See link for more details: Mahdlo in Shaw @ Cafe Mandels 2016
Retaining Wall located between Rossendale Close and Parkgate Way, Shaw
The retaining wall mentioned above supports a footway at the back of properties 2-20 Parkgate Way and 1-19 Rossendale Close. It has been classified as a risk to the public because the parapet is failing.
The footway in the vicinity of the retaining wall, which are shown on the attached map, are due to be closed until the structure has been made safe. Remedial repairs to the wall will be undertaken within the next 4 to 8 weeks as soon as all options have been assessed and appropriate funding is sourced.
During this time it has been agreed with the Oldham Council Waste Collection teams that your bins will be collected as follows:
- For residents of Parkgate Way, as part of the works it will be necessary for us to accommodate your refuse and recycling collections, could I therefore ask that you move all your bins and containers to the path at the front of your property. The Waste Collection team have agreed to collect all containers from this location and therefore you will not be required to take them to a collection point.
- For residents of Rossendale Close, your bins will be collected from the front of your properties as usual.
The retaining wall will continue to be monitored. We are hopeful that any necessary major works (i.e. retaining wall replacement or strengthening) will be undertaken as soon as appropriate funding is made available.
Finally, we apologise in advance for the inconvenience that these works may cause, however the safety of the public is paramount and cannot be compromised.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any further information.
Yours faithfully
Antony Bhunu
Bridges / Structures / Drainage & Flood Management
Asset Management, Highways & Engineering
Direct Line: 0161 770 3851
Email: antony.bhunu@unitypartnership.com
Former Shaw Market demolition and anti social behaviour
Joint statement from Shaw and Crompton Councillors about the anti-social behaviour on the former market site in Shaw Town Centre.
Tuesday evening (2 August), saw a group of young people wreaking havoc on the former market site, where demolition work is being carried out to remove the stalls and create more parking spaces.
This was not the first time it had happened. On Monday evening (1 August) they had wrecked the site by pulling down the fencing. So, it was agreed that a security guard would be deployed to the site the following evening, to monitor the situation.
Last night (2 August), he was assaulted by these young people, who were throwing objects at him, one of which was a broom that hit him on the shoulder. Not only that but they were pulling the fencing down and riding their bikes over them. Somebody said they looked like a “pack of wolves”.
Councillor Rod Blyth, who was going home at 8:45pm, saw a police officer talking to a group of young people. However, the youths were not dispersed and were still congregating on Kershaw Street and Westway when the police officer left.
Then about 9:00pm the situation escalated and Councillor Rod Blyth called the police again and called his colleagues, two of whom were available to assist. Councillors Dave Murphy and Diane Williamson attended at 9:30pm where they were greeted with a group of young people being dragged back to a police car, where one young person had to be put inside the car.
The police who attended the scene tried to explain to the young people that they would be complicit in any crime that was committed, if they did not do one of three things. Ring the police; tell the others to stop what they were doing; or walk away. Needless to say the young people did not take on board this message, despite being reminded of a similar situation that had happened in Ashton last week, which had sadly resulted in a death.
The young people said that they were protesting about the demolition of the market, because it was their chill space. However, because of a history of anti-social behaviour, not just by these young people on the market, the site needs to be cleared so that those living in Shaw Town Centre are not frightened to go out at night.
It took a couple of hours for all of this to calm down, with the Councillors calling First Response (the Council’s Emergency Team) to ask for assistance, but because the security guard was not employed by the council, all they could do was carry out a welfare check.
All six Shaw and Crompton Councillors have requested a co-ordinated approach to this, so that we can stop these young people from acting so atrociously and ensure the safety of the residents and the security guard on site. This has been happening for years, but each year the young people’s behaviour has become more anti-social.
The police, PCSOs, the Council and the Detached Youth Team will be out over the next two nights patrolling the area and a Dispersal Order has been drawn up which covers the area between Rochdale Road, Crompton Way, Market Street and Greenfield Lane.
We would urge anyone who sees anything happening around the market site, please contact the police by phoning 101. Any intelligence about any anti-social behaviour would be welcomed.
In addition to this, Councillor Diane Williamson, as Chair of the District Executive, has written to the Leader of the Council asking for reassurances that despite the delay in the demolition, that all works will be completed in time for 22 August, as well as raising concerns about what happened on 2 August.
Local Councillors believe in zero-tolerance when dealing with these issues and a meeting with a number of partners will be taking place on Friday to review the measures that have been put in place.
Royal Mail latest re Beal Lane mail box
Click link to see letter: Beal Lane Mail box Royal Mail letter
My most recent letter to Royal Mail:
Mr Mike Newnham, Chief Customer Officer, Royal Mail Plc, 100 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0HQ
Dear Mr Newnham,
Re: Disappearance of Royal Mail Post Boxes, Milnrow Road, Shaw and Long Rushes; Shaw.
Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding the Post Box on Beal Lane, Shaw.
Whilst I have received previous replies regarding the Milnrow Road and Long Rushes Post Boxes, I am yet to receive a date of when they will be replaced.
I would welcome some further information about this matter.
Hopefully you will be in a position to replace the Post Box as soon as possible to alleviate the inconvenience and distress it is causing for my constituents.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely – Howard Sykes
Summer Holiday Activities in Shaw and Crompton
Full Circle is providing these school holiday activities after being commissioned to do so by your local Shaw and Crompton Liberal Democrat Councillors.
Monday 1st August
1pm – 3pm – Georges Street Playing Fields
Friday 5th August
11am – 1pm – High Crompton Park
Monday 8th August
1pm – 3pm – Georges Street Playing Fields
Friday 12th August
11am – 1pm – High Crompton Park
Monday 15th August
1pm – 3pm – Georges Street Playing Fields
Friday 19th August
11am – 1pm – High Crompton Park
Monday 22nd August
1pm – 3pm – Georges Street Playing Fields
Friday 26th August
11am – 1pm – High Crompton Park
Friday 2nd September
11am – 1pm – High Crompton Park
Saturday 3rd September
Kite Festival – High Crompton Park
The team members all wear red ‘Full Circle’ branded clothing when they are working.
Royton and Crompton School Bid to be brought to Cabinet
Shaw Liberal Democrat Councillor Howard Sykes MBE has welcomed news that plans for the construction of a new Royton and Crompton School are about to be taken forward to Cabinet.
Councillor Sykes and his Liberal Democrat colleagues in Shaw and Crompton have wanted to see a new school on the site for many years.
In February 2015, Councillor Sykes specifically asked the then Council Leader Jim McMahon to prioritise a bid for funding for the new school.
In full Council, Councillor Sykes said at that time: “Royton and Crompton School is in a parlous state. It is a school that requires serious investment to meet the educational needs of pupils and staff in the twenty first century.
And I make a public pledge as I have done privately to help in any way I can to get the school Royton and Crompton deserves.
So can the Leader tonight tell me where we are in looking to secure capital investment from Government to make the school ‘fit for purpose’ .”
The Council’s Cabinet will receive a report in September recommending a bid be made for funding a new school as part of the Education Funding Agency’s Priority Schools Building Programme.
Councillor Sykes said: “It is a shame that eighteen months will have had to pass before a report on this matter will be brought to Cabinet, but it does at least represent progress, albeit slow progress. I now hope that a funding bid can be made in the very near future and that we will not have to wait another eighteen months to hear the news that funding will be made available to build the new school that the children of Royton and Crompton so richly deserve”.
Recycling query re PET plastic trays
I get a lot of queries about why certain things are not recycled.
Below is a comprehensive response to one of my recent queries regarding plastics recycling, specifically whether there are markets for PET trays.
The current position is that there are well established markets for bottle derived PET but not PET trays.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) undertake market studies each year for the main recyclable materials including plastics and the 2016 plastics report published in April this year concludes that there are “no current end markets for separately baled clear PET trays”.
There are a number of reasons for this but principally the plastics reprocessors prefer the bottle PET as this is high quality and will not have been blended with lower quality polymers which is what happens with some trays.
The current suppressed oil price is also reducing demand for recycled plastics as plastics produced from raw hydrocarbons are actually cheaper to produce at the moment.
Plastics recycling is driven by economics and demand. There are now c. 70% of local authorities collecting pots, tubs and trays on the back of public demand.
Based on data on the WRAP website, around 62% of all plastics collected (household and commercial) in the UK actually ends up being disposed of rather than recycled. This is as a result of market demand.
This is a very disappointing statistic and needs action at a national level to address this. Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) is lobbying for consistency in the use of plastic polymers for pots, tubs and trays.
There is a good market for poly – propylene (PP) yoghurt pots but not all pots/trays are made of PP, instead cheaper alternate polymers are used that reporcessors do not want.
If PP has a sustainable market then a simple solution is for packaging manufacturers to consistently only use PP. That will require either legislation or a binding commitment to implement that change, hence the need for central Government action to address this.
Other councils do collect these pots, tubs and trays but with the limitation on markets, very little of the non bottle plastic will actually be recycled, the most likely outcome will be that these materials are separated from the plastic bottles and then treated as a residue for energy generation.
These is a lot of detail on recycling on the WRAP website www.wrap.org.uk that may be of interest to people.
Also below is a link to the Recycle for Greater Manchester website, which also contains information on frequently asked questions on recycling.
Liberal Democrat Common Sense Prevails in Oldham EU Brexit Debate
At last night’ Oldham Council meeting, in the debate on the report about the local impact of the EU referendum, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition, urged Council to take action rather than simply noting the report presented to members.
Councillor Sykes had previously written to the Leader of the Council, Councillor Jean Stretton, requesting that a special report on the impact of Brexit be prepared by officers and brought to Council for debate.
Councillor Sykes said: “Although disappointed by the result, I am a democrat and accept that the UK and Oldham voted to leave. However we should not bury our heads in the sand; as elected members, it is incumbent and expected of us to inform ourselves what the ramifications of Brexit are in terms of the impact on our local economy, Council and people, and that we take action to mitigate them or maximise the opportunities.”
Rather than resorting to rhetoric and the report was just to note, Councillor Sykes proposed two common sense suggestions to take forward.
The first was that the Administration writes to the new Prime Minister Theresa May seeking a guarantee that the Government will make up any shortfall in European funding once Brexit takes effect.
Councillor Sykes stressed that many other Councils, Cornwall, Farmers and the Local Government Association were already ahead in the queue making this demand and Oldham should join them as soon as possible. Graciously, the Leader of the Council Councillor Jean Stretton assented and agreed to Councillor Sykes’s suggestion that both she and he should write this letter.
The second was that the Council Leader assign specific responsibility for EU exit issues to a cabinet member with the expectation that this cabinet member consult from time to time with Group Leaders and with other elected members, and that reports be brought back to Council periodically. The Council Leader agreed on the spot to assign this responsibility to the Cabinet Member for Finance, her Deputy Leader Councillor Abdul Jabbar.
All Oldham Councillors approved both suggestions.
Theft of Royal Mail Post Boxes – Councillor Howard Sykes
WARD QUESTION I SUBMITTED TO LAST NIGHT’S MEETING OF OLDHAM COUNCIL AND WOULD HAVE ASKED BUT it WAS RULED OUT OF TIME.
In Shaw and Crompton a large number of Royal Mail post boxes have been removed or stolen, greatly inconveniencing many of my constituents and those of Crompton colleagues, particularly constituents who are elderly or infirm.
I am sure Councillors in other wards in our borough have also experienced this.
I am also concerned about the amount of time that it takes Royal Mail to provide a replacement post box. The delay is certainly several months and in one case in my ward we are still waiting some 8 months after Royal Mail removed it.
Does the appropriate cabinet member share my concerns about post boxes being removed or stolen in our borough and the time taken to replace them, and will the Cabinet Member make representations on this matter to Royal Mail?
Removal of market stalls from former site
Presently sat in the Council meeting and two of my colleagues have asked questions in relation to Shaw Town Centre – in particular the cages behind Tesco Express and what is happening with the old market ground.
Interestingly enough work to remove the old market stalls will start on 25 July and will take approximately two weeks. Then on 8 August, weather permitting, work on the new car park will start. However this will mean that the car park will be closed for two weeks.
I am seeking clarification whether that is the full site – ie all the way down to Rochdale Road or just the old market ground.