Work finally starts on 130 homes in Derker 15 years after houses demolished and community ‘destroyed’

After almost 15 years of staring at rubble, residents in Derker are about to see their neighbourhood transformed.

Work has finally started on more than 100 new homes on brownfield sites at Cromford Street, London Road, Evelyn Street and Abbotsford Road. 

The Victorian terraced houses that used to stand on the sites were demolished as part of a controversial ‘housing renewal scheme’ that ‘destroyed a whole community’, according to the few remaining residents.

The scheme was abandoned by the coalition government in 2011, with the plots left to the weeds for more than a decade. 

Now Hive Homes has started construction on 132 new two and three-bedroom homes, which will be a mix of private and affordable housing. 

“It’s finally happening,” shop owner and post master Narinda Kaur said.

Her shop – Singh’s Supersave – has overlooked London Road for 32 years and she has witnessed the ‘destruction’ of a ‘big community’. 

“It was like a bereavement,” Kaur previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“Everybody felt it. Nobody could believe it.”

Kaur believes the new housing will boost the neighbourhood, which has had ‘no hope’ after continuous delays and cancellations to new projects. 

Sharon, 38, also believes the homes will change the area for the better.

The Oldham mum has lived next to Abbotsford Rd for five years. 

“It can only be a good thing to put roofs over people’s heads,” she said.

“And it will change the environment in a good way.

"[The plots] used to get very bushy over the summer.

"It wasn’t nice because people would come and dump their rubbish.” 

For some neighbours, the change is bittersweet.

Stacey, 41, whose property also overlooks Abbotsford Road, said she wished the scheme had never happened in the first place. 

“They should have just done up the houses that were there. They were Victorian council homes, built to last,” she said.

“I’ll miss my view, too.”

The new homes will be a mix of detached, semi-detached and mews properties and will include 44 affordable homes, 21 affordable rental properties and 23 houses available for shared ownership.

The first 46 homes will be built on Abbotsford Road, followed by 69 on Cromford Street and London Road and 17 homes on Evelyn Street.

The first houses will be completed by December 2025, according to the council. 

Town hall boss Arooj Shah said the scheme would ‘breathe new life’ into Derker. 

According to Hive, the affordable homes will be ‘carbon neutral’ with no gas supply.

Instead, the houses will have solar panels and use a system that recycles heat around the home.

The private homes will also be ‘low carbon’.  

Previously asked why it has taken 15 years for the council to secure new housing on these sites, Decent Homes lead Coun Elaine Taylor told the LDRS: “There was no government funding to build good quality, affordable homes for Oldhamers, we continued to do our best to work with our partners to get decent homes built.

"But the reality is it’s been an uphill struggle given all financial incentives for developers were pulled when the scheme was cancelled.”

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