Oldham Coliseum: Plans for new £24m theatre submitted

A planning application for a new theatre in Oldham has been formally submitted, five months after Oldham Coliseum Theatre Company (OCT) departed its former site having lost Arts Council England (ACE) funding.

Oldham Council wants to transform a former Post Office and Quaker meeting house and make it the new home for OCT by 2026 at a cost of around £24m.

Submission of the planning application for the long-awaited project coincides with the publication of two independent reports commissioned by OCT into the circumstances around its controversial loss of funding and subsequent departure from its 125-year-old home in March.

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A report into the root causes of the unsuccessful bid to ACE to remain a National Portfolio Organisation found there was a perceived reluctance from OCT to "engage with the emerging vision" for a new theatre, which was first mooted in 2015.

A Partnership Board – involving OCT, Oldham Council, and ACE had been established in 2021 to oversee the transition to the new theatre space in 2021 under the supervision of an independent Chair.

'Not fully committed'

But the report reveals that while the Partnership Board agreed to a business plan for the project, the Chair and other members of the Board "observed a reluctance from OCT to fully engage with the emerging vision and planning processes".

"This led to an increasing sense that OCT were not fully committed to the project," the report adds.

The report makes a total of seven recommendations for action to OCT, in order for the charity to "move forward with confidence in its new phase of development".

These include OCT being clear on its commitment to work collaboratively with partners and lead on the further development of the vision and business planning processes to realise the potential of the new theatre space in Oldham

"There is clearly still an uncertain future for OCT, and the financial position is a challenging one," the report states.

"The opportunities for a strong partnership with Oldham Council around the new theatre space now seem to be in place and a 'collegiate and open' relationship is being described by both parties."

Clear vision

It goes on to stress the importance of the partnership maintaining a trusting relationship with proportionate and appropriate accountability measures in place to assure funders and the council’s own governance that investment is being well spent.

"OCT must be able to articulate a clear vision for its future within the new theatre space and ensure their organisational strategy, business plan, risk, and investment plans help it to achieve this."

The new theatre will have a main auditorium of 300 ‘plus’ seats
Photo: Oldham Council

Duncan Craig, who was apppointed as Chair of Trustees at OCT in March to oversee the departure from the old building, said the report gives a clear indication of many of the factors that led to the organisation being at immediate risk of insolvency.

"Whilst this report is looking at the period before we as a new board joined the Coliseum, it makes several recommendations that we, as the new board, will now adopt," he said.

"I can say with absolute certainty and 100% commitment that we will carry out all of the actions in the recommendation."

'Relatively minor issues'

A separate report commissioned by OCT into the condition of the former Fairbottom Street building and the cost and complexity of once again reopening the venue as a working theatre found that there is no reason why the building cannot be used.

Oldham Council, which owns the building, had previously said that is "riddled with asbestos", walls were at risk of falling down and the cost of repair work was too expensive.

The report, however, states that while a report ordered by Oldham Council into the condition of the building lists "a wide range of defects", most of these are "relatively minor maintenance issues".

"Other than completing the recommended works to upgrade the fire doors, there is nothing we feel would fundamentally stop the building from reopening," the report adds.

"Our conclusion is that, using the costs provided within the Council’s report, the theatre could be reopened at a capital cost of approximately £150,000."

It adds that the work could be completed within around three months.

No plans to re-open

Responding to the report Duncan Craig said: "The conclusion of the report is clear, the building on Fairbottom Street is not beyond repair and with investment could be used again.

"So, the question that a few of you have asked is will we re-open the building? The straightforward and short answer is no.

"The slightly longer and more complicated answer is that whilst our actions mean that Oldham Coliseum Theatre Ltd is solvent, we have been left in a financial position where we’re unable to undertake repairs, pay the bills, re-staff and maintain staffing of an organisation, and keep a theatre running.

"Whilst we announced a financial investment from Oldham Council in July, those funds are classed in charities as ‘restricted funds’, which means that they can only be used for the specific purposes: to make theatre and creative arts."

Last month it was confirmed that OCT will be handed more than £860,000 over the next three years to allow it to continue producing and performing theatre in the town and prepare for the planned move to a new home in 2026.

The money – made up of £450,000 upfront and an additional £138,000 a year for the next three years – is coming from Oldham Council which was given the £1.845m that ACE would have given the Coliseum to "invest in Oldham’s arts and culture sector".