A contradiction of everything Oldham Council promised 12 years ago which was that the Foxdenton development would be an high end business park creating high end jobs. After being refused planning permission Aldi commissioned an economic report showing the land will never be used for the high end businesses promised by Oldham Council after 8 years of marketing didn’t attract a single business. Now we have the council leader Arooj Shah at another photo op acting as though this supermarket and policy failure just 5 minutes from an existing Lidl store at a destructive scheme pushed through by her boss Jim McMahon is a success indicative of a progressive council. Isn’t it amazing that the town centre with the highest unemployment and worklessness rates gets tens of millions in new green infrastructure and leisure services yet Foxdenton which when the scheme was approved was the MSOA with the lowest rate of working aged benefit claims in the entire borough loses million of square feet of green land. The first release of the Foxdenton development plan 12 years ago which got the scheme approved predicted the site would create over 4,000 jobs, since then the job predictions have fallen by over 50% and the number of houses to be built has increased by 33%. Labour Oldham promised an high end employment park what people got 12 years later was an Aldi and a drive through coffee shop.
