There will be several changes to opening hours of council services over the Christmas period; all of which are on the Council’s our website here. Some of the main changes are detailed below:
The Oldham Council switchboard will be closed from 4pm on Friday 24 December, and reopen at 9am on Tuesday 4 January
The Contact Centre phone lines will close from 4pm on Friday 24 December but re-open on Wednesday 29, Thursday 30 and Friday 31 December, 9am–3pm for anyone wanting to report missed bins, fly tipping and street cleansing. People can also report these online as normal.
All phone lines will fully reopen at 9am on Tuesday 4 January.
For out of hours emergency social services enquiries, people can call 0161 770 6936
Our First Response team is available in an emergency on 0161 770 2222
Our Helpline is open on 0161 770 7007 for those concerned about their wellbeing, who are struggling financially, or who need food over Christmas. Opening times are Friday 24 December 9am–12noon; Wednesday 29 December 10am – 1pm; Thursday 30 December 10am – 1pm and Friday 31 December 9am–12noon.
Huge efforts are underway to step up the vaccine delivery programme across Oldham, to ensure that everyone can access a booster jab before the New Year.
With the significant rise in Covid cases across the UK, vaccination is the best way to be protected from serious illness, having to go to hospital or dying as a result of Covid. It also reduces the chance of getting Covid and passing it on to others.
From Monday, 20 December, a new vaccination site will be open at Chadderton Town Hall; initially offering walk-in appointments but soon to be offering both walk-ins and bookable appointments.
Meanwhile, the existing vaccine sites remain open for walk-ins every day, for people wanting any of their Coronavirus vaccinations, whether a first dose, second dose or booster. These sites are operating at:
The Dinwoodie Centre, Royal Oldham Hospital, Rochdale Road, Oldham, OL1 2JH Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 8.30am–7.30pm Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 8.30am–5.30pm
The Millennium Centre, Featherstall Road North, Oldham, OL9 6QB. 12 noon – 7pm every Wednesday
The European Islamic Centre, 79 Manchester Road, Oldham, OL8 4LN. 12 noon – 7pm every Sunday
Chadderton Town Hall will be operating walk-in appointments from Monday 20 to Thursday 23 December, 8.30am to 6pm, and on Friday 24 December from 8.30am to 1pm.
I fully support the Governments vaccination programme and in particular its booster vaccination programme.
However, I am really concerned by the recently announced acceleration of that booster programme will have a devastating impact on other NHS preventive services and treatments. When even the Prime Mister says these will be cancelled, delayed or need to be rescheduled we all need to be very worried.
As we all know Oldham’s population is not a healthy one – delays in such services will impact on the live expectancy of many of our citizens and have massive impacts on tens of thousands of others. What steps can we take, with our health partners, to reduce this risk for our residents?
For my first question to the Leader tonight I want to look at car parking at the Royal Oldham Hospital.
The complaints that both I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues receive regularly from constituents, who are either outpatients or visitors to the hospital, is the difficulty they encounter in finding a car parking space.
Sometimes residents, myself included, drive around for an age to find a space as the minutes tick away for their appointment. Frankly the stress is just not needed, especially when you are awaiting life- saving treatment for cancer or rushing to visiting a sick relative.
In addition, car parking spaces are sometimes some way from the relevant ward or outpatient’s department, and visitors who are infirm or in ill-health can struggle to make the distance between their car and the building.
Can I ask the Leader, and through her the Cabinet Member for Health, if an appeal could be made to the hospital authorities to look again at visitor parking spaces to create more spaces in future development plans?
Can they also be asked to ensure that patient and visitor spaces, rather than staff spaces, are located closer to the wards and outpatient departments?
We also receive complaints about car parking charges. I have carried out some research about car parking charges at our hospital and there are a surprising number of concessions that would allow many patients to park for free or at a much-reduced rate – if only they knew about them and could find a parking space.
So, in a third part to my question can I ask if the Leader and Cabinet Member will work with the health authority and with relevant agencies, such as Healthwatch and cancer charities, to raise the public’s awareness of these concessions?
Council 15 December 2021
Leaders Question 2 – Exploring Crowdfunding
Madame Mayor,
My second question relates to Crowdfunding.
For councils up and down the country, it is becoming increasingly difficult to afford capital projects or provide for services or events that are outside statutory provision.
One innovation that more and more councils, from Manchester to Lewisham, are using is Crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding provides a new model for local authorities to connect with communities and residents.
It is a means by which local people become empowered to help deliver a capital project, service, or event that they want to see in their community by making an online financial contribution without the bureaucracy of funding bids.
Sometimes this contribution is made altruistically, sometimes in the expectation of personal gain such receiving an interest payment or an invitation to a launch event.
Plymouth Council was the first who launched Crowdfund Plymouth in 2015. Within 12 months, this initiative raised over £430,000 to back more than 100 projects in the city where 4,550 members of the public had themselves raised one-quarter of the money.
Several local authorities have used crowdfunding specifically to finance renewable energy projects. This is the number one area Oldham needs to look at in my opinion.
Swindon Borough Council raised £4.3m from the public to fund two solar parks; Warrington and West Berkshire Councils £1 million each through Community Municipal Bonds; and Islington Council is just currently doing the same.
Back in 2019, a report from the University of Leeds, titled ‘Financing for Society’ concluded that crowdfunding has ‘huge, untapped potential’ for public sector infrastructure finance with finance accessible at a comparable rate to loans from the Public Works Loan Board.
My question to the Leader is therefore that if we are indeed a Co-operative Council intent on engaging our communities in our work and in getting ‘everyone to do their bit’, especially in helping to make our borough carbon-neutral by 2030, shouldn’t we as a Council be at least investigating the merits of crowdfunding?
Crompton Liberal Democrat councillor Diane Williamson has welcomed the new scheme that has been launched to help women and girls feel safe on the tram network.
“In this day and age, we should not have to be doing something like this – should we? Our girls and young women should feel safe and able to travel on the trams without fear of being verbally attacked or something more serious,” said Cllr Williamson.
The teams are offering a friendly face around the Oldham tram stops in case residents are feeling uneasy, especially as the winter nights draw in.
Until March 2022, the Youth Service are covering the stops between Freehold and Oldham Mumps at times when they are busy with school pupils and college students, with the Street Angels covering the later hours.
“I have every faith and praise for the Street Angels and Oldham Youth Service and know they will do a fantastic job. But I am slightly concerned that the Council has forgotten about those pupils that come to and from Shaw and Crompton and Derker every day.
“I presume that Freehold to Oldham Mumps stretch has been chosen for a reason but could the scheme be extended to include the other areas I mention?” added Cllr Williamson, Shadow Cabinet Member for Children and Young People.
The national body which reviews laws has recommended that public street harassment (PSH) should be made a specific crime, a great step forward for the campaign, says local councillor and supporter Sam Al-Hamdani.
After successfully getting Oldham Council to back the campaign, the local Liberal Democrat councillor has been working nationally with Our Streets Now to get the issue recognised by councils across the UK, and deliver tailored education in schools to combat harassment.
The Councillor, who is also a White Ribbon Ambassador – a charity challenging male violence against women, was delighted with the news, although he warned that it still has a long way to go before it is on the statute books.
He said: “When I heard the recommendation, I was delighted, although it was tempered by the news that they hadn’t also recommended that misogyny be added to the list of hate crimes.
“I hate that if you have a conversation with any woman about this, without fail they will be able to tell you of a recent time when they have either been harassed or didn’t feel safe. It is vital that this changes, and that this is driven by a cultural change in those who commit the harassment – primarily men.”
If the change is embedded into law, it will be a real triumph for grassroots campaigning, with Our Streets Now being founded by two sisters, Maya and Gemma Tutton, in response to their experiences of harassment.
Councillor Al-Hamdani continued: “I am so impressed by Maya and Gemma, and indeed all the young women who have driven this campaign. I was recently with Maya as she presented the case for change to our Parliamentary group, and I am delighted by the support that there has been from the Liberal Democrats – and other parties – for their work.
“I am really proud of what they have done, and that I have been able to help them target local councils more successfully – Rochdale, Liverpool and Preston are among the other councils in the North West who have signed up.
“There is a long way to go, but this is a great step forward. Every step that is taken to protect women is vital.
The White Ribbon charity engages with men and boys to end violence against women. Men who wish to make their promise, or to sign up as an ambassador, can do so at www.whiteribbon.org.uk.
With the publication of the fan-led review into football thrusting governance of the fair game into the spotlight, Oldham Liberal Democrats will propose a motion in support of Fair Game to the next meeting of Oldham Council (15 December).Fair Game is a national campaign that seeks radical reform in the way football is managed to make the ‘beautiful game’ more fan-focussed and financially sustainable.
Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani will propose the motion. He explained: “I’m a City fan – I was there when we were losing games in the third tier, and I have seen us ride the rollercoaster all the way to the top. As much as I love watching the great players it has brought to my club, I don’t think that the way football works is even close to fair.”
“I have friends who support Macclesfield Town. I have friends who support Bury FC. Clubs that have failed, and which have ripped the heart out of those towns when they went into meltdown. Too many teams are too close to doing the same elsewhere.”
“The Fair Game manifesto proposes practical measures which will refocus football clubs on the score and not on their profit margins, and which recognise that fans and not sovereign wealth funds should come first.”
“Football clubs are not profit centres; they give the people of the town a sense of identity and pride. Ask anyone from outside of the Borough what they know about Oldham and the chances are they will tell you they visited Boundary Park and it was cold! My first ever game in the flesh was at Boundary Park, sitting on the shoulders of my brother-in-law in the Chaddy end, watching Joe Royle’s team gunning for promotion. I hate to think that the next generation might not know that feeling.”
As well as signifying support for the manifesto, the Liberal Democrats also want Oldham to do more to set the pace to help fans acquire struggling professional football clubs.
Councillor Diane Williamson who is backing Sam said: “Ideally, we need to see clubs part-owned, or wholly-owned and operated as co-operatives, by lifelong local fans for local benefit, rather than profit.”
“Oldham Council is a founder member of the Co-operative Councils’ Innovation Network. We believe Oldham should work with other member Councils to develop a model which can support fan groups to register their local football club as an Asset of Community Value and provide them with a chance to buy and operate the club should the opportunity arise.”
“To see a club saved for future generations would really be ‘football coming home’.”
The motion reads to the next meeting of Oldham Council (15 December 2021):
Liberal Democrat Motion 1 – Time for the Fair Game manifesto in football
Council believes that football, the national game in the UK, is currently in crisis.
COVID-19 has devastated the revenue of many lower-league clubs, with the loss of some notables, and dozens more clubs teetering on the brink of survival. Frequently bad management has gone unnoticed or ignored and clubs are run unsustainably, putting at risk all the history, heritage, and economic benefit they bring to an area – often in pursuit of short-term gain.
Council believes that football clubs are not ordinary businesses; they are historic sporting institutions that are both a civic and community asset, and a source of pride and unity, in their hometown or city.
Council therefore supports Fair Game, a national campaign that seeks radical reform of the way football is managed and run, specifically its call for:
An independent regulator for the sport.
A refocus on ‘values’ rather than profit.
The establishment of a Sustainability Index, which will reallocate the payments made to clubs to reward those which are run well, respect equality standards and properly engage with their fans and their community.
Fans to be given the final say on any proposed change to a club’s ‘crown jewels’, including the club’s name, nickname, colours, badge and the geographical location from where the club plays.
Council also notes that former Sports Minister Tracey Crouch MP is about to publish a Government-commissioned fan-led review into football governance and believes that some of its findings will mirror Fair Game’s aspirations.
As a Co-operative Council, we would also like to see football clubs co-operatively owned by their fans, rather than owners with no connection to a town or with more interest in extracting profits from the club, rather than the team’s on-pitch performance.
Council therefore resolves to:
Declare its support for the Fair Game manifesto, ‘Solutions for our National Game’, and calls on other councils to join us in our support.
Ask the Chief Executive to write to the Minister for Sport, our local Members of Parliament, and the Chair of the Local Government Association Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, asking them to support and work towards implementing Fair Game’s manifesto and the findings of the fan-led review led by Tracey Crouch MP.
Ask the Council’s representative to the Co-operative Council’s Innovation Network to request the CCIN investigate how best member councils can support the registration of their local football clubs as Assets of Community Value and facilitate their future purchase and operation, when the opportunity arises, as fan-owned co-operatives.
Proposed by Seconded by
Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani Councillor Diane Williamson
