Westwood Energy Community

Welcome to Westwood

Westwood is a community close to Oldham Town Centre. It is a close-knit community where people help each other out when needed. Westwood has everything one needs, as one of our community members noted:

‘Westwood has lots of shops that cater to us. Halal stores, Asian shops, wedding halls, Mosques, and sweet shops’.

As representatives of Westwood, we comprise of residents who have a wide breadth of lived experience, from Councillors and solicitors through to students. Some members of our group have lived in Westwood all their lives, while others have chosen to move to the area to be closer to family and friends.

The groups’ age ranges between 18 and 75 years old, giving a unique perspective of the challenges faced in the area from those of working age, with young families through to retired residents.

Many of our group are also actively involved in the community, volunteering or working out of the Millenium Centre and supporting the various activities there.

Some of the group is involved in the social enterprise food business, ‘the Kitchen’, based at the Millennium Centre. Being involved in the Kitchen has given some of us an understanding and experience of setting up a social enterprise.

One of the significant drivers for being involved in the Oldham Energy Futures project was the opportunity to share views and lived experiences of living and working in Westwood, which has informed this Community Led Energy Plan.