shameful neglect of Oldham Town Hall upsets people.

“Restoring it will restore civic pride and help bring our town centre back to the way it was and should be again.”

Other schemes proposed include £250,000 to meet asbestos, legionella, disability discrimination and health and safety requirements in council buildings.

There is also £635,000 for facilities for autistic pupils and £1.8 million to improve schools.

Another £4 million will improve roads with £8 million to upgrade council houses and £1.5 million for private housing.