Q1). Managing expenditure at Spindles and Town Square

For my first question to the Leader tonight, I would like to return to the redevelopment of the Spindles and Town Square shopping centres.

At the November 2020 Council meeting, just after the purchase had been completed, I asked the Leader whether this represented a ‘risky purchase’ and pointed up the ‘significant sums of money’ that will be involved in repurposing and refurbishing these two shopping centres.

I am sure that many people will have been shocked to recently hear that the ‘significant sum of money’ this Administration has earmarked to repurpose and refurbish these shopping centres amounts to £68 million over five years.

Not for nothing did the Liberal Democrats brand it ‘Spendles’.

This truly is a whopping sum of money.

We all want to see a vibrant, viable town centre in the heart of our borough – and for our part Liberal Democrat Councillors also want to see vibrant and well-used district centres in Failsworth, Chadderton, Royton, Shaw, Uppermill, and Lees as well – but at what eventual cost?

My real fear is that we shall see the same cost and time overruns and abortive costs on this project that have dogged this Administration’s previous so-called ambitious town centre projects:

• the abandoned Hotel Futures plan;
• the abandoned Coliseum plans – plural;
• the bankrupted My House;
• the much delayed and costly ‘game changer’ at Princes Gate;
• the over-budget town centre digital hub;
• and lastly the town centre flagship, the Old Town Hall project, delivered at four times the original cost.

So can the Leader please tell me tonight how he will ensure that this project will be rigorously managed from start-to-finish, to ensure that it is delivered on time and to the current assigned budget or, for the sake of our hard-pressed tax payers, preferably much less?

Q2). A memorial to COVID-19 victims and heroes

My second question to the Leader tonight references the sad anniversary yesterday of the first COVID-19 Lockdown in the United Kingdom.

This past year we have seen so much sacrifice and so much suffering.

Many of us have had COVID-19 or have seen loved ones, friends and family, die from this relentless, ruthless disease.

But we have also seen a great deal of courage and selflessness. 

We are all too aware of the incredible professionalism, fortitude, and, yes, bravery displayed by our wonderful NHS staff in their care for those afflicted by COVID-19.

But we should also remember the many others who have helped save lives and keep our society functioning during this unprecedented crisis.

Members of our emergency services, including the volunteers of our local Mountain Rescue Service; our care workers; our schools, education and nursery staff; our postal workers; our power, water and telecoms workers; bus, tram and train drivers; delivery drivers and warehouse staff; supermarket and shop workers; the many volunteers who support our communities, and of course our hardworking council staff, who like their colleagues in the NHS have found this time especially testing.

My question to the Leader concerns how we will mark this sacrifice, suffering, courage and selflessness in our borough in the future.

Oldham has been hit especially hard by COVID-19 and it will take a significant effort and a lot of time to recover. 

A large part of this recovery will revolve around the collective need for the people of this borough to grieve, to reflect and to remember.

I would suggest to the Leader that we need to commit as a borough to creating a bespoke collective space where that might happen – a memorial to our COVID-19 victims and its heroes. 

I am not seeking to prescribe what this memorial might be or where it might be, nor would now be the right time to establish it as we are not yet at the end of this tragedy. 

But I am confident that Oldham’s great people would get behind such a proposal, so could the Leader join me in making a commitment in principle tonight to make such a memorial a reality?

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Opposition, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Oldham Council.

24 March 2021