These are in order to allow BDS Yorkshire to carry out tarmacking and reinstatement works.
Start Date and Duration of work:
09:30 – 15:00 Thursday 17th January
09:30 – 15:00 Friday 18th January
Works Supervisor and contact number: Lauren Smallwood 01924 372957
Emergency Contact & Telephone Number in the Event of Traffic Signal Failure: Chris Speight 01924 372957 (24hrs)
A short ‘service’ lasting just approx. 10 minutes – all welcome.
Joint event with Oldham Council and Groundwork.
Help manage the woodlands on Crompton Moor.
Help plant trees in Black Hey plantation.
Meet at Brushes Clough car park at 10.30am.
This event has been funded by an Awards for All Lottery grant from Shaw and Crompton Parish Council.
Please contact 0161 7470 4056 for more details.
Keep Cosy – Referral form and guidance NEW
I thought I would post a reminder of what help is available to Oldham Borough residents over this winter period:
• Toasty Oldham – free loft & cavity insulation for ALL residents. This offer was due to end at the end of December, however the Utility company has not yet met their targets, so the offer has been extended (not sure when new ‘end date’ is, as when they meet their targets the scheme will be pulled). RING 0800 009 3363.
Last week we re-launched the successful ‘Keep Cosy’ scheme, to offer further assistance to our most vulnerable residents.
• Keep Cosy – home energy check, energy freebies installed, emergency heating repairs, hot meals delivery service, free smoke alarms, benefits checks and help out of fuel debt & off prepayment meters. Please see attached at the top of this post a referral form for use.
Picture courtesy of the Oldham Evening Chronicle
MPT will be carrying out jet wash cleaning operations on two bridges situated on Milnrow Road, Shaw, next week.
On Monday / Tuesday work will be undertaken on the bridge located at Jubilee bends.
On Wednesday / Thursday work will be undertaken on the bridge located south of Bridge Street.
In each case, traffic signals will be in place between 9.30am – 3.30pm only, or until work is complete on that day.
The works supervisor is Danny Walker who can be contacted on 07963 039 067
Politics and Adopters / Foster Carers
I hope the Leader will agree with me that the most important single thing a child who is adopted or fostered needs is to be placed with caring and loving parents?
What assurance can the Leader provide that a situation would not arise in our Borough like that which occurred recently in Rotherham where foster parents who were members of the UK Independence Party, a legal political party, had the children in their care removed from them by overzealous council officials, who judged them to be unfit parents because of their political views?
Police Parade
Will the Leader join me in condemning the proposed change in local Police procedure that will require Police Community Support Officers (PCSO’s) to parade before duty at Oldham Police Station prior to deployment to their assigned beat?
This change will mean that officers will have less time on the beat to actually detect crime, apprehend criminals and help the public as they will have to travel between central Oldham and our outlying districts and communities, rather than simply reporting for duty on their beat at the start of a shift.
Does the Leader agree that this unnecessary reduction in service to the public will be particularly acute where officers are travelling (via bike or foot) to more distant locations of the borough, such as East Crompton, Lees and the villages of Saddleworth?
Free Parking and Metrolink
Can the Leader explain to the people of Oldham Borough how it benefits the town’s retail economy to offer three hours free parking on Saturdays on car parks located near to Mumps so shoppers can leap on a tram and use Metrolink to do their shopping in Manchester?
And isn’t this situation all the more farcical when a two-for-one Metrolink ticket offer enables twice the number of shoppers to take twice the money away from Oldham’s shopkeepers?
When will we see a two-for-one Metrolink ticket offer to bring Manchester shoppers to our borough to experience our warm Oldham welcome and everything else we have to offer visitors?
Local Lib Dem Shaw Councillor Howard Sykes has welcomed the news that at long last trams will run to Shaw from Sunday December 16th.
“We have waited a number of years for this day and this has to be a welcome Christmas present for local residents and potential users,” stated Cllr Sykes. “Along with my colleagues we have been pushing for the line to open before the New Year for some time now.”
“The scheme is best part of a year behind schedule and I had hoped some of the potential parking issues (park and ride sites) could be resolved in this time, however I and my colleagues will continue to work on these.”
“Former users of the rail line have been very patient and have had to put alternative travel arrangements in place for more than three years, he added. “Hopefully it will not be too long until we also get connected via the tram to Rochdale.”
“Hopefully some the decisions we made and lobbied for years ago about the Shaw stop will now come to fruition – like making sure the tram stop was on the opposite side of Beal Lane from where the old station platform was – as this should help with traffic issues on Beal Lane. People will recall when the rail line was in use this was a nightmare at peak times and log jammed the whole of Shaw up at times.”
“Some of us did wonder if this day would ever arrive! It is enough to restore your faith in Santa!” He claimed. “And we can all go and put our reindeer and sled away now!”
Over recent weeks, we have been putting insurance companies under pressure to agree the repair works to individual properties and this has resulted in works starting to quite a few houses and some owners moving back in. However, some owners have still to provide the necessary estimates, which is holding up progress. In the meantime, we have maintained tight security on site to reduce the likelihood of homes being broken into.
Oldham Distress Fund
All money donated to the Oldham Distress Fund will be used to directly benefit residents affected.
A full list of donations made to date can be found at www.oldham.gov.uk
To date £300,000 has been donated. Around £230,000 of this has already been committed to affected residents. Applications to the distress fund, continue to be approved by Trustees and paid quickly to ensure repairs can be made.
So far the fund has successfully helped 91 households to cope with the impact of the explosion and we have received a lot of positive feedback on how the situation was handled.
Demolition/site update
Numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and13 Buckley St. have been demolished. They were either dangerous and unsafe or beyond reasonable repair. Some of the owners of these homes have now settled with their insurers and moved to other areas. We wish them well in their new homes.
Insurers are still considering the future of some the remaining properties. If they decide that more demolitions will take place, the insurance company will inform the home owner.
Any further demolitions will be organised by the insurance company who will appoint their own contractors.
What will happen to the cleared site?
The site freeholder is waiting to see what happens with the remaining homes. Once that situation is clear, we will engage with him to share his views with residents on his plans for the site.
Round the clock security remains on site. We are reviewing the need this security as some residents are moving back and we need to make the site more accessible.
At today’s full Council meeting (12th December), Leader of the Opposition and Lib Dem Group, Councillor Howard Sykes, will propose a motion expressing Oldham Council’s disappointment that the Labour Party in the House of Lords opposed a cross party proposal that would have helped protect Oldham’s poorest citizens from cuts to Council Tax Benefit.
Every council is now required to agree its own local Council Tax Benefit scheme by 31st January 2013. However local authorities are allowed a lot of local flexibility within the law.
The cross party proposal was to change the law to allow local councils (if they wished) to reduce the Single Person’s Discount from 25 to 20%, for non-pensioners.
In Oldham, this measure would have generated £970,000 of extra income per year.
“Local authorities should have regard to the most vulnerable in their area when drawing up their scheme,” stated Councillor Howard Sykes. “It is right for local councils to take account of the local circumstances in their communities and to draw up a scheme that they believe is appropriate for them”.
“Oldham’s Liberal Democrats would have liked the opportunity to have proposed this measure for approval as part of our alternative local Council Tax Benefit scheme,” stated Cllr Lynne Thompson. “In hard times, this would have freed up almost £1 million to reduce the Council Tax bills of the poorest households in the Borough.”
“By opposing this measure in the Lords, and so bringing about its defeat, Labour has inflicted greater financial hardship on those local citizens who are least able to bear it,” said Councillor Sykes.
“Hopefully Labour locally in Oldham will join us in condemning this move and put the interests of citizens of this Borough first and politics second (something they are quick to accuse the Lib Dems of not doing) and back our motion. We shall see what they do over this key local issue and if their rhetoric on such issues is just that!”
Copy of Motion
“This Council expresses its objection to the cuts made in the Council Tax Support Scheme and reiterates its intention to attempt to protect those low-income households in Oldham who would be most affected.
Council welcomes all-party initiatives by the Local Government Association (LGA) which have succeeded in improving certain elements of the scheme, including securing a transitional grant, which in Oldham’s case amounts to £461,000.
This Council also notes that one of the measures proposed by the LGA to allow Councils to be more flexible was a proposal to reduce the single person discount for non-pensioner households from 25% to 20%.
In Oldham Borough, it is estimated that this could have made an additional £970,000 a year available to help less well-off households.
This proposal was supported by the LGA Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Independent Groups. An amendment to introduce it was moved in the House of Lords on 23rd October.
This Council notes with disappointment that the Labour party in Parliament issued a three-line whip instructing its members in the Lords to oppose it, ensuring that it was defeated. Council believes this was an action of political opportunism driven by the belief that without lower income families feeling the pain, Labour would not get any electoral gain.
Council notes that the only Labour Member of the House of Lords with the courage to stand by his principles, defy the whip and support the amendment was the Leader of Wigan Council and Chair of both the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities and Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Lord Smith of Leigh.
Council resolves to instruct the Chief Executive to:
• Write to Lord Smith to congratulate him on his principled stand in supporting the less well-off in Greater Manchester;
• Write to the Local Government Association expressing the Council’s support for the proposal and to urge all parties on the LGA to continue to press Government and the Opposition on this matter.
Proposed: Cllr Howard Sykes
Seconded: Cllr Lynne Thompson