Chadderton news

Chadderton Town Hall will host its first-ever wedding fair on Sunday 25 January, and one couple will leave with their entire ceremony paid for. The giveaway covers the venue, registrar, flowers, photography, and catering for 50 guests, a prize the council hopes will draw residents curious about the restored Edwardian building on Victoria Street.

The fair runs from 11 am to 3 pm, with 30 local suppliers setting up stalls in the oak-panelled ballroom and the former council chamber. Couples can taste cakes, try on dresses in pop-up changing rooms, and collect quotes without travelling into Manchester.

Meanwhile, at Berries Field Park off Berry Street, a new community growing hub opened quietly in December. Oldham Council and local volunteers have fenced off 30 raised beds, installed a rainwater-fed irrigation system, and built a compost bay from reclaimed pallets.

The site is already half-planted: winter garlic, purple sprouting broccoli, and three varieties of kale. Residents pay £10 a year for a bed and keep whatever they grow; surplus is swapped on Saturday mornings in the park's Portakabin.

Alex Norris, the town's MP and a Local Government Minister, toured both projects in May. He told the Chronicle the wedding fair and the growing hub are small parts of a £9 million neighbourhood investment plan that has so far resurfaced five side streets, fitted 80 alley-gates, and funded a youth worker for Chadderton Academy.