Oldham’s Liberal Democrats have welcomed recent news that the Domestic Abuse Bill passing through Parliament will now contain a commitment to establish a national offenders’ register for those convicted of stalking or domestic violence after the House of Lords amended the legislation. 

Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Councillor Chris Gloster, a former police officer with 30 years’ experience, proposed the establishment of just such a register when he brought a motion to last December’s meeting of Oldham Council with the support of the Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service

Councillor Chris Gloster is elated:  “In light of the recent tragic murder of Sarah Everard, this development brings some hope that in the future serial offenders who are violent towards or stalk their victims will be tracked to prevent their reoffending and save innocent lives.  Serial stalkers and domestic abusers should be put on the national register for violent and sex offenders and subject to greater monitoring by the police and other agencies.  If we track them, we can stop them offending and perhaps save victims like Hollie Gazzard who was murdered by Asher Maslin, who had 24 previous violent offences against several partners.”

The motion carried at the meeting of Oldham Council on 16 December 2020 reads:

Council notes that:

• Stalking and domestic abuse are crimes which are insidious and terrifying, the majority committed by men against women.  Offenders go from victim to victim, yet many remain undetected and un-convicted.

• The evidence shows that domestic abuse has become more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.  Some stalkers and domestic abusers go on to commit murder, and tragically the domestic homicide rate, mostly of women, continues to increase.

• Despite clear warning signs that such crimes are often repeated and follow a pattern, much offending behaviour remains undetected by the Police, probation and other agencies, and offenders are left at large.

• Although the provisions of the Domestic Abuse Bill now before Parliament are welcome, the Bill is manifestly deficient in not addressing the importance of robustly tracking and apprehending these offenders.

Council further notes that:

• Whilst the Domestic Abuse Bill would place Clare’s Law (the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme) on a statutory footing, this will place the onus upon victims to come forward to seek information about their partner or a family member and this can sometimes place the victim in danger.

• There is no duty on police services to identify, track and manage stalkers and domestic abusers.

Council believes that:

• It is imperative that serial stalkers and domestic abusers are prioritised and proactively identified, assessed and managed by Police, probation and other relevant agencies, so that intelligence can be shared about their offending behaviour to hold them to account and close down their behaviour.

• The details of stalkers and domestic abusers should be included on the Violent and Sexual Offender’s Register and managed via the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements.

Council resolves to ask the Chief Executive to write to the Home Secretary asking her to make these changes to more effectively track and apprehend stalkers and domestic abusers, and to copy in our three local Members of Parliament and the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester asking them to make representations to the Home Secretary in support of the Council’s position.

Proposed by:                                                     Seconded by:

Councillor Chris Gloster                                 Councillor Diane Williamson

The Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service

Paladin was launched in 2013 by Founder Laura Richards and others changed the law to create a specific criminal offence of stalking.  Paladin amplifies the voice of the victim within the criminal and civil justice system, as many victims feel isolated and terrified. Some pay with their lives. Paladin provides a high level of advocacy to anyone at risk of serious harm or homicide from a stalker.

We give initial advice and offer to complete a detailed assessment to anyone who calls our service and is affected by stalking. Sometimes we call this ‘high risk’ and it is based on what we learn from the detailed assessment.  However, in all situations we aim to improve access to the right kind of support for each person and improve co-ordinated working between specialist services to keep each survivor feeling safer.

Our Board is made up of experienced and award-winning professionals including our Chair Rachel Horman, who is a solicitor; Allan Aubeelack former police officer, Zoe Dronfield, Zoe Jones and Tom Cottew. Our patron is philanthropist and prison reformer, Lady Edwina Grosvenor.

Paladin operates a telephone helpline 020 3866 4107 open weekdays 9 am to 3 pm (except Wednesdays when it operates until 5pm).  Enquirers unable to call within these hours can email info@paladinservice.co.uk to arrange a call at a convenient time.

Paladin’s website can be found at https://paladinservice.co.uk/

An end to deregulation and the introduction of franchising means good news for Greater Manchester’s bus passengers, say Oldham’s Liberal Democrats.  They have welcomed the decision to end the chaos of bus privatisation and reintroduce publicly controlled bus services.

Greater Manchester’s buses were privatised by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government in 1986, and for the last thirty-five years buses in the city region have been run by private companies focused on making a profit for shareholders.  For Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Opposition and of the Liberal Democrat Group on Oldham Council, bus privatisation has been a disaster. 

Councillor Sykes, who also serves as one of Oldham’s representatives on the Transport for Greater Manchester committee, said:  “Privatisation has meant increased fares, a disjointed ticketing system and worsening services. Bus companies can largely operate as they wish.  They can pull and change commercial services and raise fares as suits them. Over the years, the fares have steadily gone up whilst the services have gotten worse. That’s why bus services are so poor in Oldham; take for example the old 59, now 57 bus in my own ward of Shaw which is now a shadow of what was once a reliable and frequent service.”

For Councillor Sykes, franchising represents a new opportunity for transformation:

“In London, bus companies were not privatised.  Instead bus companies compete for franchises where fares, timetables and routes are set by Transport for London. That is why in Oldham you can pay up to £5 for a ticket for a single journey with one bus company, whilst in London it costs only £1.55 for a Hopper fare to make multiple journeys by bus and tram within an hour of activation.”

The decision followed a public consultation in which respondents clearly indicated their support for bus franchising.  Councillor Sykes can see why:  “Franchising is common sense.  It means lower fares and a simpler ticketing system.  It will allow us to introduce a daily price cap for bus and tram travel across Greater Manchester.  It will allow us to introduce complementary timetables that allow passengers to better transfer between buses and trams.  Franchising means finally twenty-first century bus travel for Greater Manchester and we just need to get on with it.  I urge the Mayor and Transport for Greater Manchester to do so, we have waited long enough.”

Oldham’s Liberal Democrats are backing the Fossil Fuel Greater Manchester campaign in asking the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, the largest of its kind in the country, to go green and ditch investments in coal, gas and coal.

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Oldham Council, wrote recently to the Council’s representative on the board of the pension fund, Labour Deputy Leader Councillor Abdul Jabbar MBE, asking for his help in making this request a reality.

Councillor Sykes explained:  “In light of the long-term threat posed to our natural environment and humanity by climate change, Oldham Council has like many others declared a climate emergency and has set ambitious goals to become a carbon neutral local authority by 2025 and a carbon neutral borough by 2030.  It seems incongruous that both we as a Council and our employees continue to contribute to a pension fund that has significant investments in fossil fuels.”

At 31 March 2019, GMPF had direct holdings of over £1.3 billion in fossil fuel companies, along with an estimated £350 million in pooled equity funds.  This is a total of £1.71 billion, which is 7% of total holdings, as recorded in the March 2019 Annual Report.

Councillor Sykes has asked his colleague, who is the Cabinet Member for Green issues, to raise the need for divestment into green technologies at the board.  “I am hopeful that Cllr Jabbar will be supportive of our ambitions for the board to

recognise the need for divestment and to clearly identify a firm timetable and ambitious time-bound targets to get out of fossil-fuels soon and for good.”

The email letter sent to Councillor Abdul Jabbar MBE 8 March – despite a reminder no response to date

Councillor Abdul Jabbar, MBE, Cabinet Member for Finance and Green, Oldham Council, Oldham Council’s Representative to the Greater Manchester Pension Fund

Dear Councillor Jabbar,

Re: carbon- neutral, zero carbon goals of Oldham Council

As you know, the Liberal Democrat Group stands with the Labour Administration in seeking to achieve our ambition to make Oldham Council carbon-neutral by 2025 and to make our borough the same by 2030.  These are incredibly ambitious targets, but they are targets that we must achieve for the sake of the residents of the borough and the future of our planet.

Other authorities across Greater Manchester have set similar ambitious goals – Bury by 2030, Manchester by 2038, and Stockport Council also by 2038 – and the University of Manchester has also committed to divest its fossil fuel investments by 2022, and the Mayor of Greater Manchester has just concluded a public consultation prior to introducing a new action plan to improve air quality across our city region.

Yet there is something that the ten authorities and their staff do day-by-day that is seriously compromising our environment and jeopardising the achievement of these ambitious goals – that is contributing to, and otherwise supporting, a city-regional pension fund that continues to hold sizable investments in fossil fuel businesses.  Businesses whose products continue to contaminate our atmosphere and poison our people.

The Greater Manchester Pension Fund stands out in the pantheon of public sector pension funds regrettably for its commitment to the fossil fuel industry.  At 31 March 2019, GMPF had direct holdings of over £1.3 billion in fossil fuel companies, along with an estimated £350 million in pooled equity funds.  This is a total of £1.71 billion, which is 7% of total holdings, as recorded in the March 2019 Annual Report.  The biggest holdings are in BP and Shell.  The equivalent Lancashire pension fund has only 1.89% of its investments in fossil fuels.

While councils and other employers across Greater Manchester have pledged to take urgent action to avert the climate emergency, the Greater Manchester Pension Fund has only made a vague commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050 and has made very slow progress in divesting from fossil fuels. 

GMPF justify their continued fossil-fuel investments by citing fiduciary duty and the need to make the best possible returns for investors, but fossil fuel businesses have recently performed poorly.  Their performance will continue to decline as oil and gas reserves become exhausted and as investment and public sentiment moves increasingly into renewable energy and transport. 

This at a moment in our history when time is fast running out to arrest irreversible climate change; if this does not happen our future pensioners will hardly appreciate the benefits of fiduciary duty when they are struggling to breathe.   

The biggest threat to workers, pensioners, employers and taxpayers is the climate emergency – inaction by GMPF increases the risk of climate instability and economic collapse. 

Investors managing over $11 trillion of assets globally have now made divestment commitments, and it’s working – last year Goldman Sachs said that divestment has “in our view been a driver of the [coal] sector de-rating over the past five years.”

It’s time for GMPF to stop making excuses and to use its expertise and investments to rapidly divest from fossil fuels and thereby help to create a safer, healthier future for all GM residents.

I am therefore writing to ask you to raise as Oldham Council’s representative on the GMPF Management Advisory Board at its next meeting on Friday 19 March the need for divestment and to clearly identify a firm timetable and ambitious time-bound targets to get out of fossil-fuels soon and for good.

Thank you for considering my request and in anticipation of your support.

I would appreciate an update after the meeting, and of course I stand ready to assist you in any way to achieve these goals.

I look forward to your comments with interest.

Best wishes and stay safe.

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE

As of, 25th March 2021, almost 100,000 of Oldham patients have now had their first COVID-19 vaccine, which is key to protecting residents and their loved ones against the virus.

However, there still is patients who are over 50 or who have underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality, but have not yet taken up the offer of the vaccination.

Putting off vaccination leaves you and those around you at continued risk of contracting COVID-19.

Oldham GPs have complete confidence that vaccines being used are safe.

All those available in the UK have undergone rigorous safety tests prior to the vaccination programme being rolled out and they are continually monitored.

Oldham GPs have been vaccinated and would not be strongly encouraging you to come forward for vaccination if they still had any doubts the vaccines are safe and effective.

If you have been offered an appointment for your first COVID-19 vaccine but had to cancel or simply just weren’t able to make the slot offered, there’s still time to get your jab.

To book an appointment you can:

• Contact your GP surgery
• Book an appointment online here.
• Call 119

Despite Liberal Democrat opposition, Labour voted to take forward the so-called ‘Places for Everyone’ plan at Wednesday’s Council’s meeting (24 March 2021).  The new plan will lead to thousands of new homes being built on Oldham’s Green Belt.

Councillors considered a report to make an agreement to ‘prepare a joint development plan’ to replace the discredited Greater Manchester Spatial Framework and to delegate the Leader of the Council to sit on an oversight committee with the Leaders of eight of the other nine Greater Manchester authorities. All of these are led by Labour Leaders, other than Bolton which has a Conservative Administration.

Stockport Liberal Democrats torpedoed the previous plan by voting against Stockport being involved with it at a Council meeting held there in December 2020.

At Wednesday’s meeting (24/03/21), Oldham’s Liberal Democrat opposition voted en-bloc against the recommendations of the report, but the Council’s majority Labour Administration pushed it through.

Commenting, the Leader of the Opposition and Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, said:  “Obviously for us this is a disappointing result, but this is only the start of a long process.  A new plan will eventually be developed that will again be put out to public consultation, and I would urge any members of the public and any organisation campaigning to save our Green Belt to put in their objections at that time.”

Councillor Sykes added:  “Oldham’s Liberal Democrats will continue to oppose this Greater Manchester plan and fight for a local plan that is framed by local people and meets our borough’s needs.  We are opposed to any Green Belt development and want a plan that is focused upon building new homes only on Brown Field sites or by repurposing redundant factories, mills, shops and pubs to quality housing.”

Notes

The report presented to Oldham Council 24 March 2021 – Item 19 : ‘Arrangements for the preparation of ‘Places for Everyone’: A proposed Joint Development Plan Document on behalf of nine Greater Manchester districts’

https://committees.oldham.gov.uk/documents/s122592/Final%20Cabinet_Council%20Report%20for%20Joint%20Committee%20March%202021.pdf

Council 24 March 2021- Covid-19 Response Questions

Care home vaccinations and visits

I would like to ask a follow-on question from the one I asked at the December Council. 

As I said then ‘in this pandemic, one of the greatest tragedies has been seeing the forced separation of the residents of our care homes from their loved ones.  For the residents of the care homes in our borough who have waited many months to finally meet up with family a visit cannot come soon enough.

I was delighted then to hear that from 8 March care home residents will be able to receive visits, albeit from one relative only and subject to the requirement that physical contact be limited to holding hands and that the visitor pass a lateral flow test and use PPE. 

It is far from ideal, but it is a start, and it is my hope that we will do everything in our power to enable such visits to happen on a regular basis.

At the start of February, the Government announced that all residents and staff in care homes have ‘been offered’ their first COVID-19 vaccination and promised a second round of vaccinations in coming weeks. 

Given that over one-third of all COVID-19 deaths have involved the residents of care homes achieving this would be great news.

However, I was informed on 4 March that in Oldham 91% of residents and only 75% of staff had received their first vaccination, with many refusals amongst staff. 

My concern is that if staff refuse to be vaccinated then we shall still see outbreaks of COVID-19 in the future in our care homes.

Can the Cabinet Member please update me on the current situation, specifically I would appreciate answers to the following questions:

1. Have all residents now received their first vaccination?

• When will the second phase of vaccination be completed?

• How is the vaccine being promoted to staff to increase take-up?

• And finally, could the Cabinet Member please give me the good news that vaccination and the introduction of testing for relatives has enabled regular visits to resume?

Councillor Howard Sykes, 24 March 2021

Page 165 – GM Police, Fire and Crime Panel 16/11/20 – Item PCFP/18/20 – iOPS Update

I first raised the deficiencies of the iOPs Integrated Operating Policing System over two years ago.  This system was meant to seamlessly replace three existing police computer system to provide enhanced capacity to Police officers and criminal prosecutors. The reality has proven vastly different. 

I have written to or met with the Greater Manchester Mayor and senior police officers to complain about it several times. Quite simply it has never been fit for purpose – and it has led to crimes not being properly recorded, victims not receiving a prompt and professional service, and prosecutors being unable to proceed with court cases.  Even Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary reported that police officers had ‘very little confidence’ in it and were ‘frustrated’ by a system that does not always return ‘accurate results’.

Yet the Mayor and Deputy Mayor as our Police and Crime Commissioners keep insisting that the system will eventually prove its worth.  Two years on can the Council’s representative on the panel provide us with any real reassurance when this system will eventually work, or has it in fact proven to be just a blackhole into which public money has been poured, wasted on a system that was never fit-for-purpose?

Councillor Howard Sykes, 24 March 2021

Q1). Managing expenditure at Spindles and Town Square

For my first question to the Leader tonight, I would like to return to the redevelopment of the Spindles and Town Square shopping centres.

At the November 2020 Council meeting, just after the purchase had been completed, I asked the Leader whether this represented a ‘risky purchase’ and pointed up the ‘significant sums of money’ that will be involved in repurposing and refurbishing these two shopping centres.

I am sure that many people will have been shocked to recently hear that the ‘significant sum of money’ this Administration has earmarked to repurpose and refurbish these shopping centres amounts to £68 million over five years.

Not for nothing did the Liberal Democrats brand it ‘Spendles’.

This truly is a whopping sum of money.

We all want to see a vibrant, viable town centre in the heart of our borough – and for our part Liberal Democrat Councillors also want to see vibrant and well-used district centres in Failsworth, Chadderton, Royton, Shaw, Uppermill, and Lees as well – but at what eventual cost?

My real fear is that we shall see the same cost and time overruns and abortive costs on this project that have dogged this Administration’s previous so-called ambitious town centre projects:

• the abandoned Hotel Futures plan;
• the abandoned Coliseum plans – plural;
• the bankrupted My House;
• the much delayed and costly ‘game changer’ at Princes Gate;
• the over-budget town centre digital hub;
• and lastly the town centre flagship, the Old Town Hall project, delivered at four times the original cost.

So can the Leader please tell me tonight how he will ensure that this project will be rigorously managed from start-to-finish, to ensure that it is delivered on time and to the current assigned budget or, for the sake of our hard-pressed tax payers, preferably much less?

Q2). A memorial to COVID-19 victims and heroes

My second question to the Leader tonight references the sad anniversary yesterday of the first COVID-19 Lockdown in the United Kingdom.

This past year we have seen so much sacrifice and so much suffering.

Many of us have had COVID-19 or have seen loved ones, friends and family, die from this relentless, ruthless disease.

But we have also seen a great deal of courage and selflessness. 

We are all too aware of the incredible professionalism, fortitude, and, yes, bravery displayed by our wonderful NHS staff in their care for those afflicted by COVID-19.

But we should also remember the many others who have helped save lives and keep our society functioning during this unprecedented crisis.

Members of our emergency services, including the volunteers of our local Mountain Rescue Service; our care workers; our schools, education and nursery staff; our postal workers; our power, water and telecoms workers; bus, tram and train drivers; delivery drivers and warehouse staff; supermarket and shop workers; the many volunteers who support our communities, and of course our hardworking council staff, who like their colleagues in the NHS have found this time especially testing.

My question to the Leader concerns how we will mark this sacrifice, suffering, courage and selflessness in our borough in the future.

Oldham has been hit especially hard by COVID-19 and it will take a significant effort and a lot of time to recover. 

A large part of this recovery will revolve around the collective need for the people of this borough to grieve, to reflect and to remember.

I would suggest to the Leader that we need to commit as a borough to creating a bespoke collective space where that might happen – a memorial to our COVID-19 victims and its heroes. 

I am not seeking to prescribe what this memorial might be or where it might be, nor would now be the right time to establish it as we are not yet at the end of this tragedy. 

But I am confident that Oldham’s great people would get behind such a proposal, so could the Leader join me in making a commitment in principle tonight to make such a memorial a reality?

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Opposition, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Oldham Council.

24 March 2021

The Oldham Liberal Democrats want to see the Conservative Government honour the promise it made after the British people voted to Brexit to replace the funding received from the European Union with a new UK Shared Prosperity Fund. 

In the last round of European funding (2014-2020), the ten authorities of Greater Manchester received £322.75m, from the European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) (£176.78m) and the European Social Funding (ESF) (£145.97m).  Over each of the six years this represented £53.8m per year.

In the Conservative Party Manifesto for the 2017 General Election campaign, the party pledged to create this new fund to ‘reduce inequalities between communities across our four nations’.  To help shape the fund the incoming Conservative government committed to ‘consult widely on the design of the fund, including with the devolved administrations, local authorities, businesses and public bodies.’

Four years on, Liberal Democrats now want to see the promised consultation carried out as a priority and the fund introduced later this year in the immediate post-Lockdown period to help boroughs, like Oldham, which will continue to struggle economically.  They are bringing a motion to the next meeting of Oldham Council on Wednesday (24 March).

Liberal Democrat Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani is proposing the motion, backed by the Deputy Group Leader, Councillor Chris Gloster.  Councillor Al-Hamdani explained: “The Prime Minister may boast about ‘getting Brexit done’, but we say that this remains unfinished business.  The Conservatives promised that no region of the UK would be worse off financially as a result of Brexit.  The UK Shared Prosperity Fund would potentially represent a significant sum of money to our city-region and to Oldham. The Liberal Democrats now want to see this consultation ‘done’, as a deprived borough like Oldham really needs this cash.”

Motion – Consultation on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund

Council notes that:

• The Conservative Party Manifesto for the 2017 General Election contained the following commitment:

‘We will use the structural fund money that comes back to the UK following Brexit to create a United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund, specifically designed to reduce inequalities between communities across our four nations. The money that is spent will help deliver sustainable, inclusive growth based on our modern industrial strategy. We will consult widely on the design of the fund, including with the devolved administrations, local authorities, businesses and public bodies.’

• The Conservative Government promised to publish a UK Shared Prosperity Fund Consultation Paper in 2018.

• Successive Secretaries of State in the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government when responding to several questions in Parliament in both 2018 and 2019 confirmed that a consultation would take place.

• The promised consultation is now three years late.

• In the last round of European funding (2014-2020), Greater Manchester received £322.75m, split across European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) (£176.78m) and European Social Funding (ESF) (£145.97m), equivalent to an annual allocation of £53.8m.

• The Conservative Party website claims that ‘We will introduce the UK Shared Prosperity Fund when EU Structural Funds start to taper off from 2020-21…from April 2021’.

Council resolves to ask the Chief Executive to:

• Write to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government requesting the promised public consultation commence as soon as possible.

• Copy in our local Members of Parliament and the Mayor of Greater Manchester on this correspondence and ask for their assistance by making similar representations to the Government.

Proposed by: Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani 

Seconded by: Councillor Chris Gloster