A new campaign to encourage older people in Greater Manchester to top up their weekly income by claiming Pension Credit launched last week.
It is estimated that 43,000 people across the region could be eligible to benefit from £76 million of unclaimed Pension Credit.
Greater Manchester’s housing providers – who between them provide more than 250,000 affordable homes for more than half a million people – will lead the campaign to support residents to “top up”.
They will use their money advice services and other strong relationships with their customers to encourage tenants to take up the benefit. Pension Credit also unlocks other financial benefits including a free TV licence for over 75s, housing benefit and council tax support, and money towards home insulation.
Service 182 (Rochdale – Milnrow – Shaw – Manchester) – First Manchester (hourly)
Curtailed to run between between Shaw Wrens Nest and Manchester. Replaced by service 408 between Shaw, Milnrow and Rochdale. This change is introduced to improve punctuality of the service.
Service 408 (Oldham – Royton – Shaw – Buckstones) – First Manchester (hourly)
Extended beyond Buckstones to Milnrow and Rochdale (replacing service 182).
This change is introduced to improve punctuality of the service (increased recovery time at each end of the route) and provides a new daytime link from Milnrow to Royal Oldham Hospital as well as reintroducing the bus link from Milnrow to Oldham which was removed when service 58 was replaced by service 182 in Summer 2020.
A section of Milnrow Road (520 metres end to end) becomes unserved. We continue to work to address this. I have also asked officers to ask First if it is possible to include a diversion via Grains Road and Hannerton Road (see map).
MAP BELOW SHOW CHANGES
No change to the following services:
57 Oldham – Shaw – Rushcroft
403 Oldham – Shaw – Rushcroft & High Crompton
435 Rochdale – Shaw – Buckstones
181 Shaw Wrens Nest – Royton – Manchester (peak only)
The Conservative Government will only reimburse less than one-third of the overall costs incurred by English schools in making their premises ‘Covid-safe’ according to a publication published last month by a leading education think-tank.
A report issued by the Education Policy Institute claims that government money made available through its exceptional costs fund will only cover 31% of overall costs, and in a survey covering 700 schools conducted in November, over half (57%) reported that they are using reserves to cover the shortfall, jeopardising their ability to achieve a balanced budget by the end of the current financial year.
The EPI estimates that, since the first national lockdown in March 2020, primary schools have had to meet additional non-staff costs averaging almost £13,000. These amounted to almost £18,000 for special schools and for secondary schools a whopping £43,000. Much of this was spent on cleaning supplies, personal protection equipment, improving hand-washing facilities, installing new signage, and acquiring digital equipment.
Commenting Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Howard Sykes MBE said: “It is scandalous that whilst this Government told pupils and staff to return to the classroom, meanwhile they were short-changing schools by not meeting their full costs to make their establishments ‘Covid-safe’. Schools are already struggling for finance, especially in areas of economic and social deprivation which have been hardest hit by Covid-19 like Oldham, and this is an additional burden they can do without.”
“The Oldham Liberal Democrats will continue to press the government to ensure that enough cash is forthcoming for schools to ensure that when our pupils and staff return to the classroom from virtual learning which can keep them safe.”
The report from the Education Policy Institute can be sourced here
THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN TOLD, IF YOU KNOW DIFFERENT PLEASE EMAIL ME.
Residents of all care homes in Oldham will have received the Coronavirus vaccine by the end of this week.
The news comes as rollout of the vaccine progresses well across the borough, with more than 14,000 vaccines delivered to Oldham’s most elderly and vulnerable residents, as well as to front-line workers.
In addition to care home residents and staff, all other priority groups are on track to be vaccinated by mid-February. These are those aged over 70; frontline health and social care workers, and clinically extremely vulnerable people.
Having the vaccine is the best way to protect the most vulnerable people from Coronavirus and has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives.
Vaccination centres
Six vaccination centres are now operational across Oldham, in addition to the Greater Manchester-wide vaccination centre at the Etihad campus.
Those registered with a GP in Oldham will be contacted directly from their practice or by an NHS representative when it is their turn to be vaccinated.
The caller will not ask for money and will not ask for any personal details other than for the name to be confirmed.
People may also receive another invitation from the NHS, offering the option of attending the mass vaccination centre at the Etihad, or a local pharmacy. This regional offer is in addition to the vaccine rollout programme here in Oldham and gives more choice to people in terms of when and where they take up the vaccine, as well as providing extra capacity overall.
If people have already booked an appointment for a vaccine through their GP, they can ignore the additional letter from the NHS.
Questions over the operation of the new Crime Support Line, established by the Greater Manchester Labour Mayor after the damning revelation that 80,000 crimes reported by the public had gone unrecorded by Police in a year, have led to the Leader of Oldham’s Liberal Democrats, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, to write to Andy Burnham seeking answers.
In his letter, Councillor Sykes refers to the ‘calumny’ of the 80,000 unrecorded crimes, and explores the support offered to victims who ring the helpline, and clarification about how the information will be used by Greater Manchester Police to improve their future performance, and, most importantly, secure justice for the victim.
Councillor Sykes said: “I welcome the establishment of this telephone service as a small step in the right direction to address the terrible wrong that has been done by the victims of this injustice. The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police may have gone, but this does not absolve the Greater Manchester Mayor and his Deputy, who were also elected to serve as Commissioners of Police, of their share of the responsibility.“
“The unrecording scandal and the iOPs police computer debacle has caused serious reputational damage to Greater Manchester Police and the Greater Manchester Mayor and his Deputy. I hope that the Crime Support Line is a genuine first step in a series of much-needed changes in our Police Service to bring offenders to justice, restore public confidence and improve police efficiency. I am now seeking some reassurance from the Mayor that this is so, and I very much look forward to receiving his answers to my questions”.
Councillor Sykes’ letter to Mayor Andy Burnham reads:
20 January 2021
Mr Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester and Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner
Dear Mayor Burnham,
I welcome the establishment of the Crime Support Line telephone service before Christmas and the assignment of its operation to Victim Support, rather than GMP, staff. This is a small step forward towards rectifying the calumny of 80,000 reported crimes going unrecorded as per the findings of the recent damning Inspectorate of Constabulary report.
Now that the Crime Support Line has been in operation for a month or so, I would like to ask you a number of questions please about its early experience:
Could you tell me how many people have rung the helpline and how many unrecorded crimes have been complained/reported about?
Can you tell me how long on average it takes Victim Support staff to pick up a call?
Can you tell me if Victim Support have appropriate training to respond to callers distressed by their experience of crime or dealing with GMP in the past?
Is information being recorded about the demographics (age, ethnic and social background etc) of each caller to record whether particular groups or communities are especially represented amongst complainants?
I understand that phones are being staffed 9am-7pm weekdays and 9am-5pm Saturdays. How many calls have been received out of those hours and messages left with the answer machine? Is consideration being given to expanding the hours of operation?
For how long has Victim Support received funding to staff the help line?
Finally, please can I ask how the information received from calls will be used in a practical way to improve the performance of the Police and ensure that the complainants receive justice?
The Oldham Liberal Democrats have welcomed the vote in Parliament earlier this week as a sign that there is cross-party support for the £20 weekly uplift in Universal Credit, introduced at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, to be made permanent.
At the end of an Opposition Day debate in the House of Commons, 278 Members of Parliament voted for the rise, putting pressure on the Conservative Government to extend it beyond the 31 March cut-off date. Amongst those MPs supporting the extension were all eleven Liberal Democrat Members of Parliament. There were no votes against, but, unfortunately, the vote is only advisory and not legally binding.
Oldham Liberal Democrat Council Group Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE wrote to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak MP last October asking him to ‘make a clear and principled policy decision’ and make the temporary rise permanent. He is hoping that the Chancellor will do just that in his forthcoming Spring Budget.
Commenting on the latest vote, Councillor Sykes said: “This vote puts further pressure on this government to do the right thing. I am glad that MPs of all parties, including all eleven Liberal Democrat MPs, voted in favour of continuing the payment.”
“This temporary uplift of £20 per week, or £1,040 a year, if made permanent would be a Godsend to our poorest residents and their families. For many it will represent the difference between being able to put food before the family at mealtimes or keeping the lights on or keeping their home warm; or being unable to do so.”
“Although I would prefer the increase to be made permanent in the Spring Budget, even if the Chancellor will only agree to pay a lump sum or continue the increase for the duration of lockdown these are moves in the right direction, and we will have to keep up the pressure to achieve permanency.”
Links to previous action on this issue from Councillor Sykes can be found below:
Tests conducted by the company JCB with partners, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, have shown that potholes can be fixed four times quicker and at half the cost with a new and revolutionary machine – the Pothole Pro. Liberal Democrat Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, has just written to the Chief Operating Officer of Unity, the organisation responsible for fixing the borough’s roads, requesting Pothole Pro be brought to Oldham.
Councillor Sykes said: “Potholes represent a real bugbear for drivers and for cyclists; not only do they make journeys uncomfortable; they also endanger lives and damage vehicles. In a survey conducted last week for National Pothole Day, some of our residents reported road surfaces across Oldham that were badly in need of repair.”
“Fixing potholes is a high priority for many of our Council Taxpayers, and they want to see them fixed effectively and quickly, but at a reasonable cost. I believe that early results from Stoke show that Pothole Pro could be the fresh solution we are looking for – quicker and cheaper than current solutions – and I have asked that it be brought to Oldham. And if it is as good as JCB claim it is then maybe in next year’s survey we will only have happy residents and no reports of potholed streets.”
The Oldham Liberal Democrats have condemned the Conservative Government for once more derailing plans for significant investment in Northern rail services.
The government has decided that Transport for the North will lose 40% of its core funding, down to £6 million from £10 million, and a fifth of its total annual support, in the next financial year. The Department of Transport has also cancelled plans to introduce contactless ticketing, like London’s Oyster card system, across the North of England.
For Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of Oldham Council’s Liberal Democrat Group, who also serves as one of Oldham’s representatives on the board of Transport for Greater Manchester, the latest news is a significant blow.
Commenting Councillor Sykes said: “Whilst the London Crossrail project receives ever more government funding, Northern rail services are being starved of cash. This government once talked about creating a Northern Powerhouse, but there is little chance of that when we have an antiquated and inadequate railway system that cannot meet the needs of our business community and commuters.”
“It took decades to divest ourselves of the appalling Pacer ‘trains’ which where only removed from service a couple of months ago. It looks like it might take decades more before passengers travelling between our Northern towns and cities may experience a twenty first century rail service. If the Conservatives are to have any credibility when they talk of levelling up the North, then they need to give us more cash not less.”
