For real time information: https://oldham.roadworks.org/

Liberal Democrat Councillors have called on the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak MP, to end the financial uncertainly for Oldham Borough’s poorest families and make a one-year temporary rise of £20-a-week in Universal Credit payments permanent.  The increase was announced in April at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic; now with the deferment of the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget until Spring, there is currently no guarantee that the rise will be made permanent next year.

Liberal Democrat Leader Councillor Howard Sykes MBE has added his voice, and that of his party colleagues, to the call from many of Britain’s leading charities for the uncertainty to be ended by writing to the Chancellor asking for the rise to be made permanent.

Commenting, Councillor Sykes said:  “With the economic downturn that has accompanied the Covid-19 pandemic, and the ending of furlough at the end of this month, more and more Oldham households without employment will be dependent upon Universal Credit for many more months, maybe years, to come.  The temporary uplift of £20 per week, or £1,040 a year, is a Godsend to our poorest residents and their families.  For many it represents the difference between being able to put food before the family at mealtimes or keeping the lights on or keeping their home warm; or being unable to do so.  It is my hope that the Chancellor does the principled thing and makes the increase permanent.”

Letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer

From: Howard Sykes <howard.sykes@oldham.gov.uk>
Sent: 01 October 2020 16:37
To: Public.enquiries@hmtreasury.gov.uk
Cc: Howard Sykes <howard.sykes@oldham.gov.uk>
Subject: Please make the temporary £20-a-week rise in Universal Credit permanent

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP

By email to: Public.enquiries@hmtreasury.gov.uk  

Dear Chancellor,

I am writing to you to add my voice, and those of my fellow Liberal Democrat Councillors at Oldham Council, in support of the call by the many charitable organisations which have this week written to you seeking to make the temporary £20-a-week rise in Universal Credit permanent.

As Councillors, we have the great privilege of representing constituents in the Borough of Oldham.  Sadly, it is the misfortune of many of the people of our Borough to be amongst the poorest citizens of the United Kingdom.  This poverty is most acute in our inner-area wards and amongst our lowest-income families; child poverty being at levels that are truly shocking. 

After once being the foremost and richest textile town in the British Empire 100 years ago, our borough’s residents are now largely reliant on employment in the service industries (care, distribution, leisure, retail, leisure, and transport).  These have traditionally been low-paid and increasingly transient with many residents being employed on seasonal, temporary or zero hours contracts. 

I am sure that you will fully appreciate that, since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, many of these workers have been furloughed, and workers in increasing numbers are being laid off.  This situation will be exacerbated further when furlough formally ends at the end of this month.

Many redundant workers are turning to Universal Credit to provide an income; in many cases they were already in receipt of this as they were the lowest-paid or employed part-time or in casual situations.  In any case, our residents are already all too familiar with the bureaucracy and tribulations of claiming Universal Credit as Oldham was one of the areas chosen by government in which to first pilot the new provision.

The local figures for those now claiming Universal Credit speak volumes. Between 12th March and 13th August 2020, the number of claimants in Oldham rose by 6,515 to a total of 13,985 claimants. 

It is clear from your recent Ministerial statement, indicating that non-“viable” jobs will be lost after furlough ends on October 31, that these figures will rise significantly both locally and nationally.  Although some areas of the UK with a higher skills base and technology-based employment may recover more quickly from recession, Oldham, without these, has lower economic resilience and the downturn here is likely to be, as it has been during past recessions, more pronounced and longer-lasting.

Consequently, many more Oldham households will be dependent upon Universal Credit for many more months, maybe years, to come.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has recently published research to say that 16 million people will suffer if the uplift in benefit income is removed next April.  I regret to say that many thousands of these citizens would be my fellow residents in this borough.

Chancellor, the temporary uplift of £20 per week, or £1,040 a year, if made permanent would be a Godsend to our poorest residents and their families. For many it will represent the difference between being able to put food before the family at mealtimes or keeping the lights on or keeping their home warm; or being unable to do so.

I ask you too to look to our nation’s sick and disabled citizens, more than a million of whom are dependent on older ‘legacy’ benefits. They too would benefit from a guarantee of permanence.

You have announced that the Autumn Budget has now been deferred to next Spring. I ask you not to wait until then to end the uncertainty and to make a clear and principled policy decision now to support this nation’s poorest citizens by declaring the £20-a-week Universal Credit rise to be permanent.

With my thanks for your attention to this matter.

Yours sincerely.

After almost two years, the Conservative Government has still not honoured a promise to make it illegal for anyone who is a convicted sex offender to stand or remain in public office as a Councillor or elected Mayor, and Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, is “deeply disappointed” by the failure of the Government to act.

In March 2017, Councillor Sykes backed a motion brought to Council by the then Leader of the Council that called on the government to ban sex offenders from public office.  Later that year, the government launched a lengthy public consultation on its proposal to do so to which Oldham Council responded in support, but it was not until October 18 of the following year that Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak MP said that the government would “strengthen” the law.

After two years of patiently waiting, Councillor Sykes has had enough.  At the start of October, he sent a letter to his parliamentary colleague, Baroness Kath Pinnock, who is the Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson on Communities and Local Government matters, outlining the case for change, with a suggested question for her to ask of Government Ministers.

Councillor Sykes said:  “It is time now to rattle the cage of Government and get them to take some action.  Rishi Sunak promised to ‘identify a suitable legislative opportunity’ to change the law and I think it is inexcusable that they have not found a time or place to do so over the last two years.  To update the law would require only a small change to the wording of the 1972 Local Government Act to disbar sex offenders from public office, so let’s get it done.  I am pleased to report the question has now been tabled.”

Letter and question below:

The wording of the parliamentary question reads:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will honour the commitment made by Local Government Minister, The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, on 18 October 2018 to amend Section 80 of the Local Government Act 1972 to disbar persons required to sign the Sex Offenders Register from acquiring or holding public office as Councillors or Mayors?

1 October 2020

The Rt Hon Baroness Kath Pinnock, Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Communities and Local Government), House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW

Dear Baroness Pinnock,

Re: Make representations to the Secretary of State to extend the 1972 Local Government Act to automatically disqualify any member who after conviction is placed on the sex offenders register

In December 2015, an Independent Parish Councillor serving on Saddleworth Parish Council was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of downloading indecent images of children under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

This individual was sentenced in January 2016 to a 28-day curfew, required to participate in an Internet Sexual Offenders’ Treatment Programme and subjected to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years, as well as obliged to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.

Although removed from any committees of the Parish Council, this individual adamantly refused to step down from public office.  Politicians of all parties at the Parish Council and at the Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, within the administrative boundaries of which Saddleworth lies, were horrified that their appeals to this councillor to do the decent thing and resign were ignored.  A significant public campaign developed also calling for him to go, but this too fell on deaf ears.

The law is this instance also proved to be impotent as the Local Government Act 1974 only provides for a ban upon anyone serving as a local councillor if they are convicted of an offence carrying a prison sentence of more than three months.

In March 2017, I supported the then Leader of Oldham Council, Councillor Jean Stretton, in seconding a cross-party motion which was endorsed at a full meeting of the Council.  The motion read:

This Council notes with alarm that there are currently no legislative provisions in place to disqualify a Councillor who is placed on the sex offenders’ register.

Section 27 (1) of the Localism Act 2011 declares that it is the job of a Council to promote and maintain high standards of conduct by members and co-opted members of the authority.

Disallowing us to exclude Members who are placed on the sex offenders register compromises the Council’s duty to maintain high standards of conduct by its members.

Oldham’s definition of the role of a Councillor states that he/she should “be an active and visible community leader on behalf of the whole community”.

This Council acknowledges that an individual placed on the sex offenders register cannot honestly represent a whole community when they have shown clear contempt towards members of that community.

The nature of a Council’s work makes it unsuitable for an individual on the sex offender’s register to work as a Councillor.

The Council works with children, adults in need of social care and adults with disabilities. A Councillor’s role can involve working with these vulnerable groups and therefore it is unsuitable for those groups to interact with someone on the sex offenders register.

With this in mind, this Council resolves to:

Make representations to the Secretary of State to extend the 1972 Local Government Act to automatically disqualify any member who after conviction is placed on the sex offenders register.’

In response in September 2017, Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak MP, announced a public consultation on changing the Local Government Act 1972 to disbar members from office if convicted of an offence under the Sexual Offences Act.

The government’s proposal included preventing individuals from standing from, or remaining in, office if they were on the Sex Offenders’ Register or had been subject to an Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction, a Criminal Behaviour Order or a Sexual Risk Order.

The consultation lasted until December 2017 and representations were made from Oldham Council in support of the proposal.

On October 18 of the following year.  Minister Sunak announced that the law would be ‘strengthened’ to make the alternatives to a prison sentence a bar to holding elected office.

A promise at that time was made to ‘identify a suitable legislative opportunity’ to effect changes to primary legislation (the Local Government Act 1972, the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, and the Greater London Authority Act 2009).

I have recently taken advice from the legal team at the Local Government Association and I very much regret that their advice is that there have been no apparent changes to the law, certainly not to Section 80 of the Local Government Act 1972. 

I am disgusted that two years have almost passed, and this government has clearly not thought this matter to be of sufficient importance to identify that promised ‘suitable legislative opportunity’. 

In the interim, Councillors may have been convicted of offences under the Sexual Offences Act and punished with a non-custodial sentence yet remain in office.

Like their promise to legislate to outlaw sexual relations between those holding ‘positions of trust’ and young people aged under 18, the government’s promise to legislate on this matter has so far amounted to nothing, and so I would be most grateful for your assistance in tabling this serious matter and to ask the appropriate questions of Government Ministers in the House.

If you need any further information or have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Best wishes and stay safe.

Howard Sykes

Liberal Democrats in Oldham and across Greater Manchester are calling for a halt to the Greater Manchester Strategic Framework, due to be published on 5 October 2020.

In advance of the publication, Oldham Council has revealed their local proposals and there will be a full meeting of the Council to discuss these on Wednesday 28 October.

Wrong Plan 

Oldham Liberal Democrat Councillors recognise that we will need more homes in the Borough, and we want to build the high quality, affordable and energy efficient homes that people need, but not at the expense of losing our precious green spaces. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, residents have been using our great outdoors for exercise and solace.  This experience this year tells us, we need our open spaces more than ever.

Our precious Green Belt land must be protected with development restricted to existing sites and brownfield land.

GMSF’s housing need numbers are based on 2014 data.  The numbers are now off.  We are now in the middle of a Covid-19 pandemic and soon we will face an uncertain future after Brexit; both will have a massive impact on our future economy and our housing need.  GMSF is out of date before it even written never mind published.

Wrong Time

Greater Manchester Councils are proposing to consult with the public over a seven-week period, which includes Christmas and is in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a democracy, people need to be able to meet, to discuss, and to campaign around the issues that affect them in their local areas.  Oldham Liberal Democrats believe that this is the wrong time to conduct any consultation if it is to be meaningful and inclusive.  At a time when people are rightly focussed on Covid-19 and its massive impact on our lives, it is a disgrace to even call this a consultation.

GMSF is also already based on an outdated process.  The Government’s White Paper ‘Planning for the Future’ sets out the new way that local plans will be drawn up and new ways that housing numbers will be calculated.

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Opposition, said:  “I believe that this is the wrong plan presented at the wrong time.” 

“Building on Green Belt cannot be justified, especially when, with the economic downturn forecast on the coat tails of Covid-19 and Brexit, we will have more empty shops and offices and undeveloped sites in the town centre that could serve for housing.  The housing numbers are also off as later projections for housing need have been lower than those first published in 2014, and in any case less people will be able to afford to settle in a new home.”

“Furthermore, people will just not be engaged with this final stage of consultation as they focus on keeping themselves and their families safe from disease and unemployment.  The Conservative Government’s Planning for the Future proposals will in any case make GMSF redundant as they require every Greater Manchester Council to produce an entirely new local plan within 30 months of the legislation being passed.  It is crazy to proceed with GMSF when the rules are so clearly about to change.”

Liberal Democrat Councillors will oppose the latest GMSF proposals when they are presented to the special meeting of Oldham Council, to be held on Wednesday 28 October.

Oldham Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Howard Sykes MBE has written to the Head of Metrolink to urge him to take on board the findings of reports into dangerous incidents involving trams in Croydon and at the Deansgate-Castlefield station to improve Metrolink safety. 

Although the Deansgate-Castlefield incident in May 2019 did not lead to any deaths or injuries, accident investigators found it has some disturbing similarities to a terrible accident at the Sandilands Junction, Croydon in November 2017 which a tram overturn and seven people tragically lost their lives.

Councillor Sykes, who represents Oldham on the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee and is also the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Transport in Greater Manchester, has previously asked local transport officials to review the lessons from the Sandilands accident and the recent publication of the report into the incident at Deansgate – Castlefield has made him doubly sure this is the right thing to do. 

Councillor Sykes said:  “A terrible tram accident may have featured as a fictional story line on Coronation Street, but I am sure that none of us want to see the story line played out for real.  It is far better to take stock now than wait and risk an accident in the future that we should have prepared against now and avoided.”

Copy letter below:

29 September 2020

Danny Vaughan, Head of Metrolink, Transport for Greater Manchester

Cc Eamonn Boylan, Chief Executive, Greater Manchester Combined Authority

Dear Mr Vaughan,

Learning Lessons from the Deansgate – Castlefield Tram Stop near miss, 17 May 2019

I am writing to you in connection with the findings of the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report, published 3 August 2020, which examined the causes leading to an incident where a tram failed to stop at the Deansgate – Castlefield halt and continued through a red light to almost collide with a second oncoming tram. 

Fortunately, the driver of the second tram was able to brake in time to avoid a collision, and so there were no casualties.

The investigation team found that a significant contributory factor in the driver of the first tram failing to stop at the platform and then passing the stop sign was ‘a temporary loss of awareness’.  The RAIB suggests there could have been a medical reason for this condition, or the driver ‘losing focus on the driving task’.

I would suggest that there could be a third reason for a ‘loss of awareness’ and that could be driver fatigue.

A previous RAIB investigation into a tram crash at Sandilands Junction, Croydon on 9 November 2017, found a similar ‘loss of awareness’ there.  Tragically in that case, seven people lost their lives and a further fifty-eight passengers were injuring when a tram took a tight turn at a speed far in excess of that recommended and overturned.

Reports were received from witnesses that the driver had fallen asleep or passed out at the controls prior to the accident, and the RAIB suggested that the driver may have been fatigued because the driver roster system failed to give drivers sufficient time off to rest between shifts.

In the recent Deansgate – Castlefield near miss, the RAIB investigation also found that:

• the safety device on the tram did not detect the driver’s loss of awareness or arrest the vehicle’s movement because it was not designed to do so;

• neither Thales nor Transport for Greater Manchester had considered ‘loss of awareness’ in making their risk assessments, and that all parties should be involved in future risk assessments.

As a member representing Oldham on the Transport for Greater Manchester Board, I have previously asked for Metrolink to take account of the findings of the Sandilands enquiry to ensure such a tragedy can never repeat itself in Greater Manchester.  

To me it appears clear that the findings of the investigation into the Deansgate – Castlefield incident have demonstrable parallels with the previous Sandilands accident. 

A terrible tram accident may have featured as a fictional story line on Coronation Street, but I am sure that none of us want to see the story line played out for real. 

I would therefore like to ask the Metrolink senior management team to now conduct as a matter of urgency a review of our current practices, to take on board, and implement, the relevant recommendations of both reports. 

This should also engage the trades unions and the driver workforce as we must all recognise that driver, as well as passenger, safety is all important.

I look forward to your reply in due course.

Best wishes and stay safe.

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE

Saddleworth Conservative Councillors showed themselves to be out of step with party colleagues when voting against a recent motion at Oldham Council.  The motion, supported by Liberal Democrat Councillors, called for the government’s recently-published proposals to radically reform the planning process to be scrapped.

Conservative Councillor Graham Sheldon spoke, and voted, against the motion arguing that: “The once in a generation reforms will lay the foundations for a brighter future for Oldham and Saddleworth”, but his enthusiasm is not shared by Conservative Councillors elsewhere.

A recent survey by Savanta Comres of Conservative Councillors across the country found 61% opposed to the government’s proposals, contained in a White Paper called Planning for the Future.  This majority believe the proposals will make planning less democratic as elected members and members of the public will largely be excluded from the planning process, with decisions being handed over to unelected planning officers and developers being given more freedom to build as they wish, rather than as the public wants.

Councillor Sheldon also argued that the proposals in the White Paper will ensure that: “Green spaces will be protected for future generations”, but this is also a conviction out of step with his party colleagues. 

70% of Conservative Councillors surveyed by Savanta Comres wanted to see an increase in the land allocated to Green Belt.  The Planning for the Future proposals would diminish green space provision as unprotected farm land and open land would be made available for future development.

Saddleworth North Liberal Democrat Councillor Garth Harkness said:  “Once again, the Saddleworth Conservatives have shown their support for both planning democracy and the Green Belt is fickle.  In the debate, Liberal Democrat Councillors spoke and voted against the proposals.”

“Planning for the Future will clearly lead to less planning democracy, less security for our precious green spaces, less social and affordable housing, and poorer housing standards.  It is not planning ‘red tape’ that is preventing the building out of development sites with the new homes that we need.  There is already planning permission for developments amounting to one million houses.  It is greedy developers who are sitting on land, land-banking their sites, in the hope that house prices will go up.”

For real time information: https://oldham.roadworks.org/

Liberal Democrat Councillors on Oldham Council remain bitterly opposed to Labour’s latest version of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework which has just been unveiled and will go before a special Council meeting to be held on Wednesday 28 October, prior to being open to public consultation. 

In this third version of their plan to build new homes, which forms part of the wider Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF), Oldham Council’s Labour Administration has removed proposals to build on Green Belt sites in Royton North Ward, Failsworth East Ward and St James Ward, but have retained plans to build almost 1,000 new homes on Green Belt and green space sites in Cowlishaw and in the Beal Valley.

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, who is the Leader of the Opposition and represents Shaw, said:  “Whilst we welcome the change of heart of this Administration in moving more homes from Green Belt sites elsewhere in the Borough onto Brownfield sites in the town centre or onto former mill sites, which has been something the Liberal Democrats have been advocating from the beginning, it is notable that no effort has been expended in extending this courtesy to Crompton and Shaw.  Building on the Green Belt is deeply unpopular amongst voters, and Labour have clearly one eye on next May’s local elections.”

Liberal Democrat Councillors remain opposed to building on the Green Belt.  As Councillor Sykes explains:  “Thanks to the lack of investment over many years by Oldham’s Labour Council, we have lost our baths, our municipal tip and our youth centre; our primary schools are oversubscribed; our health centre is in desperate need of replacement; and our once-thriving market is on its last legs.” 

“Imagine then building almost 1,000 more homes, mostly for families, on Green Belt sites on the edge of our town centre.  Where will their children go to school and what doctors’ surgery will they be able to attend, if we have insufficient provision for our existing residents?  There is no promise within this plan of a large injection of cash for new school places and a much-needed new health centre.”

The Liberal Democrats believe that there are enough Brownfield sites to accommodate any necessary new housing, and that new homes should be in Oldham town centre and other district centres to help inject some life back into them.”

Councillor Sykes concluded:  “Quite simply it makes more sense to build in Oldham.  Offices and shops there are likely to remain empty and unused following the Covid-19 pandemic as people abandon the daily commute and the high street in increasing numbers, and we are therefore going to see the death of Oldham town centre unless it is revitalised.  Building homes there will not only help sustain the retail economy but it will revive the night-time economy as well.” 

“In addition, the town centre is also far better served by public transport links to enable residents to access employment, education and healthcare, and there are two local colleges on the doorstep, and existing plans to build a new town centre secondary school.”

Oldham Liberal Democrats will be opposing Labour’s Greater Manchester Spatial Framework at the special Council meeting on 28 October.

On Sunday 11th October 2020 at 11:00 hours they have arranged that Manchester Museum will talk to them about their collection of insects including bees. 

Join Dmitri Logunov, and Rachel Webster, as they talk about Manchester Museum’s latest temporary exhibition ‘Beauty and the Beasts, falling in love with insects.’

Dmitri Logunov, Curator of Entomology, cares for the Museum’s worldwide collection of bugs containing a great variety of organisms, such as insects, spiders, centipedes, millipedes and crustaceans. The collection is estimated to house some two and a half million specimens.

Rachel Webster, Curator of Botany cares for the Museum’s extensive botanical collection containing around three-quarters of a million plant specimens, from all over the globe.

This event will be a wonderful ‘Zoom’ opportunity suitable for both Grandparents and Grandchildren and parents and children to access the event. Dmitri and Rachel will be inviting questions during this online event.

All adults with or without children are welcome and children aged 7 – 8 plus accompanied by an adult are welcome.

Please send an E Mail to jeannormanhealthtrainer@gmail.com 

and look at https://www.facebook.com/dunwoodparknordicwalkers/