Borough wins £20m in levelling up funding

Oldham has been awarded £20 million for a project to create a groundbreaking new ‘green technology and innovation network’.

The government has granted the cash boost to the borough from its Levelling Up fund with the aim of boosting Oldham’s ambition to become a ‘top destination for green businesses’.

The borough is one of only three local authorities in Greater Manchester, along with Trafford and Wigan, awarded funding in this round of the fund.

However, the second half of the council’s bid, for another £20m to develop a ‘creative improvement district’ in the town, including refurbishment of the Lyceum Theatre and Masonic Hall  and the re-opening the Old Library, was not successful.

The winning bid, which covered the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency, was put forward last summer to support the borough’s ‘green new deal’ commitment to being carbon neutral by 2030.

It will enable the creation of new spaces for green businesses and a new Learning Centre offering vocational courses to strengthen environmental skills.

The Levelling Up cash will also fund a ‘Green Shoots Centre’ which would be a new business centre to support environment technology start-ups based at Rhodes Bank.

The money will also be used to develop a learning centre at the Northern Roots site, the project that will become the UK’s largest urban farm on land at Snipe Clough near Alexandra Park.

Bosses say the learning centre will provide training linked to green and sustainable skills, supporting the Green Shoots Centre. 

It would also be used as an educational centre to help strengthen environmental skills through vocational courses.

And a new path for pedestrians and cyclists, the ‘Oldham greenway’ will be created to link the Green Shoots Centre with Northern Roots and the new Jubilee Park being built in the town centre.

Announcing the latest round of Levelling Up funding, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Through greater investment in local areas, we can grow the economy, create good jobs and spread opportunity everywhere.

“That’s why we are backing more than 100 projects with new transformational funding to level up local communities across the United Kingdom.

“By reaching even more parts of the country than before, we will build a future of optimism and pride in people’s lives and the places they call home.”

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said:  “We are firing the starting gun on more than a hundred transformational projects in every corner of the UK that will revitalise communities that have historically been overlooked but are bursting with potential.

“This new funding will create jobs, drive economic growth, and help to restore local pride.

"We are delivering on the people’s priorities, levelling up across the UK to ensure that no matter where you are from, you can go as far as your talents will take you.”

When Oldham’s bid was submitted in August, council leader Amanda Chadderton said the borough had ‘so much potential’ and remained one of the ‘most entrepreneurial towns in the UK’.

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