Oldham Liberal Democrats are backing an international call to the world’s policy makers to make 20 mph / 30 kph the default speed limit on the UK’s residential streets. The campaign is being called to mark UN Road Safety Week (17-23 May).
Signing the open letter of support calling on Britain’s Transport Secretary Grant Shapps MP to acknowledge that 20 mph is plenty on Britain’s residential streets, Leader of the Real Opposition and Liberal Democrat Group, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE said:
“The Liberal Democrats have twice now brought proposals before Oldham Council asking for action to create 20mph zones to save lives in our borough. I sincerely hope the Labour Administration will now finally take action to make it so.”
“But I am today writing to the Transport Secretary at the start of UN Road Safety Week asking him to follow the lead shown by other countries in also making 20mph the default speed limit across the United Kingdom.”
Councillor Sykes added: “For the evidence is overwhelming that speed kills and that many lives would be saved and injuries spared, particularly amongst our children and the elderly, if we just slowed down and reduced our speed limits from 30mph to 20mph on our minor roads.”
Come and try your hand at another day of dry-stone walling. This is the perfect opportunity to have a go, and learn how to take down and re-build a dry-stone wall within the beautiful setting of Crompton Moor.
No experience is necessary, and all tools, protective eyewear, and materials will be provided.
Please dress, according to the weather, and you will require stout outdoor footwear and work gloves. Please bring a packed lunch and something to drink.
We will meet in Brushes Clough car park, on Crompton Moor, for a 10:00 am start.
Shaw and a Crompton Liberal Democrat councillors have requested an urgent meeting with the regional representatives of the Royal British Legion after it was revealed that the Shaw and Crompton Branch based on Newtown Street in Shaw has been closed down and the locks changed without any explanation to members.
Councillor Chris Gloster said in a letter to the regional chair of the Royal British Legion
“Can I ask that you facilitate a meeting with either yourself or the appropriate people with regards to current issues at Shaw and Crompton RBL Branch HQ.
We are aware that the premises have effectively been closed and that the locks have been changed without notice and we are getting a lot of enquiries from very disgruntled residents in relation to these actions.
Shaw and Crompton RBL HQ is an important community hub, and over the past two years, ourselves as borough councillors along with Shaw and Crompton Parish Councillors, numerous businesses and residents have invested a lot of time and money into rejuvenating these premises and doubling the membership (including myself) to ensure this branch remains viable.
I cannot emphasis enough the distress this has caused some individuals as well as the negative comments made with regards to the national RBL and this situation need to be resolved as quickly as possible
The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the way forward.”
Councillor Howard Sykes added: “the closure of the branch, particularly just before the 100th Anniversary weekend of the founding of the Royal British Legion will mean that external events that were planned to celebrate the Centenary have had to be cancelled. As local councillors we recognise the community value this branch brings to Shaw and Crompton and we will do all we can to get it open again.”
In addition to the staggering 80,000 unrecorded crimes, Greater Manchester Police have failed to report figures on unsolved crimes to the Home Office since July 2019.
Nearly a million crimes have gone unsolved across the country in the last five years – that 80,000 unrecorded crimes alone would take the figure well past a million.
Local Liberal Democrat Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani said: “We have just seen Andy Burnham returned as Greater Manchester Mayor, taking on the role of Police and Crime Commissioner, despite the police being placed into special measures on his watch.
“If we do not see a complete change in what is happening in Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham should not see out his term. It is residents across our Borough who are suffering as a consequence of these failures.
“Local police are not getting the support they need. That has happened for two reasons – unnecessary Tory cuts which have savaged the number of detectives, and failings in the senior management of Greater Manchester Police, which has resulted in the resignation of the Chief Constable; even though Mayor Andy Burnham has remained in place.
Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said: “Having suffered the distress and trauma of being burgled, hundreds of thousands of victims are left without the closure they need and the justice they deserve.
“This Conservative Government is letting down victims and allowing far too many criminals to get away with it. Liberal Democrats will do what works to build communities where people are safe and feel safe too.”
Councillor Al-Hamdani added: “Oldham Police need the officers, resources and time to focus on preventing and solving crimes. A return to proper community policing, where officers are visible, trusted and known personally to local people, would go a long way. That needs the Government to change course, and get new detectives in place, and it needs the Labour administration in Greater Manchester to deliver what it has failed to do in Andy Burnham’s first term.”
At a Group meeting held on 8 May, the Oldham Borough Liberal Democrat Group appointed, unanimously and un-opposed, councillor Howard Sykes MBE as their Leader and councillor Chris Gloster as their Deputy Leader.
Councillor Howard Sykes said: “I am grateful once more to my colleagues for their unanimous support for my work as Group Leader and delighted that Chris will continue to serve as my Deputy. It was great to welcome newly elected councillor Mark Kenyon from Saddleworth West and Lees to the team, and to welcome Diane Williamson back for Crompton. I was also more than a little pleased to be re-elected myself. It was a shame that Garth Harkness will not be with us. After last Friday’s results, the Liberal Democrats retain eight councillors and I know that all eight of us will continue to try to make a difference.”
“Liberal Democrats will be the only real opposition party holding Labour to account on Oldham Council. We will work as a united team to offer common-sense solutions to the Borough’s problems and challenge the Labour Administration to cut waste and focus spending on the value-for-money services that the public wants,” added councillor Sykes.
“Labour is now at a crossroads. With just 20 of the 60 seats up for election six Labour councillors were defeated at the polls, including their Leader; several more had some close calls. Labour now must elect a new incumbent and it will be interesting to see who emerges as the winner from the contest. I sincerely hope that that person understands that the Labour needs to make a major course correction to focus on what really matters.”
Councillor Sykes set out the Liberal Democrats’ priorities for Oldham Council:
“Council Tax payers hard-earned money should be spent on front-line services, such tackling fly-tipping and dog-fouling, repairing our roads and pavements, maintaining our much loved parks and green spaces, providing quality social care, and revitalising our district centres, not on civic centre bureaucracy or costly vanity projects, like £68 million on ‘Spendles’, that usually come in with massive cost overruns or frequently come to naught.”
“We also need to address the endemic levels of poverty, unemployment, educational underachievement and mental and physical ill-health that have festered for decades under Labour in our Borough, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a reinvigorated, innovative, multi-agency approach that gets residents out of poverty, skilled-up and into work.”
“We also need a new deal for our district centres, with new health centres for Shaw and Crompton, Saddleworth and Chadderton, an improved local retail and leisure offer, and local youth facilities, not just a single centre of excellence in Oldham. Last but not least, we need to forsake the Royton incinerator project and Mayor Andy Burnham’s Son of GMSF ‘Places for Everyone’ plan, and develop our own home-grown plan with a Brownfield ‘first and always’ strategy to save all of our Borough’s irreplaceable Green Belt and green spaces from housing development.”
“These are our priorities because they are the people’s priorities,” he added.
A tiny “home” being advertised in Oldham for rental has been condemned by a local councillor as the worst example they have seen of substandard housing.
The “home” is a tiny garden shed with just enough room for a foldaway bed and a chemical toilet.
Lib Dem Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani said: “This is shocking. We have seen more and more examples of standards falling, with regulations being weakened to ‘increase development’ – unfortunately at any cost.”
The Housing and Homelessness Shadow Cabinet Member continued: “We recently introduced a motion to Oldham Council about housing standards that breach human rights. It seems unthinkable that we should have to do so.
“I cannot believe that people think that they can get away with this. This is no way for someone to live. This shows what happens when regulations are slashed and there is insufficient enforcement of the rules.
“This taking advantage of people who have no alternative.
“This Government must introduce minimum standards that stop this ever being considered again. We need more funding for brownfield development, and a proper housebuilding programme where those houses are needed.
“I am sick and tired of hearing about three- and four-bedroom houses on open spaces, instead of affordable homes on brownfield sites. This can change. It must.”
Come and try your hand at another day of dry-stone walling. This is the perfect opportunity to have a go, and learn how to take down and re-build a dry-stone wall within the beautiful setting of Crompton Moor.
No experience is necessary, and all tools, protective eyewear, and materials will be provided.
Please dress, according to the weather, and you will require stout outdoor footwear and work gloves. Please bring a packed lunch and something to drink.
We will meet in Brushes Clough car park, on Crompton Moor, for a 10:30 am start.
If you have any questions, please let us know by email –cromptonmoor@gmail.com, or you can call us on 07792 156295.
Kind Regards,
Marian Herod, Secretary – Friends of Crompton Moor, 07792 156295, www.cromptonmoor.co.uk
