The Oldham Taxpayers contribution to the Old Town Hall Cinema project has finally been announced to be £26.3 million after two years of Oldham Council refusing to publish the cost to the people of Oldham. The total costs are now £36.72 million that’s another three quarters of a million on top of the £36 million at most figure quoted Summer 2014 & a full £26.72 million more than the initial figure communicated of £10 million. When loans & the Manchester Airport dividend are included in the Old Town Hall Cinema costs Oldham Council’s total liability stands at £34.2 million. The scandalous costs are being justified by Oldham Councils economic “expert research to industry standards” study although any intelligent person would ask how the Council got the original costs, delivery timescale’s & the dilapidated condition of The Old Town Hall completely wrong. Expert research at Oldham Council obviously means once we have got the budget wrong on multiple occasions & once we have demolished what was originally to be saved and once we have changed our plans we will then publish expert analysis based on our plethora of corrected failures. With cost’s now published, it is noted that there is no mention of any successful grants which Oldham Council had indicated would be contributing to The Old Town Hall Cinema project. In a Freedom of Information request in November 2013 Oldham Council stated that it would cost approximately £7.5 million to repair the building & renovate the interior of the Old Town Hall without additional works to build a cinema yet in January 2015 Oldham Council is justifying spending £36.72 million on the cinema conversion because it would cost £16.16 million over the next 25 years just to maintain the Old Town Hall building without developing it. Let us also remember it was the Council who abandoned the building and left it empty for twenty five years which caused the dereliction.
Chronic-Oldham is sure the ever increasing non-contributory element of the Oldham population will have nothing but praise for a cinema paid for by a taxation system to which in real terms they do not pay into.