‘The statistics are bad but we’re proud to be from here’: Life in Greater Manchester’s most deprived neighbourhood

Coldhurst is often cited as a regional and national hotspot for some unflattering statistics - most recently regarding child poverty. But peel back the layers and you’ll find a community working to replace lost public services so desperately needed.

It’s 11pm on Saturday night and Rohima Chowdhury and her neighbours are cooking up a storm.

Rohima told her husband to ‘go to work’ and stay out while she took over the kitchen of their terraced house in Oldham.

But seven hours later, they’re still preparing the ingredients needed to feed hundreds of mouths at a huge Bank Holiday street party.

The ladies of St Hilda’s Drive, Ripon, Mitchell and Ward Streets will not stop cooking until 5pm the following day as they feed the folk of Coldhurst - one of Britain’s most deprived neighbourhoods.

By 2.30pm on Sunday the volunteers of My Coldhurst have already started handing out burgers and wings - costing just £1 a plate - to local kids and their families.

Meanwhile, the ladies oversee huge pots of curry, biryani and plates of salad.

“We started cooking again at 10am,” Rohima says. “In the end we had to send a pan to my house and one to my brother’s house too.

“It was sheer hard work but it was well worth it to see the amount of happy faces.”

The Oldham suburb Rohima calls home is often cited as a regional and national hotspot for some unflattering statistics - most recently regarding child poverty.

Two out of every three children (66 per cent) were living in poverty in Coldhurst in the year ending March 2024. That’s a total of 2,676 children.

Just 13 other areas in the entire UK had a higher proportion of children living in poverty, according to the latest figures from the Department of Work and Pensions.

These unenviable numbers have put Coldhurst at the forefront of some unfortunate press. The Sun once described the suburb as ‘the child poverty capital of Britain’ where children were ‘mugged for their clothes’ and ‘begged for scraps’.

But lifelong resident Sadrul Alam says it’s not a picture he recognises.

“The media can paint a picture but I don’t recognise that interpretation,” he says.

“All these local lads and girls, out of 100 at least 25 will go to university. Where you are living should not hold you back. Parents here have high aspirations for their children here.”

Sadrul has lived on St Hilda’s Drive since 1981. He currently lives with his wife, children and mother in the same house he grew up in and across the street from his sister.

And when he saw his neighbour Rohima enjoying a meal with her friends on the street five years ago, he had an idea.

At that time, the ladies of St Hilda’s Road had decided to organise, cook and enjoy a traditional Bengali meal - cooked and eaten outside in huge pots. It was just for them and no men were invited.

“We really enjoyed it and there was so much food we could send some back for the men,” Rohima says.

But it was such a success that Sadrul asked if Rohima and her friends would help to organise a party on the street following a community clean up of their alleyway.

More community parties followed to mark the Queen’s Jubilee and then the King’s Coronation. Last weekend’s Bank Holiday party saw around 700 locals populate the hillside street.

The group of around 20 ladies - some of whom have never left Oldham - worked long hours to prepare vast pots of food for the masses.

Rohima admits it’s a stressful, but ultimately rewarding experience.

“It was a really amazing day. The children loved it,” she says.

“We ran out of curry in the end. We were pleased because honestly the food was really delicious.”

It’s events like this that galvanize the Coldhurst community and prove that the efforts of a dedicated bunch of volunteers are working.

My Coldhurst started life as a litter pick group but developed into something far bigger. The volunteer-led initiative runs free health and wellbeing sessions and MMA and football classes for the local kids.

The sessions are consistently oversubscribed and end with a hot meal for each child. More often than not, the parents will take the leftovers home.

“On a session for 30 kids we get about 120 and they all go away with a hot meal, which shows the level of need,” My Coldhurst treasurer Sadrul says.

“But it means they all get together, they make new friends. There’s a cohort of kids who have been doing this with us since they were about ten and they’re young men and women now. They’re vibrant young people.

“I think we have diverted people away from certain lifestyles. This stuff drives change and improves perceptions.

“It’s for them to do something rather than be on the streets. The aim is to get them away from antisocial behaviour and distractions that exist.”

These free events fill a hole left by lacking public services, such as the youth clubs that existed during Sadrul’s own formative years.

“There were things we took for granted when we were growing up,” he says.

“I remember going to a youth centre. The government used to fund these things. But there is nothing there to replace them now so what do you expect all these kids to do?

“We used to have all these activities and a hub we would go to.”

Rohima also grew up in Coldhurst and moved to St Hilda’s Drive when she was a teenager. When she married, she bought the house down the street - a terrace which once belonged to comedian Eric Sykes.

“As a neighbourhood we have been lucky. I’ve always loved being in Oldham because of the community atmosphere,” she says.

“As kids other children were always knocking on asking if we wanted to play. I feel like we were in a lovely bubble where we were good to each other.”

The statistics that headline life in this largely Bangladeshi community are unavoidable.

The suburb has the lowest median household income in Oldham, while 23 per cent live in fuel poverty and 25pc of households are overcrowded. It also has the highest rate of childhood obesity in the borough (48pc).

But peel back the layers and you’ll find a community of dedicated volunteers working to clean the streets of rubbish, provide youth activities and replace public services that are so desperately needed.

Rohima worked for 13 years as a home school liaison officer at St Hilda’s Primary School. There she helped families struggling with poverty and all the trials that come with deprivation.

But she says she is delighted to see that many of the children she knew then have gone on to university educations and graduate jobs.

“Of course in the past there have been problems with drugs and alcohol in Oldham. But I must say I’m so proud of how much our children have improved,” she says.

“I would read these reports saying we were bottom of the list for everything. But even those very deprived families have children who have got their degrees. Those kids have worked really hard.”

And despite his success as an accountant, Sadrul says he wouldn’t live anywhere else.

“The deprivation you see now - I previously was part of that,” he says.

“My dad worked in a mill and was on benefits. I went to university and got a good job but I haven’t given up on the area. I still live here with my kids.

“I still live here and I’m a professional now. My kids play with the other kids here. I can’t say I’m not part of the community just because I have done well.”

He adds: “We’re proud to be from Coldhurst. There’s a sense of belonging here.

“I grew up here. There are people in Coldhurst who have been living here for donkey's years and they all know each other really well and we all like each other.

“I have been living here since the 1980s so I’ve seen it change. The core people are still here.

“But austerity was not a good thing for Coldhurst. Then Covid has not helped people - so you end up in a spiral. The two child benefit cap I think exacerbates all that.”

The hundreds of people who turned up on Sunday and queued for a £1 plate of food is a sign of the need in this deprived neighbourhood. But it’s also testament to a community determined to lift itself out of extreme difficulties.

“Oldham is high on deprivation factors. Where people should be and where they are is quite alarming. There is deprivation and we know the cost of living is clearly impacting people,” Sadrul says.

“But just because the statistics are bad doesn’t mean people don’t want to live here.

“We need to support everyone to enjoy the area. I think they are naturally proud to be from Coldhurst.”