The Liberal Democrat Group on Oldham Council has welcomed recent news that an extra £100,000 will be awarded to Oldham Council for community safety from the Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester.

Commenting, the Leader of the Opposition and of the Liberal Democrat Group, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, said:

“We welcome this extra cash from the Deputy Mayor, but £100,000 will not go very far, so it is a real shame that this Council’s Labour Administration chose to reject our budget amendment in March this year that would have made six times as much money available over two years, £650,000, to tackle environmental crime and pay for Closed Circuit TV and alley gating schemes.  This commitment reflected the importance that we as Liberal Democrats place on making our communities safer.”

“Perhaps Labour will use the £100,000 to restore the cuts they have made in youth service funding so that districts like Shaw and Crompton can have their local services restored to provide young people with positive activities to help prevent the boredom that leads a minority to resort to anti-social behaviour and crime in our communities?” He added.  “This was a cut that the Liberal Democrats also wanted to overturn in our March 2018 alternate budget.”