Essential Car User Payments to low-mileage Council staff ‘Financial Madness’ says Liberal Democrat Leader

Oldham claims to be a cash-strapped Council, but still pays £62,000 a year to staff using their car to travel less than two miles per week on Council business.

The Leader of the Opposition and of the Liberal Democrat Group on Oldham Council, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, is dismayed by this waste of public money at a time when public services are being squeezed.

Figures uncovered by the Oldham Council Liberal Democrat Group reveal that in the 2016 – 17 financial year 124 staff designated ‘Essential’ car users made a claim for business travel of 100 miles or less.

Such ‘Essential’ users automatically qualify for a £500 lump-sum simply for having a vehicle for business and can also claim a 45 pence per mile allowance and receive a 100% subsidy for parking charges when parking in the town centre.

Commenting Councillor Sykes said: “An ‘essential car user’ working at Civic Centre and travelling just one hundred miles a year on business would receive £545 and free parking; this adds up to quite a tidy sum towards the cost of running a car for not a lot of inconvenience.”

“Surely this is financial madness as these officers are travelling so few miles on business that it would probably be cheaper to send them in taxis.”

Councillor Sykes has written to the Chief Executive Dr Carolyn Wilkins OBE, Borough Treasurer Anne Ryans, and Deputy Council Leader Cllr Abdul Jabbar MBE to request this Council reviews the whole scheme.  He has suggested that a simple mileage allowance be paid for those travelling under a certain number of business miles and that the £500 lump sum be phased in beyond this point.

At Councillor Sykes also suggests: “At a time when the Council must look at save every penny, we should also take another look at a car pooling scheme for those staff with such low-mileage on business travel.”

Copy of email send below:

From: Howard Sykes
Sent: 02 August 2017 07:08
To: Cllr A Jabbar
Cc: Anne Ryans; Carolyn Wilkins; (A) Kay Gibson (kay.gibson@oldham.gov.uk)
Subject: Oldham Council essential car users

Dear Councillor Jabbar,

I am writing to you with a money saving proposal, which, in these times of financial challenge for local authorities, I am hoping the Council will chose to consider.

Oldham Council pays a lump sum of £500 per annum to essential car users regardless of the mileage travelled on Council business.

In 2016 – 17, one hundred and twenty four staff, who were deemed to be essential car users, made a claim for business travel of 100 miles or less.

We are paying them £62,000 a year for using their car to travel less than two miles per week on Council business.

Such staff can also claim 45 pence per mile allowance and receive a 100% subsidy for parking charges when parking in the town centre.

At a time when public services are being squeezed, this is an area we must look at. An ‘essential car user’ working at Civic Centre and travelling just one hundred miles a year on business would receive £950 and free parking; this adds up to quite a tidy sum towards the cost of running a car for not a lot of inconvenience.  It would clearly be cheaper to send them in taxis.

I accept with a few this would not be an acceptable or appropriate alternative.

I request we take a look at this whole scheme again.  There should be in my view a simple mileage allowance for those travelling under a certain number of business miles and the £500 lump sum should be phased in beyond this point.  And at a time when we are looking to save every penny, I would suggest we should take another look at a car pooling scheme for those staff that need to do such low-mileage on business travel.

I shall look forward to receiving your reply.

Best wishes.

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE

Latest on getting Dunwood Park Tennis Courts and MUGA operational again

Dunwood park Tennis courts

As many people will be aware these works have not been completed in the timescale planned.  I and other local councillors have been working behind the scenes to get this area usuable by our young people.

Undocumented services and drains under the area that had to be dealt with have led to the delay.

I am pleased to now report we have got a solution that gets them open for this weekend but will require a closure later in the year to correctly finish the works, details below.

The new Box culvert has now been installed and the old tennis courts surface removed and replaced with a new Binder /surface to specification for applications of multi – use Games areas (MUGAs)

The reinstatement to the boundary wall is continuing this week and will be completed by Friday 28/07/2017.

The painting and lining markings in accordance with ( LTA standard Courts) should not be completed until 6-8 weeks after the new surface has been laid, to allow the gases and fats from the bitumen to disperse and ensure good adhesion of the paint.

As an interim measure the courts will be marked out on Thursday 27th July 2017 (Weather permitting), these line will be sacrificial and re-painted after the school holidays and the 6-8 weeks have expired.

Changes to bus services – 353/354 and new 355, and the 402

Changes effective 3 or 4 September

402

Following a number of requests from local councillors and residents Service 402 was revised to additionally serve the Thornham area in January 2017.

As part of this change the service was revised to no longer serve Grasmere Road in Royton. Following feedback it is proposed to make a further revision to reinstate the service along Grasmere Road by removing it from Firbank Road, Fir Lane and Dogford Road.

Service 408 maintains an hourly daytime service along Fir Lane and Dogford Road. Residents on Firbank Road will be a maximum distance of 340 metres from hourly services 402 & 408 and frequent service 409 which maintain links to Royton, Royal Oldham Hospital and Oldham town centre.

353/354 and 355

Services 353 and 354 provide a combined hourly service on Sunday daytimes between Ashton and Uppermill.

Between Mossley and Uppermill the services follow different routes via Grasscroft (353) or Greenfield (354).

It was agreed to replace these two services with new service 355 which would operate every two hours but extend beyond Uppermill to Denshaw, via Delph providing new Sunday daytime links.

The replacement of Sunday daytime services 353 and 354 with service 355 will enable extra running time to be given to Ashton local services 38, 41 and 345 which currently interwork with services 353/354.

There are no changes proposed to the Monday to Saturday daytime services 353 and 354.

It was agreed to replace the Sunday daytime journeys on services 353 and 354 with new service 355.

For some time usage on the Sunday daytime services 353 and 354 has been very low – on average less than 4 passengers per trip.

It is proposed to completely revising the routes to maintain service between Ashton, Mossley and Uppermill (reduced from hourly to every 2 hours) but extending the service to provide new Sunday links to residents of Greenfield (Shaw Hall Bank Road, Carr Lane), Dobcross Village, Delph (Palin Wood Road) and Denshaw.

Stockport Road and Mossley Road (between Mossley and Uppermill) would no longer be served, however, usage on this section is extremely low – a sample survey showed a total of 3 passenger trips across 8 Sunday daytime journeys. All affected passengers can use Saddleworth Local Link as an alternative. Greenfield village would no longer be served by this proposal (service 354) however links to Ashton, Mossley and Uppermill are maintained by hourly service 350.

This proposal ties in with the Total Transport project which aims to improve transport links in the Saddleworth area.

My two allowed questions at tonight’s council meeting – The Grenfell Tower Fire and the Lack of School Places

Oldham Council 12 July 2017 – Leader’s Question 1 – The Grenfell Tower Fire

Mr Mayor, I am sure that every member in this Chamber will have been as horrified as I was to see the images of the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower and the impact that it had on both the building, the tower’s residents and its’ neighbours.

The latest estimate is that there will be at least eighty lives lost; many residents are still missing; and the survivors of the blaze remain traumatised; coping with injuries and missing loved ones; without any possessions and with no certainty about their future housing circumstances.

Mr Mayor, it would be remiss of me at this point not to condemn the woeful response of this Government to the needs of the fire’s victims and the shameful absence of Prime Minister; Theresa May in the aftermath of this enormous tragedy.  Strong and stable – I think not.

I have a stark message for the Prime Minister – it is your job to lead the nation in times like this and on this occasion you failed miserably.

It would also be true to say, in my opinion, that the local council for the area; Kensington and Chelsea; was an embarrassment to all involved in local government.

Both the Officer and Political Leadership of that council has failed their residents big time!

I am pleased to say this is in stark contrast to Oldham Council when we have had to face emergencies such as Maple Mill and the tragic gas blast in Shaw.

On a more positive note, it was however a tremendous relief to learn, following enquiries made by my Liberal Democrat colleague; Councillor Chris Gloster; that none of the tower blocks in this Borough have been clad with any inflammable material as Grenfell appears to have been.

At a time like this, I am sure the Leader will want to reassure members of this Chamber; and more importantly the residents of our Borough’s tower blocks; and their friends and relatives; that all of the components of any type of external cladding system used in this Borough are safe.

Also that the evacuation procedures for tower blocks in Oldham have been thoroughly reviewed in recent days to ensure that they are up-to-date and follow best practice.

Mr Mayor, I would like to ask the Leader for this reassurance tonight and also for a brief summary of what the current advice to tenants and occupants of such tower blocks is in the event of a fire?

Also what is happening to other public buildings in the Borough that could possibly be clad with similar materials as used in Grenfell such as leisure facilities, education buildings and health service accommodation to name just three?

Council 12 July 2017 – Leader’s Question 2 – School Places

For my second question to the Leader tonight, Mr Mayor, I want to return to an issue that I have raised many times in this Chamber before – namely the education of our Borough’s children.

I was disappointed, and, in all honesty, sad, to read recently that once more Oldham was bottom of the class when it came to the number of our children who miss out on attending a secondary school of their choice.

And I am not just talking here about pupils (and their parents) not getting their first choice of school – I am talking here about them not getting their second or third choices either!

In this Borough almost 9 percent – to be exact 8.9 per cent – did not secure a place to start at ANY of their preferred schools in September, which is nearly 1 in 10 pupils or approximately 300 of them!

So now we have another mark of failure against our education system as according to the Department for Education, Oldham was the sixth worst performer in the country and the worst in the North West for school choices.

Compare this to the national figure – 3.6 percent – we are three times higher!  Three times as many denied the secondary place that they seek.

The Borough is also second worst in the region for the percentage of pupils being offered a place at their first preference school, 74.8 per cent compared to 83.5 per cent nationally.

Compare this to Rochdale where nearly 94 percent of pupils got their first preference school and only 1.5 percent of pupils in Rochdale did not get a place at one of their three preferred schools.

In Oldham our primary sector is not much better; 6 percent pupils or 181 children; failed to get a place in their first, second or third choice schools.

It is scandalous – we can do better, much better and we must do better, for the sake of our children and their educational future.

Because if we do not offer children a place at a secondary school that they want to go to we are hardly providing them with an inspiring start to help spur them on to do their level best in their final years of compulsory schooling.

I look forward to the Council meeting when I can ask the Leader a positive question about education in our Borough – but I am sorry to say that with the current level of performance that I cannot see this as being at any point soon.

Let’s hope that the new Saddleworth School, the new Royton and Crompton School and the expanded Crompton House School and Oasis Academy will be able to meet the educational expectations of all of our young people; but these are long-term and not immediate gains, and some of them are still far from certain.

So my second question to the Leader tonight is; what is being done now to ensure that every child in our Borough receives a secondary school place of their choice in the future?