Oldham Labour quietly vote down plans for improved front line services for the public

Blink and you might have missed it, but at a meeting of Full Council this week (12/07), Oldham Labour Party voted down proposals aimed at improving essential frontline services like road repairs, parks and green spaces maintenance and prosecution of environmental crimes. 

The plans, titled “Time for Oldham Council to start getting the basics right”, were tabled by the Liberal Democrat Group.  But the ruling Labour Group took advantage of a chaotic meeting at Oldham Civic Centre, to quietly move the proposals to a vote without any debate. 

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, who leads the Liberal Democrats in Oldham, said, “What a complete disgrace for the people of Oldham Borough.  People are fed up with the way Oldham Council routinely fails to deliver on the basics, like road maintenance, tackling fly-tipping and improving our parks and green spaces.”

“These are the things residents tell us are important.  The Labour Party have become obsessed with failed and expensive vanity projects in Oldham Town Centre.  They have let the wider Borough down.  When presented with a plan that would help refocus council resources onto the priorities of our residents, their reaction is to quietly vote it down without discussion and hope no one notices.”

“Oldham Labour like to say that they run a ‘Listening Council.’  Well last night proved that to be utter nonsense.”

Full council 12/07/2023 – Notice of Opposition Motion Liberal Democrat Group

Time for Oldham to get the basics right

Proposed by: councillor Dave Murphy

Seconded by: councillor Hazel Gloster

This Council believes that:

Residents across Oldham Borough expect and deserve first class public services. 

Residents feel that services such as schools, maintenance of roads, planning, park maintenance and drain clearance represent some of the most significant work that the council does because they affect the everyday lives of the people we represent. 

When residents say they cannot rely on these services to be of consistent high quality, it undermines the trust that residents place in their council and their readiness to engage with services and that the Council should listen and take action.

Pride in service, strong communication, agility, resourcefulness and good interdepartmental cooperation are all essential values in delivering first class services across the board, and that these values must be set from the top down. 

This Council notes that:

There is a growing trend of complacent underperformance that affects much of the council’s key service delivery and it needs addressing.  This is keenly felt by our residents, who regularly tell us that they feel their council “does not get the basics right.”

Fly-tipping offences have spiralled out of control in Oldham, with the Borough seeing massive increases in offences when compared to other authorities across the North West.

Littering and dog-fouling offences continue unabated, with the council failing to issue Fixed Penalty Notices with any meaningful consistency or to come up with stronger solutions to tackle this ongoing issue. 

Oldham’s schools are falling behind, with more than half now deemed as ‘needing improvement and it cannot continue.

This Council resolves to:

Move away from vanity projects that do not materialise and refocus its priorities; directing as much effort and attention into supporting basic frontline services as it has done into regeneration projects.

To take this motion to Overview and Scrutiny to see what can be done to improve the situation and provide a report to council on their findings.