Oldham Council ‘unsure’ who will run new theatre

Leader of Oldham Council Amanda Chadderton has said the council is currently unsure who will run a new theatre which is due to be built in the town. She made the comments during a Cabinet meeting yesterday (27 February) evening.

As part of the meeting, the council took questions from the public after announcing its plans to recommit to building a new theatre last week.

When answering questions from performers' union Equity, Chadderton said the council does not know who the lead operator of the new theatre will be, following the news that Oldham Coliseum company, who were intended to be the lead tenant, is expecting to close down at the end of March.

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“We’ve been planning the new theatre for some time and it’s always been anticipated that it would be the home of Oldham Coliseum,” Chadderton said.

“We want to ensure we retain that, but that’s difficult at the moment, it’s still up in the air, and that is a conversation that needs to be had with Oldham Coliseum and the Arts Council and others in the coming months.”

Chadderton also said the council cannot guarantee the new theatre will be a producing house akin to Oldham Coliseum, but it has ambitions for it to be and will work with Oldham Coliseum and ACE to “do everything we can to ensure that happens”.

She also said the council wants to ensure the new theatre is financially viable.

“There were quite serious concerns from the Arts Council of the financial viability of Oldham Coliseum,” Chadderton said.

“I will not spend millions of taxpayers' money on something that is not financially viable, it would be absolutely reckless to do that, but theatres have to evolve and they have to change.”

Oldham Coliseum company ‘not our responsibility’

After an Equity representative asked what the council can do to ensure Oldham Coliseum company survives until the new building opens, Chadderton said “to be blunt, it’s not the responsibility of the council and we can’t ensure that”.

But she added the council is in “almost daily dialogue” with the Coliseum and its board to help “support them as they build a new future for themselves”.

“The council have submitted a proposal to the board to help secure a stable future for the Coliseum, we’re still working on that and with the Arts Council to try and find a solution.”

When asked if there was anything the council could do to keep Oldham Coliseum open for longer, Chadderton said the council had not changed its funding or support for the Coliseum over the last ten years and added the theatre’s decision to close followed the withdrawal of ACE funding.

“The plan was always for [Oldham Coliseum] to move, we always knew come the end of 2023, the beginning of 2024 – maybe that’s not been verbalised enough – but they were always due to move,” Chadderton said.

“Once the Arts Council funding went, the Coliseum started a process, but that is not in conjunction with the council. They told the council what they were doing.

“They can’t continue without that funding and I feel it just as much as a resident of this town.

“It’s really important for us to get across that our funding never changed. We know how important the theatre is to the town. Going forward, we have to invest in a new theatre because Oldham has to have a theatre. We don’t want to be a town that doesn’t.

“We have to keep it, have to plan for the future, but it’s a lot of work in a short space of time.”

According to yesterday’s cabinet meeting agenda, Oldham Council then discussed investing in a new theatre for Oldham, but this item was not broadcast to the public.

Ahead of the meeting, the council had been expected to formally recommit to plans to build the new theatre by 2026, which are understood to currently hold a funding shortfall of around £18m.