Liberal Democrat Common Sense Prevails in Oldham EU Brexit Debate

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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.

Bus changes by First Manchester effective from 24 July 16

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First Manchester have advised TfGM of a number of changes to their network which affect the Oldham area.  All will be effective from Sunday 24 July brief details below:

 

Service Route Notes
24 Rochdale/Thornham – Royton – Chadderton – Manchester Daytime journeys operating between Thornham and Manchester withdrawn. Monday to Friday Peak journeys (4AM/5 PM) operating through to Rochdale maintained.

Rossendale have looked at diverting service 408 but there isn’t enough time in the current or revised schedule and they have expressed concern about running on Springfield Lane having witnessed two buses getting stuck. Patronage is low.
59 Rushcroft – Shaw – Oldham – Manchester ·       Monday to Saturday daytime service between Oldham and Rushcroft reduced from 4 buses an hour to 2 buses an hour.

·       Daily evening service revised – every 30 minutes between Manchester and Oldham, extending hourly to Rushcroft.

During the daytime services 58 and 59 will combine to provide a 10 minute service between Middleton and Oldham and every 15 minutes between Oldham and Shaw, Wren Nest.
83 Sholver – Oldham – Manchester Monday to Saturday evening service reduced to operate every 30 minutes between Sholver and Manchester. Short Oldham to Manchester journeys (every half hour) withdrawn.

Services 83/180/184 will combine to provide a bus every 15 minutes between Oldham and Manchester.
149 Oldham – Cheetham Hill – Manchester Daytime service curtailed to operate between Oldham and Cheetham Hill (via North Manchester General Hospital).

This service is tendered between Oldham and Cheetham Hill – First extend to Manchester commercially. This action should improve service punctuality as delays in the city centre cause issues along the route.
181 Shaw – Chadderton – Manchester Route revised to serve St Mary’s Road and Nuthurst Road (New Moston) instead of Broadway.

This leaves one pair of stops (near Park Avenue) that is not within 400m of existing stops on Nuthurst Road or Oldham Road.
182 Shaw – Chadderton – Manchester Daily daytime journeys curtailed to operate between Shaw and Manchester. Some peak journeys extend to Milnrow and  evening journeys continue to serve Rochdale.

Service 58 will maintain a 30 minute daytime service between Shaw, Milnrow and Rochdale.

184 Huddersfield/Uppermill/Grotton – Oldham – Manchester Monday to Saturday journeys that terminate in Diggle revised to terminate at Grotton. Dobcross and the Diggle terminus (Sam Road) will lose their link with Oldham.

Services 353/354 will maintain an hourly daytime link with Uppermill where connections can be made to service 184.
409 Rochdale – Oldham – Ashton Monday to Saturday evening service reduced from every 20 to every 30 minutes.
415 Oldham – Middleton Sunday daytime service withdrawn.

We’ve tendered for replacement and will recommend award of the new contract, replacing all journeys.

Officer response from TfGM after I raised  concerns about some of these changes.

First of all please let me apologise for the delay in responding.

In terms of the changes, most of the 182 journeys will turn short at Shaw Wrens Nest as opposed to continuing to Rochdale.  First will continue to provide a service between Shaw and Rochdale on service 58 every 30 minutes and service 181/182 will continue to run through to Rochdale at times when service 58 doesn’t.  In addition, peak journeys on 182 will continue to Milnrow.

I appreciate that service 59 will operate to a reduced frequency in the evenings that I agree will have an impact on the local community.

All of the changes that have been registered for implementation are fully commercial changes which First have determined will maintain a commercially viable service; First will continue to provide services to all of the affected routes albeit to reduced frequencies.

It is fair to say that the medium term effects of the introduction of the tram between Oldham and Rochdale will now be fully felt and will no doubt have had a bearing on their decision.

We would not be in a position to tender for services to enhance this service as it would in effect be competing with, and undermining, a commercially provided service which would ultimately lead to a further reduction in frequency.

Notwithstanding this, we are fully committed on our budget; any commercial services that are withdrawn that TfGM needs to reinstate must be funded from the withdrawal of other services.  It would therefore be extremely difficult to justify the withdrawal of an entire service to one community to enhance the service to another.

I would add that as part of the changes First have been able to co-ordinate all of the services through Shaw and as a consequence the combined 58/59 will offer an approximate 15 minute combined service to Oldham.

I hope that this provides some additional information.

Michael Moore, Service Planning Officer, Transport for Greater Manchester, 2 Piccadilly Place, Manchester M1 3BG.

Family Weekend – Saturday & Sunday 25th and 26th June 2016

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Shaw & Crompton Parish Council have provided a plethora of entertainment for all the family.

Saturday on Market Street there are a Boot Camp assault course, Surf Machine, Space Ball, Punch & Judy a Charity Market and Street entertainers, Fire Eaters, The Mainiax, Team BeeGee, and Circus Training amongst others.

On the Kershaw Street East Car Park there is a Fairground with many attractions for all.

Sunday on Market Street there is a vintage vehicle display and a rally around Shaw and Crompton plus street entertainers and the fun fair on the car park.

Click on link for the programme: Programme and timings

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