Oldham Tories will be told to “stop talking Oldham down” at this week’s full council meeting, in response to their motion.

Oldham Council is making good progress on plans to build a better Oldham, and is unlocking £285m through Creating a Better Place, Oldham Labour’s ambitious plan to transform Oldham. The plan will build 2,000 homes in the town centre, create 1,000 jobs and 100 apprenticeships as well as establishing the Jubilee Park in the town centre.

The Conservative Government has acknowledged the strength of the plan and Oldham’s ambition by awarding a total of £55.15m in three different funding streams: £10.75m from the Future High Street Fund; £24.4m from the Town Deal Fund and in January 2023 £20m from the Levelling Up fund. The funding will help to deliver the new Spindles, relocating Tommyfield Market, building a new event space and incubator space for businesses. Work is already delivering Accessible Oldham across the Town Centre and has recently started on the Egyptian Room. The Town Deal Board, led by local businessman William Lees-Jones of JWLees, is in charge of the Town Investment Plan.

£20m Levelling Up funding will help to deliver Oldham’s aim of a carbon neutral borough by 2030 by building a learning centre at Northern Roots; a new “Green Shoots” business centre, and an “Oldham Greenway to link Northern Roots to the Town Centre.

Councillor Amanda Chadderton, Leader of Oldham Council said ‘We came out fighting from the pandemic determined to build a better Oldham for us all. Agreeing the Creating a Better Place programme put us in a really strong position to bid for government funding when it became available. Labour has a clear vision and had already identified priority projects to renew Oldham Town Centre. Our successful bid writing team has brought in over £130m in the last few years to enable us to move at pace. Despite political differences, it is heartening to have had this external vote of confidence from the Conservative Government. Our Levelling Up bid was one of only three Greater Manchester bids to have been endorsed by the Government, it is beyond me why Oldham Tories want to undermine their own government in this way.’

Deputy Leader Cllr Abdul Jabbar said “I was astonished to read the motion from Oldham Conservatives. They are only able to submit one motion to council, yet with so many issues facing Oldham residents, and opportunities for Oldham’s future we could debate they have submitted something which amounts to no more than a baseless political rant. Whether it passes or fails would make no difference to a single resident so even discussing it is a waste of everyone’s time.”

Cllr Chadderton added ‘Oldham’s Tories just talk the town down. They offer nothing but carping from the sidelines and empty slogans. They should get behind Oldham and push for success instead of calling for external reviews undermining the progress being made.’