NxtGen Boxing to breathe new life into refurbished Marlborough Centre

The Marlborough Centre on Marlborough Street, shuttered for safety reasons after years of neglect, reopened on Monday with NxtGen Boxing at the helm. The Glodwick building, once the Pakistani Community Centre, had faced demolition until Oldham Council paid for a full refurbishment and handed the keys to the local boxing club after a competitive tender.

Asam Fiaz and Ryan Lawson, who started NxtGen in a spare room at the Honeywell Centre, now have a permanent home large enough for their 200-plus members. The council says the club's record of keeping teenagers in training and out of trouble made them the clear choice to run the site, which will continue to house a nursery and several long-standing community groups.

Work crews replaced the roof, electrics and plumbing, installed a new ring and showers, and cleared the dry rot that had forced the evacuation of the old centre. The bill was met from the council's neighbourhood capital fund, though the exact cost has not been disclosed.

At the ribbon-cutting, Cllr Arooj Shah praised the partnership as a template for rescuing other at-risk buildings. Fiaz says the bigger space lets him add female-only sessions and school-holiday camps, and he hopes to double membership within a year.

The deal leaves NxtGen responsible for day-to-day running costs, a test of whether a small voluntary club can keep a public facility open without fresh council cash. If it works, officers say three more boarded-up neighbourhood centres could follow the same model.