New pub: we’ll drink to that

Oldham Planning Committee
A DERELICT shopping centre in Shaw will be given a new lease of life as a pub.

Proposals to turn Greensway Shopping Centre into a JD Wetherspoon have been approved after plans to include a beer garden were dropped.

It will open from 7am daily and close at 12.30am Monday to Friday, and 1.30am on Saturdays and Sundays.

The centre in Milnrow Road, Shaw, was gutted by an arson attack which started in a takeaway in December, 2009.

Wetherspoon’s has almost 800 pubs nationwide including the Squire Knott in Oldham centre.

It was previously criticised for submitting the Shaw proposals without talking to councillors and planning officers.

Architects then withdrew the scheme after officers recommended it for refusal because of concerns about noise from the proposed beer garden.