Development agency paper recommends planning measures to improve cohesion
Oldham could have multicultural communities on the scale of London's Brick Lane or Manchester's Rusholme within 15 years, according to a landmark report.

The prediction for the town, notorious for race riots in 2001, came in Oldham Beyond, a £300,000 report commissioned by the North-west Development Agency and the Oldham Local Strategic Partnership.

It recommended setting up "zones of exchange" where white and Asian communities interact in shops and other public places. The first proposal was a shopping area to be used by Asian and white communities on Featherstall Road.

Dave Rudlin of regeneration consultant URBED, who wrote Oldham Beyond, said: "Unlike other towns with Asian communities, the Asian businesses in Oldham generally just serve the Asian communities. But it is through areas where communities trade with each other that they can have the most productive contact."

URBED's suggestions reflect the view of Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality. He suggested last year that the best way to promote community cohesion was to bring together segregated communities on neutral territory (HT 18 July 2003, page 10).

Oldham council has already consulted negotiators from the Northern Ireland peace process on ways to heal the rifts caused by the race riots of 2001 and expects a report shortly (HT 2 April, page 7).

Andrew Fletcher, the council's deputy chief executive, said: "There's been a lot of success in regenerating city centres but now we need a model for regenerating industrial towns. Oldham is a trailblazer."

The 15-year vision for Oldham, launched on Wednesday, also suggests the town capitalise on its 138 old textile mills. It could fill them with housing and community centres.

Its other recommendations include creating pedestrian areas of high housing density, called "ped-sheds" in and around town centres.

These areas would be complemented by larger houses with gardens in suburban areas, offering residents a wider housing choice.

The proposals were developed in consultation with the Oldham and Rochdale housing market renewal pathfinder, Partners in Action. The pathfinder's director, Alastair Graham, said: "The masterplan provides an overall strategic and spatial framework in which housing market renewal can be developed, implemented and coordinated with other policies such as health and education."

Source

Housing Today