20 new Officers, but the wait is not over for Oldham’s communities

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE confirms new Police investment in Greater Manchester.  In a response from the Chief Constable’s office, the recruitment of 20,000 new Police Officers will take over three years to complete.  The Greater Manchester Police (GMP) plan is still being built.  

The leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Oldham Council was concerned how many Oldham Borough will get.  A much smaller recruitment announcement before the letter was sent will provide 20 new Officers in Oldham Borough. 

GMP states it is too early to say how many Police Officers Oldham Borough will receive over the next three years.  GMP say there hasn’t been any time to work on the Police structuring so far.

The good news is that Oldham Borough will receive 20 new Police Officers from a previous recruitment drive.  Five Neighbourhood Beat Officers (NBO) and 15 Neighbourhood Police Officers (NPO).  These will take several months to train and recruit.

Councillor Sykes MBE says:  “I welcome the hard work taking place locally (and nationally) by our Police to ensure that we have the right Officers and equipment in place to meet local challenges.”

“I hope that over this long three year period, whatever new government we get in December, that they honour this vital policing commitment.  It is important to our communities that this does not become a political football or take too long, we have had years of underfunded community policing.”

Copy of response from Chief Constable’s Office:

Dear Councillor Sykes,

Further to the reply you had received acknowledging your email, I thought it may be helpful to provide some more information in relation to your queries and wanted to ensure that you received the information in a timely fashion.

It certainly is positive news in terms of the recruitment of 20,000 new police officers over the next three years and is very welcome.  It is early days in terms of the mechanics of all this and there are lots of discussions taking place locally and nationally. 

As you are aware the announcement has been made that 347 are for Greater Manchester.  In terms of how many will be for Oldham, it is too early to say as the announcement has just been made and there hasn’t been any modelling work on this as yet – the process by which allocation is determined.

The 100 new officers you are referring to is an intake as part of our ongoing recruitment (already planned prior to the national uplift) and there are a number of intakes.   In total we are recruiting an additional 320 Police Officers for Greater Manchester and with current plans 220 will be directly allocated to districts, with the remainder tackling issues across the Force area, including on our transport network.   The allocation has also been determined regarding the precept funded officers too.

So as it currently stands Oldham will receive an allocation of 5 Neighbourhood Beat Officers (NBO) and 15 Neighbourhood Police Officers (NPO).  It is also worth noting that, as you might imagine, with new officers there is a significant period of induction and training before they actually land on their allocated district – and after that localised training (e.g. driving) and other related abstractions. 

In terms of the timeframes for the national recruitment drive we only have a limited picture at the moment, though clearly it is intended to be over a 3-year period.  We are able to assure you that there is a lot of work taking place locally (and nationally) to ensure that we have the right infrastructure in place to meet the welcome challenge.

I hope this assists.

Many thanks

Chris Allsop, Chief of Staff, Chief Constable’s Office, Greater Manchester Police, 4th Floor, GMP Headquarters, Central Park, Northampton Road, Manchester. M40 5BP

*Previous Press release, dated: 23 October 2019*

Oldham needs its fair share of 20,000 promised police officers

More than twenty thousand police officers have been taken off UK streets over the last ten years.  Now the Government announces that thousands of new Police Officers will be recruited.  Councillor Howard Sykes MBE wants to make sure Oldham Borough gets a fair share of these replacement crimefighters.  The Liberal Democrat Leader on Oldham Council contacted Greater Manchester Police to see how many new officers Oldham Borough will get.

“There have been many announcements both local and national about recruiting new Police Officers.  I want to make sure what we are hearing from the Government matches up with local people’s needs and expectations.”

“As leader of the opposition on Oldham Borough Council, I want to ensure that we have enough officers on our streets to deal with the many issues that Oldham Borough faces.  If the UK is getting 20,000 new Officers, we need our fair share.”

Beal Lane – PROPOSED TRAFFIC REGULATION ORDER

PROHIBITION OF WAITING AMENDMENT ORDER 2019

The Oldham Borough Council propose to make an Order under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, as amended, the effect of which will be to prohibit waiting at all times on the north side of Beal Lane from Jubilee Street for 10 metres easterly and to introduce Limited Waiting Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm on the north side of Beal Lane 10 metres north of Jubilee Street for 78 metres easterly where a vehicle can wait for a maximum of 3 hours with a minimum period of 3 hours to elapse before a vehicle can return.

BealLaneplan-V1Download

Full details of the proposal are in the draft Order, which, together with a map (see above for map) and a statement of the Council’s reasons for proposing to make the Order may be examined at my office between the hours of 8.40am and 5.00pm on Monday to Friday Civic Entrance, telephone 0161 770 4836, Ref: LJM/TO19/28

Any objection or representations regarding the proposal should be sent to the Environment Group Solicitor to the Council, Civic Centre, West Street, Oldham, OL1 1UL in writing, stating the title of the Order to which they relate and the grounds for making them by 6th December 2019.  Any objections or representations will be made available for public inspection.

Dated 6th November 2019, Paul Entwistle, Director of Legal Services, Oldham Council

My two allowed questions at tonight’s Oldham Council meeting – 6 November 2019 – Oldham’s Brexit Preparations and Progress 8 in Oldham Schools

Q1: Oldham’s Brexit Preparations

Boris Johnson plans to take us out of the European Union and will implement his deal if he wins the General Election.

Oldham Borough has received and continues to receive thousands of pounds in EU funding.  

We still wait for any clarity on the ‘Prosperity Fund’ which is supposed to replace all EU funding. 

There is a real fear despite the promises that the ‘cake will be smaller’ and places like Oldham will lose out.

The UK Government has also paid Oldham Council £315,000 for so called “Brexit Preparations”.

Our future is now less clear and more uncertain, so we must prepare and prepare for the worst.

Of the £315,000 of UK Brexit preparation money, Oldham Council has currently spent £35,000 in total.

£20,000 has gone on foodbanks and £15,000 making sure that European child nationals in care receive settled status before the deadline of 31st of October.

So, that leaves a rather substantial pot of money £280,000 to be exact.

I am most interested to know what this Council has planned to do with the money.

I hope there are already measures in place, however if there are no detailed plans, can I be advised what the timeframe for release of the funds and a spending plan be put forward.

Q2: Progress 8 in Oldham Schools

The relatively new accountability measure for Secondary Schools, is called Progress 8.

Progress 8 tracks how pupils make progress from the end of Primary school to the final stages of High school.

Schools used to be judged on performance, whereas now this measure is based on pupil progression.

Once again in Oldham, as with other education matters, our score is below the nation average. 

Regrettably our Progress 8 score is also behind the national average.

What is even more concerning, is that four of our secondary schools fall into the well below average category.

To put this into perspective, those same four schools are in the bottom 12% of all schools, nationally.

This year, four out of 13 schools locally are well below average and five out of 13 are below average.

This is worse than last year; we have not improved; the direction of travel is in the wrong direction!

We are performing much worse than the national average, but also worse than our neighbours in Rochdale and Manchester.

Now credit where credit is due, Waterhead Academy is the only school that shows improved performance, others are deteriorating.

We have seen an overhaul of the SEN provision locally after Oldham Borough received a damming report by OFSTED in 2018.

Despite this, Oldham Borough persistently fails to give the standard of results that parents and pupils want and expect.

How will your administration address this perpetual underperformance in our Secondary Schools?

The situation is getting worse and not better.

I am interested to know when the Labour Council will reverse the stagnation or decline in standards that have plagued our local education system since 2011.