Regeneration news

Oldham's Hollinwood Junction gained a new Lidl on 3 December 2025, giving drivers on the A62 a full-size supermarket where the old B&Q used to stand. The opening is the latest visible sign of the council's Building a Better Oldham programme, which is quietly turning long-empty plots into everyday amenities.

Across town, the Victorian Old Library on Union Street is also coming back. After years sealed behind hoardings, the building will reopen to the public next year following a £6 million repair and retrofit. Contractors have stripped out dry rot, stabilised the clock tower and inserted a new mezzanine so the ground floor can host cafés, stalls and cultural events while the upper levels provide co-working space.

Council leaders used the June Town Centre Forum to confirm the library rescue is only one piece of a wider plan. They revealed that Spindles and Town Square will be refreshed, new homes are earmarked for the former Post Office site, and a pocket park is planned at the corner of Yorkshire Street and Clegg Street. No contracts have been signed, but the authority hopes to start on-site in 2026.

Gallery Oldham is keeping interest alive with an exhibition that lets residents leaf through the library's original borrowing registers and preview architects' models of the reopened building. Entry is free and runs until April, giving locals a chance to see how the 1884 landmark will look once the shelves return, this time holding laptops as well as books.