Vandals strike cultural centre

EASY target: thieves have been climbing up the drainpipe and stealing lead like this held by manager Dolly Green

THE Millennium Cultural Centre has been left counting the cost after thieves stole lead from the roof.

Bosses are fed-up with vandals at the Westwood facility and claim the latest bout of damage could leave them footing a bill which soars into the thousands.

Centre manager Dolly Green said: “If it wasn’t for our caretaker spotting the remains of a piece of lead which the thieves must have dropped, we may not even have known.

“But when we looked on the roof, there were several pieces of metal missing. It looks like it has been done professionally over a long period of time.”

Police believe thieves have been climbing up a drainpipe to a first-storey section of the building, then up to the next level.

Oldham Bangladeshi Association (OBA) leases the Featherstall Road North building — built to mark the Millennium — from the council. The centre has been a regular hot-spot for criminal activity since opening in 2002.

Dolly added: “At one stage I was ringing the police every week.”

Anyone with information should call police on 150, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800-555 111.