Oldham Liberal Democrat Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE has slammed Labour Party plans to create a new Greater Manchester-wide clean air scrutiny committee.

This comes on the back of More than £60M wasted already on the failed Clean Air Zone (CAZ) proposals earlier this year and details of the new scheme are still to be confirmed.

Branding the committee proposals as a “toothless Labour cosy-club”, councillor Sykes has criticised the lack of a duty for political balance on the new committee. 

Councillor Sykes said, “The report to be considered by Oldham Council on Wednesday 14 December (item 14) says the new committee must reflect Greater Manchester’s political balance ‘where reasonably practical’ – and we all know what that means.” 

“Labour are giving themselves a massive majority, and, with three members of the committee required to call-in any decisions, it means nothing will happen unless Labour wants it to.”

“This is not real scrutiny, and unlike the other Scrutiny bodies, which state that an opposition member must Chair proceedings, this body does not.”

The proposed Greater Manchester Joint Scrutiny Committee would have oversight of electric vehicle charging schemes across Greater Manchester, as well as any future road user charging schemes, to name just two key areas.

Councillor Sykes said, “This new committee will be more of a rubber-stamping exercise than a true scrutiny committee.  Nothing will be called in unless Labour agrees to it.  You would think with the massive mistake of CAZ so fresh in the memory, they would want something robust that could prevent such a calamity in the future.  A Labour cosy club is just going to be toothless and isn’t going offer any meaningful challenge or contribution on air quality matters.”