Oldham Council have recently informed me that the firm they use to carry out weed treatment on highways, roads and footpaths could no longer offer the service due to staffing issues. As a result the council have had to retender for the contract.
This has meant the usual summer weed treatment will be delayed until later on this year, which could see more weeds than usual across the network.
The Council expects that weed control will be back to normal by end of this year.
The next event on Crompton Moor will be on Saturday the 1st of July 2023.
Meet in Brushes Clough car park for a 10:30am start. Finish around 12:30pm.
This task will be to carry out further tree maintenance for the trees which were planted by City of Trees on Slences land. This involves clearing the vegetation from the base of the trees and replacing stakes and guards, as necessary. The location involves a very pleasant walk, with great views, not to be missed!
Sykes slams wasteful spending as government introduces so called local government watchdog – which is just red tape and adds no value
Leader of Oldham Liberal Democrats councillor Howard Sykes MBE has criticised the launch of the ‘Office for Local Government’ (Oflog), the new government backed audit body for local councils.
Oflog is set to be introduced by local government minister Michael Gove so that the government can work with councils to focus on ‘data, transparency, and financial outcomes’, according to a department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities statement earlier this year.
Councillor Sykes said, “This is an example of wasteful spending on useless red tape and more bureaucracy. People want better front-line services like highways and green space maintenance. The government is trying to reinvent the wheel. The Local Government Association (LGA) already provides the LG Inform service, which covers much of what Oflog would do. LG Inform is doing its job so well that it’s become an award-winning service.”
“No government agency based in London is going to be able to provide better local data or insight than local councils can do themselves. So Oflog will inevitably become a very costly way of telling councils how little money they have, something they already know. Wouldn’t it be better to simply give councils more funding for front-line services, rather than wasting it on bureaucracy?”
Oflog is set to be formally launched by the government in July.
Delayed hospital discharges cost the NHS £2 billion last year as Liberal Democrats warn of local healthcare crisis
Shocking new figures from healthcare charity ‘The King’s Fund’ have indicated that delayed hospital discharges costed the NHS nearly £2 billion last year. Liberal Democrat councillors in Oldham have described a “deepening crisis” in local healthcare services controlled by Northern Care Alliance trust (NCA).
Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE said, “£2 billion is an extraordinary amount of money that is being lost because the NHS can’t free up hospital beds. It’s more than £5 million per day.”
“But the true cost of this deepening crisis in our Health Service is being paid by the thousands of people in our communities who are not receiving the vital care that they need. People are waiting months for cancer treatment in some cases. All the while, others are stranded in hospital beds for weeks on end waiting for the right care to be put in place so they can be discharged safely.”
“If we were building the NHS from scratch today, it would be obvious to everyone that we need a national health andsocial care service. We have an ageing population and we’re living with increasingly complex physical and mental health needs in our old age. It is clear that our underfunded social care sector cannot cope.”
“The government must urgently fund social care, so that people can receive the care and support they need, in the home or in the community, leaving hospitals to deal with the emergencies and serious treatments that they are really meant for.”
If you’re coming to the event today, Saturday the 24th of June (from 10:30am), please be aware that there will be a change of task. We don’t have any Himalayan balsam to bash! We finished all the areas off on Thursday the 22nd of June. A big thankyou to all who were involved in that event, you all worked so hard.
Instead, we will be doing some tree management just at the top of Brushes Clough Quarry. These are the trees planted by City of Trees. Some have lost their supports, or just need some weeding out around the base, and there’s some holly that needs to be freed from the green guard to allow the branches to spread out.
If you have secateurs, could you bring some? And if anyone has any garden shears, for cutting back the grass at the base of the trees, that would be most appreciated, as I only have one pair. We definitely need some more equipment.
Oldham Liberal Democrats back calls for new energy bill debt support
Oldham Liberal Democrats have backed calls made by several charities for the government to introduce “help to repay” support for people who are falling into debt because of rising energy bills.
Leader of Oldham’s Liberal Democrat Opposition Group councillor Howard Sykes MBE said, “The cost-of-living crisis has hit families hard across Oldham Borough. But the government could be doing a lot more to help. By closing tax loopholes that the energy giants exploit for profits, the government could fund a ‘help-to-repay’ scheme to support people who have fallen into arrears because of spiralling prices.”
Charities including the Money Advice Trust, StepChange Debt Charity, National Energy Action, and Scope have urged Energy Secretary Grant Shapps MP to introduce a dedicated “help to repay”. An estimated 5.5 million UK adults are behind on their energy bills, according to a survey for the Money Advice Trust; and the charity estimates that 3.2 million people have received demands from their energy supplier for repayments of arrears they cannot afford, the charity has said.
Councillor Sykes said, “There are 2.1 million more people in energy arrears than there was this time last year. Millions more are struggling and not all energy providers are providing support. The government needs to act. The best way to support ordinary families, in Oldham and across the country, is to get tough on the unearned super-profits of the big energy companies.”
