The Coronavirus vaccination programme continues to roll out successfully across Oldham Borough, with more than 45,000 Oldham-registered patients now having received their first vaccination.

This week, the appointments booking system also changed, with people aged over 70 and people who are Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) being invited to book their own appointments if they have not yet been invited by their GP.

If you know anyone in these groups who has not yet been vaccinated, please do share the booking link with them here, or encourage them to call the NHS hotline on 119, to help ensure they can get vaccinated as soon as possible.

• The vaccine is the best defence against Coronavirus alongside effective social distancing, wearing a face covering, and hand hygiene.
• The Covid-19 vaccine is safe. It has undergone months of rigorous testing and strict safety approval processes
• The vaccine is suitable for people from all religions, including people from the Muslim and Jewish faiths. It is also suitable for vegetarians and vegans as the approved Covid-19 vaccines do not contain any animal products or egg.
• Vaccinating thousands of people will take time and is very complicated logistically.

Shaw Liberal Democrat Councillor Howard Sykes MBE has welcomed Oldham Council proposals to introduce selective licensing for private-rented properties in Shaw but would like more properties included in the scheme.

Lower housing demand, lower rents and higher tenant turnover can lead to private-rented properties being left empty for long periods or being poorly maintained or managed.  In these circumstances, councils can introduce selective licensing which requires landlords to properly maintain and manage their properties.  These schemes are self-financing as landlords pay a fee to license each property they own in each area, and properties are inspected before they can be licensed.

Oldham Council is currently consulting landlords, tenants and residents about its plans to introduce schemes in six new areas, including Shaw, and Councillor Sykes has responded to the consultation.

In his response, Councillor Sykes said: “Selective licensing for Shaw would provide safeguards to good tenants from poor landlords, and vice versa, but would also provide assurances to the owner-occupiers of adjacent properties that the private-rented properties in their street would be well-managed and maintained, and not be a contributor to blight or a cause of anti-social behaviour.”

“Some time ago I ask for such a scheme to be introduced in Shaw and now I am pleased, despite a pause due to Covid-19, consultation is now under way,” he added.  However, Councillor Sykes would like the scheme for Shaw expanded to cover a wider area. 

“Current proposals include some streets of terraced properties typically associated with the private-rental market, but other identical streets, where local councillors have received complaints of neglect and ASB in the past, are currently excluded,” he explained. 

“At the same time other areas of Shaw are included that do not experience these issues.  This makes no sense so I hope that Council Officers will redraw the boundaries of the Shaw scheme to reflect my concerns and reassure my constituents.”

I would urge all with an interest in this matter to respond to the consultation at: landlordlicensing@oldham.gov.uk OR 0161 770 2244. Or on the web site:

https://www.oldham.gov.uk/info/201198/help_for_landlords/1450/selective_licensing_of_private_landlords

Councillor Chris Gloster, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance and Green, had his first opportunity to present the Liberal Democrat budget amendments to fellow Councillors on the Performance Value-for-Money Committee for the first-time last night.  The committee is responsible for scrutinising spending and saving proposals in advance of this year’s Budget Council meeting on 4 March.

Kindly commended on ‘a grand job’ by Committee Chair, Councillor Riaz Ahmed OBE, Chris was also able to respond to a series of challenging questions from members on this cross-party committee on the detailed report he had produced with assistance from professional Council finance officers.

The Liberal Councillors want to repurpose part of Labour’s capital investment programme and find more money from cutting bureaucracy and waste elsewhere in the Council’s budget to:

• Invest £18 million to build three new health centres for patients in Shaw and Crompton, Saddleworth and Chadderton by 2026;
• Invest £6.5 million in build a green infrastructure taking Oldham forward in its ambition to be Britain’s first carbon-neutral Council and Borough; and
• Create a dedicated fund worth £2.5 million to repair our footpaths over the next five years.

In the next two years, the Liberal Democrats would save over £1.2 million by cutting Civic Centre bureaucracy and waste to spend on front-line services.  In the next financial year, £294,000 more would be spent on tackling the fly-tipping, litter and dog-fouling which blights the lives of so many Oldham residents, and a new fund of £200,000 to invest in 20-mph zones in residential streets to cut road deaths and injuries, especially amongst children and the elderly. 

Commenting Councillor Gloster said:  “I was delighted to be able to present our budget amendment proposals to this influential committee and I look forward to doing so again at the full meeting of the Council on 4 March.  Although Labour members felt unable to endorse our saving and spending proposals at this time it was gratifying to know they felt that many of them merited consideration in the longer-term and to make this recommendation to the Cabinet.” 

“One particular small victory was the reassurance that I received that the staff car allowance scheme will soon be reviewed to identify where it is possible to make the savings that we have suggested this year as we did last year.”

On February 8 the government announced if you are aged 70 or over or are in the clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) category and have not yet been offered your first dose of the vaccine then you can now contact the NHS to get it.

You can book an appointment by visiting www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination or those unable to get online can call 119.

If you are not in one of the these groups you should wait to be contacted.

When it is your turn to be vaccinated, and if you are registered with a GP in Oldham, you will be contacted directly from your practice or an NHS representative.

More than 1,100 private homes are empty in Oldham, and the Liberal Democrats would like to see them brought back into use to help address homelessness and to reduce the pressure to build new housing on the Green Belt and green spaces.

Figures recently released by Oldham Council showed that in November 2020, 1137 private homes were empty, many for long periods of time.  Government figures published in December 2020 also show that 5,421 households were on Oldham Council’s housing waiting list.

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE said: “Homes which remain empty for a long period of time are often neglected and fall into disrepair, leading to an area becoming blighted and driving down neighbouring property prices.  At a time when families on the Council waiting list are in desperate need of a property to make their home, it is scandalous that we have so many empty homes that could be put to good use.  If we bring empty homes back into use, it will also mean that there will be less pressure to build new homes on our irreplaceable Green Belt.

“One of the ways that we can incentivise absentee owners to let or sell properties they leave empty for long-periods is to levy an increased Council Tax on them, as we are permitted to do by law.  This is an option we would like to see Oldham Council look at in the budget for the next financial year.”

Oldham East and Saddleworth Labour MP Debbie Abrahams opposition to taxing online giants such as Amazon on Politics North West this weekend has been criticised by Oldham Councillor and tax campaigner Sam Al-Hamdani.

When asked if she would support proposals to introduce an online sales tax, intended to combat tax avoidance and raise money for the Coronavirus response, Abrahams said: “Not at this stage.”

She even pushed back against the presenter’s suggestion that: “There is nothing wrong with getting the online giants to pay their tax”, saying: “I wouldn’t want to be considering increases in taxation at this stage.”

Liberal Democrat Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani said that the MP’s response did not add up. “It shows a complete disregard for what is happening in the real world. While people running local businesses are struggling to keep their doors open, Amazon announced record sales of more than $100bn over the last three months.

“This isn’t fair for people in Oldham. We can see that Amazon are taking advantage. It needs to be called out and dealt with.”

Amazon did not declare how much tax it paid in the UK last year, but the company paid £293m in tax (worldwide) in 2019, while raking in €294m in tax credits across Europe (including the UK) in the same period.

Councillor Al-Hamdani said that the MP’s response made even less sense in the light of her later criticism of the Government’s funding settlement for Councils. “She condemned the Government for pushing the costs of the coronavirus pandemic onto local authorities – and the Conservatives have taken this approach, to the detriment of towns like Oldham.

“But why is she also opposing something that would create a level playing field, designed to protect small and high street businesses, and which could actually bring in the money that could change this?

“Our out-of-date tax system needs fixing. Social care must not be paid for by pushing the costs on to those who can afford it least, but by a new national settlement. We need a Government – and an opposition – who care about fairness, who care about the vulnerable and, importantly, who care about getting the economy and taxation right, so that we all pay our fair share. If the Labour Party are not going to rise to this challenge, then the Liberal Democrats can.”

Report on Amazon’s sales figures and taxation: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/03/amazon-reports-uk-sales-rose-by-51-in-2020

Debbie Abrahams comments can be found at 11.05 on Poltics North West: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000s5m1/politics-north-west-07022021

The Liberal Democrats have revealed the shocking truth that some disabled people in Oldham have had to wait for almost three years for a parking bay.  

And, sadly, there seems no end in sight as Oldham’s Labour Administration has not allocated any funding for the creation of disabled parking bays in the last two financial years.

Disabled parking bays require minimal work, the area designated as the bay is painted onto the highway and they only require a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) to be issued.

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE wrote to the Deputy Chief Executive of Oldham Council in January taking up the issue of the wait time on behalf of one of his Shaw constituents.  He was seeking answers about what was happening with the backlog, and found those answers disturbing to say the least. 

Councillor Sykes said: “Eighty people are now waiting for assessments to determine their eligibility for a parking bay.  These are all people who hold a Blue Badge and have severe disabilities.  They need a disabled parking bay to access a vehicle that is parked near their home to get out and about.  It is tragic that some have had to wait almost three years – forcing increased isolation, and this waiting list is steadily growing.”

“It is scandal that some of these people waiting will either be dead or no longer able to drive by the time their application is dealt with.  It is just not good enough and they deserve better!”  Added Councillor Sykes.

“Oldham Council has failed to allocate any money for providing disabled parking bays since the 2018-19 financial year.  This increasing backlog will only continue to get worse.”  Councillor Sykes continued, “I shall carry on advocating on behalf of these forgotten and vulnerable citizens and press Oldham Council to make some cash available so we can provide some hope of light at the end of the tunnel for these disabled people who have been waiting patiently for so long.”