I have raised with the council my concern that the press has reported a road closure order intended to facilitate the demolition of the former Harry’s Bar.
To be clear the premises is not currently scheduled for demolition. After months of work including with Save Britain’s Heritage and the council itself the authority has agreed to hold off the originally proposed demolition to allow time to come up with a viable proposal to bring it back into use.
In fact a meeting is taking place later this week with the council and the Oldham Coliseum Theatre inside the building to discuss what might be needed to bring it back into use.
The building was originally purchased using the Community Regeneration Partnership funding pot provided by the UK Government to Oldham Council and it’s important that there is community support for its reuse.
This doesn’t rule out it’s eventual loss, the fight is still very much real, but the council deserve credit for allowing us time to organise, as we are also doing nearby at the Holy Rosary Church where we have protected it from demolition thanks to the support of the Catholic Church and local organisations.
Oldham must better respect and preserve its “red brick” industrial heritage and value how important buildings like this are to the social story of a proud working class borough.
Too many have been allowed to fall into disrepair or fallen victim of developers who care more about cutting costs and extracting profit than they do about showing respect and care for the borough they operate in. Unless we have an end to end plan to deal with this through the planning system, licensing, and targeted investment we are facing a losing battle.
Thanks to the English Devolution and Community Act I had the privilege of leading, new powers now exist to give greater legal protection to important community assets like these, including the community right to buy. But powers had to go hand in hand with resource, and so I was delighted as a Minister to recently announce a new national £210m community fund which includes £125m for derelict buildings, £65m for community right to buy to purchase and upgrade community assets, and £10m for High Street Rental Auctions (to force the sale of long term empty shops). This is supported by £10m for Co-operative Development so that the activity which supports these important buildings is also secured.
This is much bigger than an old pub, it is a symbol of a towns heritage unappreciated and ripped apart as a result.
https://www.theoldhamtimes.co.uk/news/26616789.future-former-harrys-bar-oldham-remains-undecided
