Information supplied by Oldham Council in response to the questions local councillors and the public have asked.
The building is owned by the Methodist Church, who are responsible for the work and have taken the lead in repairing / making the building safe.
Officers from Building Control and Planning met with the Church and their Conservation Officer this morning (25th Feb 2019), and agreed in broad terms the extent of the emergency works. This is currently being finalised by the engineers and architects. Emergency works would be completed within two weeks.
The full programme of work is likely to require positive dismantling (“brick by brick”) of the front elevation in order to protect the heritage of the building and enable repairs. The works will require an engineered scaffolding design to ensure health and safety on site, and are likely to involve use of a cherry picker and high reach appliance/crane. Closure will need to be maintained for this work to take place. It is likely that the left hand pavement on Chapel Street, will need to remain closed to allow the structural scaffold to be maintained.
The total duration of the works, and the period for which road closure will need to be in place are dependent on the detailed engineering decisions. We will provide a further update on this once the plan is clarified.
Rochdale Road hasn’t been opened up on the south side for vehicles exiting Rochdale Road via, Crompton Way due to complexities in how the traffic light system operates.
In terms of the market there seems to be no traffic reason why Shaw market on Thursdays should not proceed as planned.
Any questions or issues can be directed through the District Team, who will co-ordinate the responses from different services (e-mail: RSCDistrictTeam@oldham.gov.uk).