Oldham to Reinvent Itself

Plans to create a new community as a model of inter-cultural harmony have been set out in an ambitious vision for Oldham. Oldham beyond includes 89 proposals to transform the town over the next 10 to 15 years from a place its people find ‘faintly embarrassing’ to a ‘hotbed of creative activity’ where the middle classes want to live and businesses want to locate. Central to the plan, commissioned by Oldham Local Strategic Partnership and the North West Development Agency, is the desire to turn the prevailing community tension that led to the riots in 2001 into a picture-postcard of harmony. The new community will be located in the Werneth/Freehold area, one of two pilot areas included in the £55m housing market renewal programme, which will replace 752 of the 1,883 properties with 691 new houses and 295 flats.
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