Plans to transform Spindles Shopping Centre with new market, offices and event space lodged

Plans to redevelop a council-owned shopping centre to create a new market hall, offices and event space have been lodged.

Oldham council has formally applied for planning permission to transform Spindles Town Square Shopping Centre, which it purchased in 2020 for £9.5m.

The town hall wants to convert the upper mall floorspace into ‘flexible high quality’ offices, which will include co-working spaces, and there would also be solar panels mounted on the roof.

Bosses have stated that council staff will be moved from the Civic Centre offices into the new Spindles site, freeing up the old council HQ site for redevelopment.

The authority says the proposals will help save more than £8m over the next four years by reducing corporate landlord and a backlog of maintenance costs.

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A former Town Square shop and a section of the car park would be turned into a new archive and heritage space to publicly exhibit Oldham’s artefacts and museum archives that are not currently on display.

This area would be in place of the proposed use of the former historic library building on Union Street as a heritage centre.

Works to restore part of the Grade Two listed Old Library are currently underway, but currently there is not a plan for how it will be used – with residents being asked to share their ideas.

As part of the new planning application, the ground floor of Spindles will continue to house the ‘core offer’ of shopping and retail units.

And a new events space is proposed to be built above the new market, bringing a new venue for private and public functions and community use to the heart of the town centre.

This would replace the Queen