Shameful days are behind us
Date published: 23 May 2011
police vans drive through flames in the early hours as gangs of youths hurled petrol bombs at officers and erected burning barricades on the riots’ second night
IT’S 10 years since Oldham hit national headlines with three days of rioting that shook the borough. In the first of a five-part series, Richard Hooton looks at what happened and how Oldham responded.
“NONE of us were prepared for the ferocity and sheer carnage that took place.”
Those were the words of then head of Oldham Police Chief Supt Eric Hewitt as the borough faced up to the worst racially motivated riots in the UK for 15 years.
He added at the time: “It was unprecedented — nothing like this has ever been seen in Oldham, or any other town in Greater Manchester.”
On a sunny May Bank Holiday violence erupted with hundreds of armed youths fighting running battles with riot police, vehicles turned over and set alight and pubs and homes bombarded with bricks and bottles.
Millions of pounds of damage was caused during the mayhem with 86 police officers and 21 members of the public injured. Over the following years there were numerous court cases with dozens of people jailed for their involvement.
“The ‘hotbed of racial tension’ stigma will be with us for decades to come”, predicted Chronicle Comment on May 28, 2001, as the community was still taking in the trail of destruction. But community leaders say much work has been done to rid Oldham of that tag in the years since and to inspire community cohesion.
Former Mayor Riaz Ahmad, whose house was firebombed during the riots, believes the town has come a long way.
He was deputy mayor at the time and spent the first few days visiting people to spread a message of peace.
Looking back at those bleak days, he said: “Memories will remain with us for a long time to come.
“It took a number of weeks to build up to the disturbances. The BNP was visiting the town centre regularly, every Saturday, and adding to the tensions. Police released statistics of racial attacks and this generated huge debate.
“The horrific attack on the veteran Walter Chamberlain, though condemned by all communities, brought Oldham into the national limelight and was followed by Stoke City fans rampaging through Oldham attacking properties and increasing tension.”
Pensioner Mr Chamberlain suffered serious facial injuries after being attacked by a group of Asian youths and images of his injuries prompted outrage.
Mr Ahmad says national media reports made adverse impact on the delicate situation and the situation worsened when a heavily pregnant Asian woman was physically assaulted in her home in Roundthorn Road.
Asian youths began congregating in Waterloo Street and numbers rose quickly until hundreds marched toward the town centre where they were met with police.
In the aftermath of the riots, the Ritchie and Cantle reports studied the causes and made criticisms of the town’s leadership and deeply entrenched segregation.
Mr Ahmad said: “As a borough we showed maturity and we did not shy away from the challenge, neither did we try to sweep anything under the carpet. Every one acknowledged the mistakes made, the council, police, schools and colleges.
“We all accepted the Ritchie and Cantle reports. To be able to resolve the problem, one needs to acknowledge the problem and then move on to analysing and resolving it.
“A huge amount of work has been done and Oldham is a much more cohesive place than it was 10 years. We have set off on a journey and we are moving in the right direction.
“There is still a long way to go. Oldham University, the school twinning programme, summer sports programmes, area policing and the NHS LIFT programme are some of the success stories.
“But Housing Market Renewal has not lived up to the expectation and the current financial environment is also a major challenge.
“Most importantly, I believe that we all working together — the council, police, colleges, voluntary sector and the press — and have managed to change the mind-set of the communities. They are now much more positive in their thinking and want to ensure that we never face those dark days of May, 2001.”
Mr Ahmad’s work in the aftermath to improve relations won him two awards, the North West Regional Achiever of the Year Award for services to the community and the Mayor of the Year Award.
Tomorrow: What caused the riots...a look at the Ritchie report
