Housing scheme at Oldham ‘stadium’ site set for approval

OLDHAM Council is set to convert the former Lancaster Club site in Failsworth that had been earmarked for a new community-led  sports facility into housing.

The site was supposed to be home to a 15,000-seat community stadium which would have featured Oldham Athletic as its main tenant surrounded by other community facilities. However, a long-running legal battle ensued over whether the council had the right to develop on part of the site which had been donated by a charitable trust.

The football club pulled out of the plans in August last year after agreeing a £5.5m deal which saw the council take control of the land and offer a grant of £700,000 to make community facilities available at its existing Boundary Park stadium, which will help to finance a redevelopment.

Meanwhile, the council’s planning committee is tonight set to approve an application brought with the help of GVA to bring forward a housing-led scheme on 30 acres of the site.

Part of the site is currently occupied by football and cricket pitches, allotments and the land which remains in trust. However, the council has pledged to make new football pitches available at Limehurst and improve facilities on the site as well as providing new areas for allotments to compensate.

The new scheme proposed for the Lancaster Club site includes 144 new properties – 21 of which will be apartments created from the conversion of the club building itself. The bulk of the rest will be three-, four- and five-bed houses.

A commercial football facility containing eight five-a-side pitches, two seven-a-side, a pavilion and car parking are also set to be added. The outline application also includes provision for shops, bars, restaurants, financial services units, takeaways and leisure units on the site.

Only one objection has been received to the plans, citing a range of issues including the loss of amenity to public, visual intrusion caused by the new development, increased traffic and concerns about the density of the scheme.

However, officers are recommending that the scheme is approved, stating that the scheme could provide “considerable benefits in terms of general economic, social and community well-being and cohesion”.

It also argues that its proposal offers the chance to “retain an re-use an important Grade II-listed building” – even if much of the housing scheme is set to be built on greenfield land.

The Lancaster Club was originally a lodge building but was bought by plane maker Avro (later BAE Systems) for use as a social club for workers at the recently-closed BAE Chadderton site.