Huge plans will breathe new life into ghost town, but nobody's heard of them

SOME BUSINESSES IN OLDHAM NOT CONVINCED BY CHANGES BEING MADE

- CHARLOTTE HALL

OLDHAM'S Yorkshire Street was once a bustling hub of activity.

A road lined with independent businesses, with an off-shoot to the Coliseum theatre, it once attracted a steady stream of visitors from the local area and beyond.

Now the street is empty.

Many of the businesses are shuttered up, including, for the moment, the Coliseum.

The shop owners who choose to open are often left standing behind counters for hours on end, waiting despondently for customers who rarely appear.

"It's really hard for local businesses," Mobeen Chajar, who runs Khyber Bakery on the western end of the road, told the LDRS. "We are struggling. 90 percent of us have shut down." But a huge plan is currently in the works to reverse the fate of the declining town centre. There's just one problem nobody seems to have heard of it.

And those who spoke to the Manchester Evening News had mixed feelings about the scheme, which will see 2,000 new homes built on town centre sites, along with green spaces and amenities. The project, designed by a partnership between Oldham Council and the city developer Muse, aims to address the borough's housing crisis and bring more footfall to businesses in central Oldham.

Preparations for the project are already under way. The majority of council staff were moved over from the Civic Centre to the newly-renovated offices in the top floor of Spindles shopping centre. The Civic Centre would be demolished for housing under the new plans.

Similarly, construction is nearing completion on the new Tommyfield Market next to the shopping mall, while part of the old site is earmarked for housing and green space.

Other sites will include car parks near Oldham Mumps, the demolished leisure centre and the old magistrates court, with Manchester Chambers and Henshaw House refurbished for office and retail space.