Latest information on orginsating events – re posted in full.
Thank you for patiently waiting for an update regarding how the new Covid-19 restrictions and the soon to be implemented ‘Rule of Six’ will be affecting events in Oldham.
I’m pleased to report that all events that we currently have booked in will still be able to operate under the new guidance coming into effect on Monday 14th September.
All current confirmed events are either educational activities or youth group activities and are exempt from the new restrictions, as stated on the .gov website under section 2.10
This is still under the condition that there are less than 30 people present, social distancing can be reasonably implemented and a robust Covid-19 secure risk assessment is in place.
Unfortunately, we are still in a position in which we are unable to accommodate most events. Stricter measures are being implemented to combat the spread of the virus and the situation is changing regularly.
It’s tough to gauge how exactly events will be affected in the coming weeks and months, but I will endeavour to keep you all posted as information becomes available.
For those wishing to host events in the Borough, I implore you to review the current Government Guidance and check the eligibility of your event in the current climate.
Events have been suspended in Oldham until 31st December 2020. The situation is rapidly changing, so it’s likely that this date could be extended to incorporate subsequent months if required. Any event requests are evaluated on a case-by-case basis and must comply with current Government advice. All events must:
Have less than 30 people present
Be situated at an outdoor location where social distancing can be reasonably implemented
Have a robust Covid-19 secure risk assessment
Comply with current Government guidance (including local restrictions)
Although all event submissions are reviewed, many may be denied due to public safety concerns and the risk that Covid-19 presents. Oldham Council reserves the right to cancel any events on public safety grounds should the need arise.
Thank you for the hard work you have all devoted to keeping Oldham residents safe in these past months. I understand times have been tough for many, but I feel an overwhelming sense of pride in the response that allof Oldham has had to the pandemic.
If I can assist in any way, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email or my mobile phone.
Events Coordinator, Sir Robert Peacock House, Vulcan Street, Derker, Oldham OL1 4LA. Tel: 0161 770 1691. Jack.Child@oldham.gov.uk
The Oldham Liberal Democrat Group is sceptical about Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent announcement that an ‘army’ of marshals will be deployed to police Covid-19 compliance amongst Britain’s businesses and their customers as the Conservative Government will not back the plan with new cash to local authorities to employ them nor grant the new marshals’ additional powers for enforcement.
Responding to the news, Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Howard Sykes MBE said: “Regrettably, this posse will be more Deputy Dawg than Wyatt Earp. For after sounding tough and decisive, the Prime Minister has once again regressed to type by saying that there be no money, no people, no powers and no training for local government to implement the so-called initiative. Clearly this announcement could be something taken straight out of President Trump’s play book, an attempt to pedal a soundbite without substance, and this makes it no use in my view.”
Councillor Sykes added: “We have previously seen the national model for Track and Trace scheme fail when imposed upon a local area like Oldham. If Government really wants to help us tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, they should recognise that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work and leave us free to develop our own solutions, recognising that we have the local knowledge and contacts to make it work.”
“The imposition of a national marshal system will simply undermine what is being done locally using local people from our local communities to support those at risk of infection to successfully embrace behaviour changes to help keep them safe. Government needs to give us the support, give us the cash, and trust us to get on with it.”
All domestic waste collections will return to normal from Monday 14th September with the reintroduction of a weekly collection of food and garden waste ( green bin/food caddy).
There are national problems at the moment with lab capacity for testing which is unfortunately affecting the availability of testing slots on the booking portal.
In Oldham the three local testing sites are able to offer testing to people who attend without an appointment.
If you visit any of these sites they should be able to offer you a test.
The three test sites are:
Honeywell Centre (Hadfield Street Hathershaw OL8 3BP)
Peel Street in Chadderton
Southgate Street (Next to Gallery Oldham)
All three sites are open 8am – 8pm, 7 days a week.
Several pool tables (5) and a table tennis table. Also, some tables, chairs and a large screen TV.
If you have already been in touch no need to do so again – you are already on the list 🙂
The list of expressions of interest will close AM Sunday 13 Sept.
If you are a local Shaw and Crompton Group; Organisation; Charity; Faith; Youth; Non for Profit or Social Enterprise or any other Group or Organisation (or Individual) who might be interested, please drop me a quick email.
Please state organisation/group. Your role in in etc and any other useful info but please keep it brief.
Delivery can be provided so no requirement for anyone to find transport.
If no takers from Shaw and Crompton similar ‘applications’ from groups from a wider geographical area would be welcome, please do drop me a short email. Do not post on here!
Please state organisation/group. Your role in in etc and any other useful info but please keep it brief.
The above offer is from the: Very Group – following the closing of their site in Shaw and they asked for my help to ensure the above go to good use locally.
Time is short so please act now if you think you might be interested.
The list of expressions of interest will close AM Sunday 13 Sept.
Madame Mayor, my first question concerns the future of our district centres in the post-Covid world.
This Administration has expended countless officer hours, commissioned many specialist reports, and expended many millions of pounds on its regeneration plans for Oldham town centre over the years.
Whilst some welcome progress has been made, much of the effort and expenditure has frankly come to nothing. Now Covid-19 has slain the latest plans.
The prospects for the ‘Creating a Better Place’ master plan, first adopted by this Administration in July 2019 and involving an investment of £306 million, has just been reviewed by Cabinet and a third or £100 million axed off that budget.
Covid has massively increased our costs, decimated our revenue, and now as a Council we quite simply do not now have the cash.
The original plan envisaged a mixture of housing, retail, leisure and office developments.
We need many thousands of new homes and I would rather they be built in Oldham Town Centre and on brownfield sites than developed at the expense of our Green Belt and green spaces.
Now we will be restructuring existing retail, leisure and office spaces, rather than bringing new space into use.
If you walk through the Town Square and Spindles Shopping Centres you can see the empty spaces. For over a decade now, footfall along Britain’s high streets has been declining. Covid-19 has simply accelerated the trend.
Office workers are not coming back to our Town Centre, including the Council’s. Home-working is here to stay, and for many of us it will continue to be the only way to work or the only way we can work.
For all the talk of investing in Oldham Town Centre to ‘Create a Better Place’, there has been no talk about, and no focus on, the other district centres in our Borough, except for Royton – which is still talk only!
This Administration may have adopted a new mantra ‘We are Oldham’ but Oldham is not just the Town Centre, it is a Borough of Town and District Centres, each with a proud history and its own distinctive character.
For Local is the New Normal.
The Council’s ambition of ‘Creating a Better Place’, there has been no mention of investing in these localities to make the local better.
So, I would like to ask the Leader tonight whether he and his Cabinet colleagues will consider reallocating some of the investment intended for Oldham Town Centre to create ‘Better Places’ to live for those of us who live, shop, socialise or work in Lees, Royton, Chadderton, Failsworth, Shaw and the Saddleworth Villages?
2) Full pay for anyone forced to self-isolate
Thank you, Madame Mayor.
I agree with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham who recently called for the Government to pay anyone forced to self-isolate their full wages, where there is no employer to do so.
The current situation is a nonsense and it discourages people from participating fully and faithfully in Track and Trace and from choosing to self-isolate.
I will use two examples.
Person A:
A low-paid employee working in the ‘gig’ economy, not knowing how many hours or how many days a week or a month they will work and forced to claim Universal Credit to make ends meet and battling between pay days with financial insecurity and the complexities and frustrations of the benefits system.
Person A isn’t entitled to full pay when they do not work; their employer only offers Statutory Sick Pay.
Person B:
A self-employed tradesperson with a start-up business carrying out jobs for private customers in domestic dwellings.
Person B goes out to work, they cannot work from a makeshift office under the stairs, and, as a self-employed person, if they don’t work, they don’t earn; they have no employer-based sick pay scheme.
If our Persons A and B go for a well-earned pint in the pub at the end of the day – separately of course because under Oldham’s rules they cannot meet in the same pub as members of two separate households – they are meant to record their personal details with the establishment in case there is a Covid infection there and they need to be traced.
But why does Person A or Person B have any incentive to diligently fill in their details when, if they were subsequently contacted and forced to self-isolate, they will lose at least 10 days and possibly two weeks work, with little or no sick pay as a result?
That is why you see Track and Trace records in pubs and elsewhere noting the presence of Batman and Bart and Lisa Simpson amongst their recent customers.
Now the Government has now grudgingly agreed to pay the recipients of Universal Credit or Work Credits a paltry sum of £13 a day for any time that they are required to self-isolate.
Oldham is one of the first pilot areas where this will apply.
Would the Leader agree that this derisory sum will in no way recompense Person A and Person B from Oldham for their loss during self-isolation?
And will he agree to join with me to lobby to introduce a meaningful compensation scheme?
Then A and B can faithfully record their Track and Track details and participate in self-isolation, and not have to disguise their movements using the names of fictitious superheroes or cartoon characters.
Then we can fight and tackle the blight Covid – 19 is causing to our Borough and the communities that live and work within it.
Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Opposition, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Oldham Council
