New bid to end Whispers saga

THE owners of Royton’s Assembly Hall are set to hold crucial talks with Oldham’s council leader on Monday.

Since Whispers Developments purchased the building in 2002, they have been fined £3,500 for failing to secure the site and, with mounting legal costs, have still not paid the council.

Now Council leader Jim McMahon and Councillor Steven Bashforth – who made a seven-day promise to start work on getting the hall back into use – are expected to meet the owners to thrash out talks over the building’s future.

The council previously scheduled the talks for June 15, but the Manchester-based owners cancelled.

Councillor Bashforth said: “We have tried to meet with the owners face-to-face to sort things out once and for all, but they have proved very evasive. I am quite hopeful about the meeting on Monday.

“We have agreed a course of action and we will do everything we can to get it back into the public domain.

“We have consistently called for the council to seriously tackle this eyesore and now we are finally in a position to do it.

“Our pledge still stands – the assembly hall is one of our top priorities.”

Liberal Democrat Councillor Howard Sykes said when his party was in control of the council, he was told that acquisition of the building would be over £1 million and that it had been made clear to him that a CPO of the building was not an option.

He said: “Clearly Councillor Bashforth felt able to make a public pledge, which was at significant odds with the officer advice the Lib-Dem administration had been receiving over the last few years.

“Neither I, nor my cabinet colleagues, were ever in receipt of any documentation or advice after March, 2010 so I am more than intrigued to understand what has changed in the few short days since the local elections.”

Cllr Bashforth said: “We are not looking at a CPO and to date have not said we want to.

“We have the determination, the will and the courage to take on the problem.

“More cynical attacks from the Lib-Dems for doing something about a very difficult, long-standing problem will not put us off. They had ample opportunity to act in the interest of Royton people but did not have the motivation or willingness to try.”

Whispers did not answer phone calls from the Chronicle and our emails were returned.