Centre of attraction

NEW heart for the community ... Lees Community Association members Raad Al-Hamdani and Jenny Daubney mount a campaign to hand Mellor House over to Lees residents

Building a focal point for Lees

RESIDENTS in Lees are banding together in a bid to save an iconic building and put the heart back into the community.

Mellor House, a one-storey stone building in Mellor Street, housed council offices until the 1970s.

And the Lees Community Association is campaigning for residents to come together to transform the empty building into a village hub brimming with activity.

Organisers want as many volunteers as possible to attend a public meeting at the hall on Wednesday (7pm).

Raad Al-Hamdani, an architect and chairman of the association, is leading the project.

He said: “The interior is extremely well looked after and it still has a lot of the old features like panelling, original cornicing and fireplaces.

“We want to put it at the heart of the community.

“There could be the possibility for a cafe facility and there would be room for groups to use it for meetings and classes.

“It has been there since the early 1900s. We can’t lose that character and see it turned into anything else.”

The building used to house council services when the Urban District Councils were in place pre-1974.

However, for the past six months it has stood empty, after the Age Concern charity relocated.

The association has made an application to take over the management of the building, owned by Oldham But the group need people-power to make it a success.

Councillor Valerie Sedgwick said: “I think it would be absolutely fantastic to have this facility in the centre of Lees.

“The problem we will have is getting people to help run it. I’ll be mucking in and doing what I can.

“Other places have facilities like this and it would be a brilliant idea for Lees to have a similar thing.”

Raad says that the group is lucky for a building in such good condition to become available, but admits that making it a success will take plenty of effort.

He said: “We need to have a committed group who will take this forward — the interest has to be community-wide.

“It would be part of the new ‘big society’.”