New offices on the upper mall of Spindles Town Square Shopping Centre have opened this week as redevelopment work continues at the site.
Construction is currently underway to repurpose Spindles into a 450,000 square foot development that will include offices and co-working areas for businesses, a new home for Tommyfield Market, a food court, an event space, and a heritage archive.
This week the new council offices opened with various council and partner teams set to trial the space over the coming months.
The next phase of the Spindles redevelopment will see further office accommodation being created that incorporates the previous Debenhams unit.
Once phase two is complete further council staff will be relocated into Spindles to release sites including the Civic Centre for redevelopment.
The leader of the council, Amanda Chadderton, has visited the new offices with council cabinet members and Oldham's mayor, Cllr Elaine Garry, to speak to staff and see how they were settling in.
Cllr Chadderton said: “It's great to see our redevelopment of the Spindles taking this significant step forward.
"We've been talking about these works for such a long time, but now the new offices are here, are open, and are already breathing new life into the shopping centre.
“This is a huge milestone in the Creating A Better Place project and residents and visitors will soon start to see lots more positive changes taking place as we reshape and strengthen the Spindles and Town Centre for the future.
“We’re continuing to work hard to attract new businesses and improve visitor experience by consolidating the retail area to make it easier to shop and get around.
“We’ve also listened to residents as part of the Big Oldham Conversation and as a result, are looking to improve the accessibility in Spindles.
“The shopping centre will remain open as normal throughout the next phase of works, and we will do our very best to keep disruption to a minimum while these redevelopment works progress.”
The Spindles redevelopment is part of the Creating a Better Place regeneration programme, with projects including bringing the Old Library back into public use, building new homes at the former Oldham Mumps Railway Station, and investing in the new Brian Clarke Academy at the old Sainsbury’s site.
More information the town centre's regeneration can be found online at www.oldham.gov.uk/towncentre.
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