Public inquiry into historic child sex exploitation demanded again

Public inquiry into historic child sex exploitation demanded again.

A full public inquiry is the only solution to Oldham Council and GMP’s failure to take action after previous investigations into historic child sex exploitation in the borough, say Oldham Liberal Democrats

They will support a motion calling for a full public inquiry at next week’s Full Council meeting.

Calls for a full public inquiry have been consistently blocked by the ruling Labour Group since the publication of the review into historic handling of abuse, written by Malcom Newsam and Gary Ridgway in 2022.  Oldham Labour lost overall control of the council in May’s local elections but have narrowly held on to power with the support of some ‘Independent’ councillors.

Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader councillor Sam Al-Hamdani said: “The review released two years ago revealed the most unimaginable crimes and the suffering of children. Victims and their families deserve proper justice. We haven’t had that from the reports we’ve seen so far which have been limited in scope.

“Two years later, despite promises and warm words from those in power at the council and in the police, no direct action has been taken against those who failed children. We understand that some of those people are still in post at the council, in the police and within our social services.”

With Oldham Council now in no overall control and with the Labour Party without a majority in the council chamber, opposition parties will try again to win a vote calling for the full public inquiry that the Labour leadership has so far blocked. 

Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani, who will second the motion on Wednesday 10th July, said, “The response of the council has been nowhere near good enough so far. Despite repeated questioning, they have failed to take action, repeatedly. We now have an opportunity to force the administration to do the right thing for survivors of abuse and get the full public inquiry they deserve.”  

Motion calling for a public inquiry in full:

PROPOSED: Councillor Lewis Quigg

SECONDED: Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani

People in positions of power at both Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (OMBC) and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have yet to be held to account for their failure to protect our children from child sexual exploitation (CSE).

People of all communities in Oldham have as result of delay, obstruction and passage of time lost trust in OMBC and GMP.

As recently as January 2024, the highly respected Maggie Oliver referenced the Oldham Assurance Review and told its authors Malcom Newsam & Gary Ridgway that in Oldham they had been prevented from getting to the truth. This is after it emerged that survivors had been prevented from giving testimony to the Review Team.

The findings of the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s Assurance Review neither provided assurance nor sufficiently reviewed what had taken place. Despite claiming there was no cover up, and that lessons had been learned.
This Council notes:
Survivors deserve to see the full powers of law used to bring the criminals of these depraved acts to justice, no matter their rank politically, in the community, at OMBC or GMP. 

OMBC, and as such its members herein, have a duty to protect children and vulnerable people of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and beyond. The reality is, until we get to the root of the issue, we cannot move forward as we are unable to ensure that failings highlighted in the review are not continuing.

There is a significant groundswell of opinion that an independent public inquiry is needed. 
 This Council resolves:

– To write to the Home Secretary of His Majesty’s Government to demand that a public inquiry into historic and current CSE within the Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council area. That any such investigation will investigate the failure of OMBC, GMP and all associated bodies or groups in Oldham which failed to protect our children.
This Council further resolves that:

– If the Home Secretary refuses a public inquiry that OMBC approves the commissioning and implementation of a non-statutory independent inquiry historic and current CSE within the Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council area. That any such investigation will investigate the failure of OMBC, GMP and all associated bodies or groups in Oldham which failed to protect our children and to instruct OMBC officers to commission such an inquiry immediately.

Elizabeth Grove, Shaw

Elizabeth Grove, Shaw.

No need for a trip to the Opticians for an eye-test this is really what it now looks like!

We have been campaigning for new/improved signage for residents of Elizabeth Grove for some time.

This is not what we had in mind and we have asked that it is corrected ASAP.

Just the latest case of not getting the basics right.

Liberal Democrats to force no-overall-control Oldham Council to vote again on ‘Places for Everyone’

Liberal Democrats to force no-overall-control Oldham Council to vote again on ‘Places for Everyone’

Oldham Liberal Democrats will force a vote on whether Oldham Council should withdraw from the controversial Greater Manchester-wide housing scheme ‘Places for Everyone’ at the next Full Council meeting on July 10th. 

Oldham Liberal Democrat Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE said, “Places for Everyone will not deliver the affordable housing we need in Oldham.  The scheme will destroy greenbelt sites and hand a blank cheque to developers.  All councillors should vote to begin the process of removing Oldham from this scheme on July 10th.”

‘Places for Everyone’ is the successor proposal to the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework which was put forward by Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham until Liberal Democrat controlled Stockport removed itself from the plans in 2020, forcing a rebrand. 

On Wednesday 10th July at a meeting of Oldham’s Full Council, the Liberal Democrat Leader will move a motion to withdraw Oldham borough from ‘Places for Everyone’, in the most significant challenge to the Mayor’s housing strategy since Stockport pulled out.   

For Oldham, the process of withdrawing from the Greater Manchester-wide scheme will have two parts.  Councillors will first vote to begin the process on July 10th with a final decision to be made at the next council meeting in December.     

Councillor Sykes said, “We need to deliver more affordable and social housing.  But we can do better than a plan that is spearheaded by Andy Burnham and drawn up in Manchester city centre.  Oldham Borough deserves a true local plan that protects green spaces and makes use of brownfield and ex-industrial heritage buildings.” 

“We promised before the local elections that removing Oldham from ‘Places for Everyone’ and protecting our greenbelt would be a top priority for the Liberal Democrats.  We aim to keep that promise by forcing the Council to vote again on the scheme at the earliest opportunity available to us.”


Motion to be moved by Councillor Sykes in full:

Removing Oldham Borough from Places for Everyone

Proposed by: Councillor Howard Sykes
Seconded by: Councillor Max Woodvine

This council recognises that:

  • Places for Everyone is based on ‘housing need’ calculations which are already the better part of a decade old.
  • Places for Everyone does not give guarantees with regards to the delivery of affordable and socially rented homes.
  • ‘Places for Everyone’ represents a developer-led approach.
  • It would see the irreparable loss of Green Belt sites and green spaces which is not necessary.
  • It uses Green Belt for the delivery of a housing strategy focused solely on developer profit.
  • It does not deliver the right mix of affordable housing types and tenures in the places people want to live. 
  • We also believe the Adoption Statement for the Plan presented at the last Full Council meeting in March 2024 was misleading by implying that all the main modifications had been consulted on.  This was not the case, as none of the main modifications related to HS2 have been consulted upon.

This council resolves to:

1) Request the new Secretary of State to revoke the Plan ‘Places for Everyone’ in the interest of all Oldham’s residents, businesses and other stake holders for the reasons stated above. 

2) In order for Council to consider this decision at its next meeting in September, the relevant council officers are requested to present a full report on the planning, legal, equalities and all other considerations of such a revocation. 

3) Should the request be approved Oldham Council’ withdraw engagement and support for the defence of the judicial review of ‘Places for Everyone’.

4) Should the Plan be revoked the Green Belt boundaries should be restored to their pre-adoption state.

5) If the Plan is revoked develop an Oldham-led housing strategy that prioritises brownfield and ex-industrial sites, while protecting greenbelt and green spaces for future generations.

Oldham’s weeding woes: parks staff redeployed to tackle weeds despite promises cuts would not impact green spaces

Oldham’s weeding woes: parks staff redeployed to tackle weeds despite promises cuts would not impact green spaces

Labour run Oldham Council has again come under fire from Liberal Democrat opposition councillors over an ongoing failure to sort out a maintenance arrangement for weeds.  Despite the Council losing its weeds contractor last year, no temporary provision was put in place, and there is no evidence of the new contractor undertaking any work in 2024.

For more than 12, and 18 months in some cases many parts of the Borough no weed spraying has happened at all.  According to a recent councillor briefing (14/6/24), Oldham Council is now redeploying parks and street sweeping staff to attempt to tackle the weeds backlog.   

Liberal Democrat Group Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE said, “Not only have the current administration not been able to source an effective new contractor, but they have also failed to put any temporary arrangements in place.  This has not gone unnoticed by our residents and businesses.”

“Oldham’s Labour administration made a series of cuts to Environmental Services at the last budget meeting but gave assurances to me and my Liberal Democrat colleagues that front line services would not be impacted.  A briefing sent to councillors recently stated that ‘trained council Environmental Services staff will now be carrying out weed treatment work on highways, roads, and footpaths across the borough over the coming weeks and months, weather permitting.’”

Councillor Sykes said, “Liberal Democrats warned that Labour’s budget cuts would impact frontline services and we were told that was not the case.  Several months later the Council is redeploying the teams that are supposed to look after our parks and green spaces which are already looking unloved.  This will have a major impact on them, if this extra work is being undertaken work in our parks and green spaces will not happen – after all people cannot be in two places at the same time.”  

“We’re more than a year on and the Council has not resolved the weeds contract.  There should be a proactive programme to tackle weeds instead of just waiting for complaints and then pulling people off of other jobs,” stated councillor Sykes

“What state will our parks and green spaces fall into while redeployed staff tackle the backlog from the ‘Day of the Triffids?’   


More from Councillor Sykes on Oldham’s weeding woes (July 2023)
It is like Day of the Triffids – Howard Sykes (mycouncillor.org.uk)

Councillors Briefing (14 June 2024)
Highways weeding update
Trained council Environmental Services staff will now be carrying out weed treatment work on highways, roads, and footpaths across the borough over the coming weeks and months, weather permitting.
This means, in the short term, more weeds may be seen on the highways network, however steps are being taken to address the issue.
As well as our staff treating weeds, road sweepers will also be used to remove them.

If you are contacted by residents, please share this information.

Crompton Moor – Bash the Balsam – Wed 26 June

Crompton Moor – Bash the Balsam – Wed 26 June.

First, a big thank you to all of you who have been helping to get rid of the Himalayan Balsam.    This has certainly been a big task this year especially on the access road to the car park.  It’s clear to see that a vast amount has been cleared but there are still some at the barrier area across from Shore Edge church, and a few pockets here and there as you go up the road.

It’s a big ask, but we really need to clear the rest of it, so another date has been added to have one last push to clear what remains.  

The date and time for this last push is Wednesday 26th of June.    Meet in the small car park on the bend for a 10:30 am start. 

Hoping as many of you as possible will be able to make this date, it’s so important to keep on top of clearing this invasive species.