Oldham Council says Coliseum couldn’t have been saved despite report

The Fairbottom Street venue closed at the end of March after the theatre was dropped from the Arts Council England funding portfolio despite a passionate campaign by actors, the union Equity and residents to keep it operational.

The council says that it had reached an agreement with the theatre "more than 10 years ago" that the building was "not fit for purpose".

The Coliseum theatre company has been chosen as the "anchor" tenant for a £26m new theatre in the town in the former Post Office and Quaker meeting house on Union Street.

But the new venue in the emerging "cultural quarter" of the town won’t be completed until 2026, leaving the Coliseum without a physical home until it opens.

It is the third such masterplan for a new Coliseum for the town, after the last major scheme – a £27m new theatre – was scrapped in 2018 by the council.

A report commissioned by the new board of the Oldham Coliseum Theatre Ltd had examined the physical condition of the Fairbottom Street building – which is owned by Oldham council and had been leased to the Coliseum.

The Oldham Coliseum Theatre (Picture: LDRS)

The theatre had been deemed "beyond its expected lifespan" and a survey carried out in January uncovered "numerous" urgent health and safety works, the local authority previously confirmed.

The latest report, published by Plann – a speicalist theatre consultancy company – said that the Fairbottom Street building could be reopened for a "limited period" if only the most "urgent or statutory works" were carried out, at a cost of around £150,000.

These works could be procured and completed within around three months, the report’s author Jack Tilbury states.

He added that the council’s reports "appear to offer a fair and reasonable picture of the condition of the building", but said that most of a wide range of defects identified are "relatively minor maintenance issues".

“Other than completing the recommended works to upgrade the fire doors, there is nothing we feel would fundamentally stop the building from reopening,” the assessment adds.

Issues that have persisted for "some time" suggest that investment had not been available either from the council, as the landlord, or the Coliseum itself to fund maintenance and repair projects.

“The council’s report suggests that the capital investment required to keep the building open would have been £240,000 in this financial year, followed by a further £126,000 over the following two years,” the report states.

“This seems to be a reasonable assessment if the aim were to maintain the theatre indefinitely going forwards.

“In this situation, works would be required to the heating system, pipework, electrics, lifts, structure, and roofs over the medium term as many of these are nearing the end of their useful lifespan or require significant repair.”

The new chair of trustees, Duncan Craig, said the assessment showed the building on Fairbottom Street was "not beyond repair and with investment could be used again",

However he added the answer of whether they will re-open the building was "no", as they had been left in a financial position where they are "unable to undertake repairs, pay the bills, re-staff and maintain staffing of an organisation, and keep a theatre running".

Council leader Arooj Shah said that the new report did not address "major underlying concerns" around the continuing use of the building.

“As the Coliseum agreed more than 10 years ago, the Fairbottom Street building was not fit for purpose and sadly was not a long-term option for our town’s theatre,” she said.

“Despite major works over several years, it had reached the end of its lifespan.

"This is why the previous iterations of the Coliseum board were involved in the design of Oldham’s new theatre, and have been working with us for several years to make a new, modern and inclusive theatre a reality.

“Unfortunately the Fairbottom Street building, though it was much-loved, had significant issues requiring a huge amount of investment. It would have needed major redevelopment works, and the addition of new facilities, to bring it up to modern-day standards.

“The constraints of the site, and the age of the building, were also further difficulties in addressing these crucial improvements.

“The survey carried out in February this year, and the subsequent independent report from the new board, do not address these major underlying issues.

“Instead, as these reports clearly state, they relate only to urgent health and safety works, which would have needed to be immediately addressed if the Fairbottom Street building was to be used again, for a very limited period of time.

“The costs of these repair works cannot therefore be interpreted as the costs of bringing the theatre back into use in the longer term.”

She added: “We are pleased that the new Coliseum board are fully behind our plans for Oldham’s £24m theatre, to be created in heritage buildings in Union Street, and have been working closely with the council since they took over the organisation in March 2023, and the restructure and strength in the new board has given us the ability to agree that Oldham Coliseum Theatre will be anchor tenants in that building – safeguarding the future of theatre here in Oldham.

“We continue to work closely together on the project and look forward to the planning application being decided this autumn.”