Oldham Council’s long promised “game-changer” redevelopment of Prince’s Gate, Mumps in Oldham town centre has fallen through after more than eight years of delays. 

It promised to deliver a new hotel and “missing retail giants” to Oldham town centre.  Gone has the promised M&S store and in 2019, the council entered a contract with Lidl acting as the developer for the site and to deliver a budget hotel as well as the supermarket.

Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE said, “Prince’s Gate was lauded as a game-changer for Oldham but more than eight years and four Labour Leaders later it’s gone out with a whimper.  Labour can add Prince’s Gate to long list of abortive regeneration projects they’ve championed over the years including so called plans for Hotel Futures.  We also still wait for the Egyptian Room in the old Town Hall to be brought into use, years after the rest of it was reopened.  It’s a dismal track record.” 

The Liberal Democrat Leader pressed council leader Amanda Chadderton on Prince’s Gate as recently as the November 2 council meeting in 2022, pointing out that it had taken less time to put a man on the moon than it had for Oldham Council to deliver the redevelopment of ‘The game changer Princess Gate’. 

She said that they were in constant dialogue with the developers and “they say it will be brought forward”.  But the Labour Leader has now confirmed that her administration will scrap the plans. 

“We have said for a long time they need to deliver and also need to put some effort into our district centres like Shaw, Chadderton, Lees and alike not just Oldham Town Centre,” added councillor Sykes.

NOTES

Councillor Sykes presses council leader on Prince’s Gate (02/11/22)   

Q1 the impact of inflation and Princes Gate

Thank you, Madam Mayor,

In his budget amendment speech in February this year, my colleague councillor Gloster warned the Labour Administration that if this Council continues with its current approach to regeneration and transformation, then we are increasing the risk of becoming a financially failing Council due to the massive amount of increased borrowing that will be required to complete projects like Spindles, Tommyfield Market, the Eco Centre, the new Town Centre Park, Old Library and the Cultural Quarter, the new Theatre and new Archive Centre amongst others. 

This was before interest rates rocketed to more than 10%.

I want to focus on just one of those projects and that’s the long-promised Prince’s Gate, down at Mumps.

On September 12^th, 1962, US President John F. Kennedy told the American people “We choose to go to the Moon”. 

It was an ambitious speech Madam Mayor… but it was also an inspiring one because just 2,504 days later, on July 20^th, 1969, mankind witnessed the first lunar landing.

Madam Mayor, it’s more than 2900 days since Jim McMahon set out his vision of a £60million game changer redevelopment which would deliver 150,000 square feet of retail space to be populated by the UK’s retail giants, along with 800 homes and 700 parking spaces. 

That vision has been watered down over the years.  We started with talk of “missing retail giants” like Marks and Spencer.  Now it’s a Travelodge and a Lidl.

It’s been more than eight years Madam Mayor… … and Labour still haven’t delivered Jim McMahon’s game changer, but we do have some car parking spaces.

To put it bluntly it’s taken longer for Oldham Labour to deliver a budget hotel and a budget supermarket than it took to put Mankind on the moon.

Madam Mayor, can the Leader update the council on the impact of plus 10% inflation on Oldham’s regeneration projects… and when can the people of Oldham expect to welcome the long-promised Prince’s Gate redevelopment? 

Because to-date the progress has been far from interstellar.