Plans for new £24.5m theatre in Oldham approved despite campaign to save Coliseum
Bosses have green-lit plans to build a £24.5m new theatre in Oldham despite admitting they don’t know whether the Coliseum will survive to run it when it is due to open in three years time.
Town hall chiefs want to open a new ‘more modern’ theatre – which would be smaller than the 585-seat Coliseum – at 84 Union Street, in the Old Post Office and former Quaker Meeting House. “Where is the ambition and aspiration of Oldham Labour councillors to put Oldham on the map and create a visitor attraction that we can be proud of?,” she asked.
“We’re still developing final designs, I think it’s important to note, both with arts organisations but also with external experts and they will help us as a local authority scrutinise the detailed plans to make sure that they are profitable and it is workable. “But we’ve also got to be realistic. A new theatre has to be sustainable and it has to be financially viable, so its operator has to make money all year round and not just from one production a year.
She told the meeting the council had never reduced or withdrawn its £138k annual funding to the Coliseum, and that funding would be retained for theatre in Oldham over the next three years, along with the ring-fenced £1.8m the Arts Council have allocated for the borough. Coun Chadderton said: “We continue to hope obviously that the Coliseum can play a role in Oldham’s cultural life and we’re having conversations with the Coliseum to support them in what is a really difficult time.
“On the issue of who would run it, the honest answer is we don’t know yet,” Coun Chadderton responded. “The Coliseum isn’t run in the same way by the same people as it has been over the past 135 years.” “The council have submitted a proposal to the board to help secure a future for the arts and for the Coliseum, and we’re still working on that with the Arts Council to try and find a solution.
The report states that the Arts Council had deemed the Coliseum ‘high risk’ and raised concerns about the theatre’s financial management, leadership and governance.
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