‘No one can come rip up the plans’ I have put in place for Oldham: Cllr Shah

Oldham’s major regeneration works will go ahead the council’s Labour boss says – even if they lose more power at the local election.

Cllr Arooj Shah told the LDRS ‘all the plans are in place’ for the next stages of a transformative program of development projects worth more than £450m. 

The projects include Muse’s 2,000 new homes in the town centre; the £70m SportsTown scheme to build a multi-disciplinary health, sports, and education centre at Boundary Park, and the new Eton Star Academy, a secondary school backed by the elite private college that educated Prince William and Prince Harry.  

Some of the proposals are still in their early design stages. But Cllr Shah says ‘no one can come rip up the plans’ – regardless of the outcome of the hotly contested May elections. 

“Thankfully everything’s progressed too much,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. “All the plans are in place – whether it’s Eton Star or the regeneration projects, they’re all progressed way past the stage where someone could just come in and rip them up. They may tell people they can do that, but the contracts are already signed. This is too important. 

“I’m also confident that we’re going to make sure we can still deliver everything we need to post May.” 

The borough has historically seen a number of ‘undelivered promises’ for regeneration schemes, partly due to rapid changes in council leadership. Prince’s Gate in Mumps was ditched by M&S and then Lidl despite both supermarkets signing contracts to transform the sites. 

But now construction workers have finally broken ground on the site for a block of flats designed by Muse, using £31.5m from GMCA. 

Yet political instability could still be undermining trust among private investors – who could help fund the massive changes planned for the borough.

At the 2024 local election, Oldham’s Labour group lost its overall majority and faced two leadership challenges in less than two years. 

And there are suggestions the 2026 vote see further losses for the administrating group as support for Reform and independent groups grows. 

The Oldham boss also briefly addressed the political challenges faced by the borough to a room full of potential investors and contractors at a North West Place event on Tuesday morning, (February 10). 

“The difference about leadership in Oldham is that unfortunately we’re at a point in time where we’re quite divided,” she explained. “We work every day to move away from the 2001 riots. But actually there are instances where you think you’re just a seconds away from it. 

“Populism is a real issue in Oldham. Sometimes it feels like if you do something in one place with a certain demographic, someone somewhere else of a different group will think you’re only working for one community. 

“My view is that if I painted Oldham gold, I would be told it was the wrong shade of gold. But we have to use these opportunities for all of these regeneration programs to show that this is an administration that really cares about residents and improving their lives.”