Q1 – Marking Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee

Madam Mayor,

My first question tonight relates to the concerns the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee next year.

First and foremost, I hope all council will join me in wishing her majesty a full and speedy recovery from her recent spell of being under the weather.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will in 2022 have been our noble sovereign and Head of the Commonwealth for 70 years, and there are rightly calls from every quarter that this magnificent and unsurpassed achievement in public service be properly celebrated in every corner of our land.

In June, I wrote to Councillor Chadderton as Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, requesting that rose varieties named after Her Majesty the Queen and her late husband HRH Prince Phillip should be planted side-by-side in Oldham’s major public parks and gardens as a tribute to our Royal Family.

I also copied in Councillor Hulme as Council Tree Champion as I suggested that we get our borough’s residents involved in a tree planting programme to mark the Platinum Jubilee, with schools and community groups planting trees in our parks and gardens.

On 2 June 2022, the actual date of the anniversary, localities in the UK and across the Commonwealth are being invited to light beacons, to arrange for town criers to make proclamations, and at the setting of the sun local pipe bands will play a unique tune specially composed for the occasion.

We shall no doubt also receive many calls from our Borough’s residents for permission to hold street parties and other celebratory events.

So, can the Leader please tell me what is being done to prepare for this momentous event, and will she also consider appointing a senior member of her Administration as a Champion to co-ordinate the effort?

Q2 – Princes Gate turns Seven

Madam Mayor,

For my second question tonight, I want to return to a subject that has now become a fixture in the annual Council calendar.

No, I am not referring to the Oldham Big Bang which explodes once more tomorrow night.  Instead, it is that annual question that I as Opposition Leader ask about Prince’s Gate.

For once more this month we shall arrive at yet another anniversary of the announcement by a former Council Leader, now thrice removed, of the supposed ‘gamechanger’ that was to be Prince’s Gate.  And this year this farce turns seven.

I would have brought a birthday cake with candles to share, but we have yet to even see the birth.

For Princes’ Gate has had a gestation period over four times longer than an elephant. (That’s 18 to 22 months by the way).

On 19 November 2014, the BBC first reported Oldham Council’s announcement of the ‘game changer’ and the promise of a 150,000 square foot retail development, with 800 homes and 700 parking spaces.

This project has seen numerous false dawns.  It is now two years since the latest when in the Council’s Town Centre Vision this Administration promised work ‘due to start on site autumn 2019’.

The project has also been significantly scaled back.  The early withdrawal of “missing retail giant” Marks and Spencer meant we now have only the promise of a 28,500 square foot retail development – one fifth the size of the original proposal – and supporting acts Lidl and Travelodge, not original headliner M+S.

So, as we rapidly approach the seventh anniversary of inactivity, please can the Leader tell me if there is any possibility – whatsoever – of shovels in the ground any time soon?