My two allowed questions at tonight’s Oldham Council meeting – 11 September 2019 – OAP Tram Charge, and when will Greater Manchester Spatial Framework Proposals be available and be debated

Q1 Leaders Question – OAP Tram Charge

Madame Mayor, I want to bring to your attention the rather unpleasant and underhand news that the Greater Manchester Combined Authority are planning to tax the elderly residents of this Borough before they can even board a tram.

Pensioners who currently enjoy free travel on public transport across Greater Manchester are being forced to pay an annual fee if they want to travel from A to B on Metrolink.

The new Charge will be £10, whereas before it was free!

This new tax will be live as early as January 2020.

I hope we plan to communicate this to our elderly residents in the Borough? 

We must also think about if this new strategy should be means tested and not rolled out to everyone regardless of their own personal circumstances.

The national law states free travel for the over sixty fives on buses, but from next year any pensioner wanting to claim free travel on the Greater Manchester Train and Metrolink Tram network will be forced to pay an annual administration charge.

This £10 charge is simply a hidden Labour stealth tax our elderly. 

OAPs now must pay for TV licences and struggle with heating and other bills in winter.

Information freely available on the NHS website says hundreds of thousands of elderly people are cut off from society and suffer from loneliness.

This applies especially the over 75s as over one million of these older people live alone.

This begs the sad question, why did the Labour party at the last full council meeting in July say they want to maintain free TV licences for the over 65s but now plan to charge pensioners for claiming their rightly entitled free travel?

Please explain this to me because I know a lot of people will be just as puzzled as I am.

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE

Q2 Leaders Question – Greater Manchester Spatial Framework Proposals

Madame Mayor, it is widely known, that the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF), will build on large chunks of Oldham Borough’s untouched and finite Greenbelt and green spaces including our valuable Protected Open Space.  

This is a persisting issue in the Borough and there have been mass demonstrations and organised protests against these proposals.

This wide-ranging plan will decide the future of the Borough for generations.  

I have yet to hear which Oldham Council meeting will discuss the proposals detailed in the framework and for the Council to discuss and agree the terms laid out in the strategy.

Given the importance of this subject, it would be wise, in the Liberal Democrats opinion, that Oldham Borough have a special one item agenda Council meeting about the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework.

Can the Leader confirm when the much promised GMSF proposal will see the light of day?

Can the Leader confirm that Oldham Council will hold a special one item agenda Council meeting to discuss, agree and comment on published GMSF proposals?

And that there will be consultation on when that meeting might be held and a significantly long notice of when it will be held?

If there is no special meeting planned, which ordinary meeting of Council, will this important matter will be shoe horned into?

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE

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