Coliseum and heritage centre set for approval

DECISION time... Proposals for Oldham’s new coliseum and heritage centre are being presented to Oldham Council’s planning committee on Wednesday.

Proposals for Oldham’s new Coliseum theatre and heritage centre are set to be given the go ahead on Wednesday.

The Coliseum will move from Fairbottom Street into a new, state-of-the-art building next to the former Oldham library, with a frontage on Union Street. The site is currently a car park

The theatre will have 550-seat capacity and will be joined by a covered walkway to the refurbished Victorian library building, which will have gallery, exhibition, archive and museum space and its own studio theatre/lecture hall. The building will in turn retain its link to Gallery Oldham

The present public garden by the library will be remodelled to provide the new entrance to the centre.

Council leader Jim McMahon said: “This latest vision aims to showcase the beauty of our future — an eye-catching modern Coliseum building, in a setting that fully complements and doesn’t compete with the grand former library building.

“The scheme is fundamental to our wider plans to make Oldham a destination.”

The artist’s impression of the new theatre/centre attracted negative feedback from the public for its boxy shape.