Liberal Democrats announce plans for free school meals for 9,000 more primary school children in Oldham Borough.

The Liberal Democrats have announced their new plan to extend free school meals to all primary school children, beginning with all children from low-income households across both primary and secondary schools.

This would mean an extra 9,250 primary school children in Oldham receiving free school meals.

While welcoming the announcement, Leader of Oldham Liberal Democrats councillor Howard Sykes MBE said the Conservatives had “failed families in Oldham by underfunding free school meals.”

Councillor Sykes said, “School meals should be free for all children.  It is as simple as that.  This is about creating a level playing field at school so that every child has a fair opportunity to thrive.  No child should be going hungry in Britain in 2024.”

“We will start by targeting the children most in need.  In Oldham, that means an additional 9,250 children receiving a nutritional meal at lunchtime, for free.”

The Liberal Democrats will pay for their new proposals by introducing a new tax on share buybacks of FTSE 100 listed corporations, similar to a move made by US President, Joe Biden.

Share buybacks occur when companies use their profits to inflate their own share price, a practice that critics have warned can damage the economy.  The industries who use share buybacks the most are the oil and gas giants, banks, and large corporations who own food and consumer goods brands. 

Councillor Sykes said, “Free school meals help children succeed at school and beyond.”

“When you give children a healthy start in life, every pound you spend saves money

on healthcare and benefits in the long run.  This is the right move for families in Oldham who have been failed by the Conservatives in government during the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.”  

Source for Primary School Children Data: Department for Education Statistics, 2022-23
Source for Children in Poverty Data: Child Poverty Action Group, July 2023

More from Oldham Liberal Democrats on free school meals: Liberal Democrats call for free school meals for all primary school children – Howard Sykes (mycouncillor.org.uk)

Grant available for energy efficiency projects

Small and medium-sized businesses in Greater Manchester can get an Energy Efficiency Grant.

It gives £5,000 (before VAT) to cover 50% of the cost of making energy-saving improvements. The grants are limited and given out on a first-come-first-served basis.

You can use the grant for things like upgrading heating equipment, replacing motors or drives, and making processes more efficient.

If you’re a small or medium-sized business in Greater Manchester, you can apply. They’ll check if your project will save CO2 and meet other criteria. Apply for the grant here

Half of adults and a third of all children in Oldham and Greater Manchester not seen by a dentist Liberal Democrats reveal

Oldham Liberal Democrats have uncovered shocking new data that shows more than 35% of children across Oldham and Greater Manchester have not been seen within the 12-month timeframe recommended by NHS England.

According to research compiled by the House of Commons Library, more than 220,000 children across the Greater Manchester region have waited longer than 12 months for an appointment. 

Leader of Oldham Liberal Democrats councillor Howard Sykes MBE said, “Children are being failed by this government, who have allowed NHS dentistry to fall into crisis.  The consequences four our children can be very serious.”

“Tooth decay is now the leading cause of hospital admissions for children aged 6-10.”

The Liberal Democrats also warned of a crisis facing adult dental services after research revealed that more than 1 million adults across Greater Manchester had not been seen within the 24-month period required by NHS England. 

Despite these figures, it has been estimated that a record £400 million in NHS Dentistry funding was left unspent in 2023 due to a shortage of dentists willing to take on NHS work.

Councillor Sykes said, “There are steps the government could take to put an end to this dentistry crisis.  Liberal Democrats want to use the millions of pounds that have been left unspent to boost appointments and guarantee an NHS dentist for anyone needing emergency care.”

“The government should also help families by removing VAT from children’s toothbrushes and toothpaste.”

NOTES:

The research from the House of Commons Library can be found here. 
Tooth decay being the leading cause of hospital admissions for children aged 6-10 can be found here.
It has previously been estimated that the NHS budget was underspent by a record £400m last year, due to dentists not finding it economical to take on NHS work.

Question: Reform and Regeneration – Councillor Howard Sykes Shadow cabinet member

In light of Mayor Burnham’s announcement on the Clean Air Zone, does the Leader think it is appropriate that cameras put in place for the original zone should be handed over to Greater Manchester Police without proper scrutiny or consultation? 

Would they not be put to better use if Council’s repurposed them for safer streets initiatives?

And how does the Combined Authority plan to recoup the more than £3 million plus it spent putting CAZ signs up which turned out never to be needed and the even more cash which will be needed to remove them?

And how much public money has been wasted exploring unwanted and undeliverable versions of the Clean Air Zone, only for the scheme to be scaled back at the eleventh hour.  Not to mention the stress and distress to original scheme caused small business and the self-employed. 

And does she agree with me there has been a significant lack of political oversight of this key Greater Manchester project and can we assured it will not happen again with future transport schemes?

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Oldham’s Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader and GM transport spokesperson councillor Howard Sykes MBE has again called for “common sense” on Greater Manchester ‘clean air zone’ proposals.  Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is expected to announce the latest on the Clean Air Zone soon following indications from the government that they will allow/force a charging zone to go ahead. 

Councillor Sykes said, “The Tory Government and the GM Mayor must finally show some common sense.  Everyone can see the original proposals were oversized and ridiculous.  If anything, we need a very small city centre Clean Air Zone and for the charges to be scrapped.  Why on Earth would we want to see more costs heaped onto the people of Oldham during a cost-of-living crisis?”

The Liberal Democrat Leader also slammed a “staggering waste of money” on Clean Air Zone signage across Oldham and Greater Manchester. 

Councillor Sykes said, “Last year, the Liberal Democrats revealed that Clean Air Zone signs across Greater Manchester costed more than £3million.  It’s a staggering waste of money given the future and scope of the scheme is still unclear.” 

NOTES

CAZ signs costed more than £3m

CAZ | Howard Sykes (mycouncillor.org.uk)

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.”

Information obtained by Oldham’s Liberal Democrats has revealed that Transport for Greater Manchester have spent more than £3 million on signage for Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s Clean Air Zone. 

Oldham’s Liberal Democrat Leader, councillor Howard Sykes issued Burnham’s Mayoral office with a Freedom of Information request which asked how much money had been spent on CAZ signs to date.  The £3.04 million sum was paid to the public works contractor McCann Ltd for the CAZ signs that are spread across Greater Manchester.  A further £120,000 was paid to McCann for the ‘under review stickers’ that were used after the original Clean Air Zone was paused.    

Councillor Sykes said, “It is ridiculous that such a large sum of money has already been spent on signage when we still don’t know the final boundaries if any of the Clean Air Zone and what the charge if any might be.  Labour has questions to answer over this wasteful spending.” 

The revelations come as Clean Air Zone plans for Greater Manchester have reached a stalemate.  Mayor Burnham has been forced to climb down from his original plans and the Government is considering whether it will impose a charging zone on the city region.

Councillor Sykes said, “We still don’t know the final details of the Clean Air Zone and it’s possible the final plans might limit the zone to Manchester City Centre.  What would we then do with millions of pounds worth of unnecessary signs?”

NOTES

Liberal Democrat Freedom of Information Request

Sent by Councillor Howard Sykes MBE

I am writing to request information relating to road signage used across Greater Manchester in connection with the Mayor’s ‘Clean Air Zone’ proposals.

Please can you provide information detailing the following:

• The total costs incurred for the implementation of road signs advertising the original Clean Air Zone start date – 30th May 2022
• The total costs incurred in correcting these original signs with the message ‘Under Review’
• A breakdown of these two costs for each local authority area in Greater Manchester

Transport for Greater Manchester Response

Sent by TfGM 05/07/22

In July 2021, TfGM, acting on behalf of the ten local authorities of Greater Manchester (GM), contracted with McCann Ltd for the installation, maintenance and decommissioning of the circa 2200 signs required for a GM wide category C charging Clean Air Zone across 18 local authorities.

These included the ten GM authorities and 8 the neighbouring authorities of Calderdale, Kirklees, Derbyshire, Cheshire East, Warrington, St Helens, Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen. The value of the contract is £3.04m. The nature of the contract with McCann was costed on the basis of a lump sum fixed price for the installation of all the required signs across the 18 authorities and as such it is not possible to provide a breakdown of the costs on a per local authority basis.

In February 2022, after the review of Greater Manchester’s Clean Air Plan was announced, a further order was awarded to McCann for £120k to manufacture the 1309 “Under Review” sticker and apply the stickers to the signs in Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Calderdale, Kirklees, Derbyshire, Cheshire East, Warrington, St Helens, Lancashire, and Blackburn with Darwen.

The following local authorities applied the stickers to the signs in their own jurisdiction at the costs identified below:

• Bolton Council £11.5k
• Bury Council £6.9k
• Salford City Council £14.2k
• Stockport MBC £17k
• Tameside MBC £3.5k
• Trafford Council £9.3k
• Wigan Council £6.9k

Oldham’s Liberal Democrats are calling for the government to support a no charging Clean Air Zone as new plans emerge for the next phases of CAZ today. 

Liberal Democrat Leader and Shaw councillor Howard Sykes said, “Common sense has finally prevailed on the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.  We welcome the proposals for a no charging Clean Air Zone.  The government must not impose charges on Greater Manchester that would hurt jobs during the cost-of-living crisis.” 

Councillor Sykes also said that the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Andy Burnham had questions to answer.

Councillor Sykes said, “Why has it taken so long to get to this stage?  It was clear that a no charging zone was the common sense approach from the outset.  So why has Mayor Burnham spent time and money plastering Greater Manchester with signage and having reports written that tell us what should have ben plainly obvious at the start of this process?  The Conservative Government need to back these plans and not re-introducing charging.”  

Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE has called for common sense as Andy Burnham’s war of words with the government over the Clean Air Zone (CAZ) continues.

The Greater Manchester Mayor is locked in a bitter stalemate with Conservative ministers after he rejected Government proposals to limit the Clean Air Zone to Manchester City Centre only.    

Councillor Sykes said, “It’s about time we had some common sense instead of bickering between Mayor Burnham and the Conservatives.  The Liberal Democrats want to see people’s jobs and income protected at a time when many are struggling.  Keeping CAZ free is the best way forward if we want to protect jobs during the cost-of-living crisis.”

“If the Conservative government force a charging zone on Greater Manchester then the area affected by CAZ should be kept as small as possible.  In that scenario, CAZ should be limited to the City Centre.”

Councillor Sykes has recently called for Andy Burnham to come clean about how much money he has spent on the Clean Air Zone, raising concerns about CAZ road signs which have all had to be updated as the Mayors plan was placed under review.

Councillor Sykes said, “The public have a right to know what Mayor Burnham is spending their money on.  He slaps Greater Manchester council taxpayers with his mayoral precept tax hikes every year, so he must answer questions about wasteful spending.  The CAZ road sign fiasco is still ongoing.  He spent money to put them up.  He spent money correcting the signs telling us CAZ was under review.  Soon he might be spending money to take them down in areas outside the City Centre.  My question is how much will this now cost?”