The Liberal Democrats have set out a “cost of living rescue plan” that would save thousands of struggling families in Oldham nearly £1,000 this year.

It comes after Ofgem announced a crippling rise to people’s heating bills, with the energy price cap set to soar by 54% to £1,971 in April. 

Energy bills for homeowners in Oldham are forecast to soar by an estimated £692 per household in April, according to analysis by the Liberal Democrats. Meanwhile, broadband bills are set to rise by 9.3% with inflation at its highest rate in almost thirty years.

The Liberal Democrats warned that Rishi Sunak’s proposals to deal with soaring energy bills will just be “spreading the pain over the coming years” while clobbering local families with tax hikes.

The cost of living rescue package being proposed by the Liberal Democrats includes taking £300 off struggling families’ heating bills by doubling and expanding the Warm Home Discount, funded through a “Robin Hood” tax on the super profits of oil and gas companies. The party would also scrap the planned National Insurance tax hike being introduced by the Conservatives in April, and ensure low-income families can access cheaper broadband deals.

As many as 25,932 households in Oldham would stand to benefit from the full package of support, saving them up to £975 each a year. 28,468 households would save up to £616 thanks to the scrapping of the National Insurance hike and the Stealth Tax on the income tax personal allowance. 5,389 poorer pensioners would receive the expanded Warm Home Discount while 39,873 struggling families would gain access to cheaper broadband deals, helping them cope with the cost of living crisis.

In total, the package represents savings of £37,190,806 across for 73,730 households feeling the pinch.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani said: “Energy bills are going through the roof, forcing families in our community to choose between eating and heating. But all the Conservatives are doing is clobbering people with an unfair tax hike and spreading the pain over the coming years.

“Oldham deserves better than a Conservative Prime Minister missing in action, more concerned with their own political career than helping families struggling to pay the bills.

“The Liberal Democrats’ cost of living rescue plan would wipe up to £1,000 off the bills of 73,730 struggling families in Oldham, by scrapping April’s tax hike, offering support to the most vulnerable, and insulating homes to slash energy bills in the long term.

“We are fighting for a fair deal for people in our community who are being let down by a Conservative Government that is taking them for granted.”

My colleagues and I are devastated to hear the news that Andrew Powell, Shaw & Crompton’s Town Crier for 30 years, until his retirement from the voluntary role in 2018 has passed away suddenly.

Andrew was very supportive to the community and the Parish Council and attended many events in Shaw and Crompton throughout the years and was loved by all. 

Young children were fascinated by him, often mistaking him for a pirate.

As late as last week he was still to be seen walking around Shaw town centre with his wife and soulmate Win. 

Andrew summed up everything that is good about Shaw and Crompton, he loved the place, loved the people and was selfless with his voluntary work in the community which he did in a mild-mannered way, only making a noise with his bell and booming voice when required we will all miss him and we send our sincere condolences to his wife Win and his family.

Safer, greener, and cleaner, these are the watch words when the Liberal Democrats present their budget amendment proposals to the Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 8^th February (6pm).

Shaw Councillor Chris Gloster, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance and Green, is looking forward to presenting the budget amendment to the committee and believes that the Liberal Democrats have come up with sensible adjustments to the budget that will have no impact on council finances but deliver maximum impact to residents whose valuable input as to what residents want to see is at the heart of the proposals.

“The Oldham Liberal Democrats want to make further efficiencies in civic centre bureaucracy to squeeze out more money for our priorities, and those of the public – more cash to spend on front-line services,” said Councillor Gloster.

“As we begin to emerge from the nightmare of COVID-19, we wish to look at building back better in our Borough by focussing on making it safer, greener and cleaner.”  

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

• Invest £3,750,000 between 2022 and 2027 to fund Climate Change initiatives.

• Over the next two years, create a dedicated fund worth £3 million to repair our roads and footways, fund safety initiatives and address the issue of disabled parking bays which there is a massive backlog.

• We will also be investing in our Public Rights of Way – which have been hammered during Covid and will help keep people walking and improve access to the countryside.  A real example of building back better and one of the few positive outcomes from Covid.

• Increase the investment in tackling environmental crime by £200,000 over the next year to combat the scourge of fly tipping, dog fouling and littering.

• Support a 20s Plenty scheme to make the Borough’s roads safer at a cost of £235,000 over the next two years.

• Reverse cuts to Early Years staffing who help the Borough’s most vulnerable people often diverting them away from our overstretched health, mental and social work teams, at a cost of £100,000.

• Introduce a fund for free bulky waste collection to prevent fly tipping.  This will really tackle the blight of dumping; help clean up our town and help those without their own transport.

• Invest more cash into local Youth Services, with an emphasis on district outreach at a cost of £100,000.

• Spend an additional £150,000 on crime prevention and safety to make our citizens more confident and safer.

• Recognise the work of both Saddleworth and Shaw & Crompton Parish Councils’ by reinstating the previously cut Parish Grant totalling £15,000 which will assist these unpaid and undervalued volunteers to continue their excellent work.

Councillor Gloster said: “Our budget amendment is simple, after listening to the people that actually pay for these services in the first place, we have produced savings that will release money to re-invest in the front-line services that the public value.”

“In the next year, the Liberal Democrats will save £1 million by cutting Civic Centre bureaucracy and waste to spend on these front-line services as well as re focus the Capital Programme to achieve maximum benefit to the people who matter, the public, without any additional increase in expenditure or loss of service.”

Link to the full costed proposals:

https://committees.oldham.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=571&MId=8391&Ver=4

The Conservatives promise to provide 85% of homes and businesses in Oldham with high-speed broadband by 2025 is set to be broken, local Liberal Democrats can reveal, with just 6.6% of homes in the more rural areas getting high speed connections.

Analysis of House of Commons Library data by the party has found that just 3.1% of premises in Oldham East and Saddleworth had gigabit broadband availability in 2021, and just 8.7% in Oldham West and Royton.

At this rate of progress, just 37.2% of homes in Oldham West and Royton will hit the target, a poor enough rate. However, this just serves to highlight the far worse figures in Oldham East and Saddleworth – only 6.6% are on track to get high speed access.

In the meantime, the GMCA Clean Air Zone is leaving business owners facing substantial costs for using vehicles. It’s a perfect storm – you can’t work from home, you can’t get public transport, and you get charged for driving.

Households and business owners in Oldham are bracing themselves for the cost of broadband to skyrocket in April. Several broadband providers have announced prices will go up by 9.3%, in line with CPI inflation of 5.4% in December – the biggest rise in almost 30 years.

With this hike on the way, Oldham Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to legally require all broadband providers to automatically offer cheaper deals through ‘social tariffs’ for struggling families. This move could save nearly 40,000 people in Oldham around £270 a year on their broadband bill.

This pandemic has shown how vital access to broadband is for learning, for work and for staying connected.  But local families and businesses are being left in the digital slow lane and face crippling hikes to their broadband bills, on top of tax raids and soaring energy prices.

These piecemeal policies are costing residents a fortune, hitting businesses in the pocket, and failing to actually deliver what they should be doing. This Government is lurching from crisis to crisis, and it has now idea how to deliver considered programmes that would actually improve this country, and the lives of every person in Oldham and Saddleworth.

The strikes that were set to be carried out by First Manchester bus drivers have been called off as the drivers vote on a new pay offer.

Both First Manchester and Unite the Union, the union representing the workers, confirmed that strikes on February 4 (today) 7, 8 and 9, will now not go ahead.

The drivers will vote on the new offer and if they vote in favour, all action will end, but the strikes will go ahead as planned if the offer is rejected.

The other planned days of strikes are February 15, 17, 18, 21 and 25.

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

This is now under a road closure so investigation and works can be undertaken.

Report by councillor Chris Gloster, Liberal Democrat finance spokesperson.

The majority of Oldham Borough residents will be horrified that council tax, however the percentages are segmented, will be rising by 3.99% this year after yet another underfunded settlement from a government that is clueless about Oldham and its people. 

2% for adult social care is double jeopardy. The prime minister appears intent upon pushing the 1% national insurance increase to fund adult social care, so as pay in the pocket decreases, costs are increasing, and spiralling out of control, with inflation currently sitting in excess of 5%.

Funding adult social care through council tax in the first place is a major problem. The government has failed, year on year, to create a settlement for social care, and have off-loaded responsibility on to local councils. That massively increases inequality, especially for an area like Oldham which has a low Council tax base and a high proportion of people needing adult social care. It’s just another way in which the pretence of “levelling up” is shown to be empty words and a failure to deliver for the country’s former industrial heartlands like Oldham.

This Tory government and Labour Council just does not get it. 

Council tax last year in Westminster was £827.56, for an equivalent banded property in Oldham it was £1672.92, and now we can expect 3.99% on top of that when all around we see daily increases in food, gas, electric, rent, travel and a whole host of other increases. The old adage of eat or heat is soon to be replaced with the phrase ‘survive’ because make no mistake, even hard working Oldham residents will struggle to survive, as prices outstrip pay.

Speaking to people in the doorstep, as we do all year round, not just at election time, the complaints are always similar, state of roads and footpaths, unclean streets, lack of services especially around environmental issues, and cost of council tax for which they can see only decreased services year on year, these are the priorities that matter most to Oldham people.

Despite these increasing costs, the council administration are determined to push on with major capital projects, which although partly grant funded, will have a significant demand upon council borrowing that is of great concern to the Liberal Democrat opposition. 

We have seen the failure of numerous vanity projects over the years and quite rightly challenge the administration with regards to the latest projects, Spindles, Eco Park, Tommyfield and more which if they exceed budget, as every other project has done, or failed to be delivered as described, the effect that this will have on the Borough will be catastrophic.

The 3.99% rise is fait accompli that will impact upon many Oldham homes, however the administration needs to understand that the Oldham public are now stretched beyond the limit in many cases.

Shaw and Crompton Councillors attended the annual Holocaust Memorial Day service Thursday 27 January 2022.

The service held at Crompton War Memorial was about “One Day”* and passages were read by Sade, (Farrowdale House Preparatory School pupil), Aizah (Crompton Primary School pupil) as well Crompton Councillor Dave Murphy.

“It was an absolute pleasure and delight to see so many young children taking part in the service.  We had three different schools in attendance, which also included Royton and Crompton EACT-Academy; this has been our vision from the very start – that school children attend and take back the understanding of the Holocaust and never forget,” said Councillor Diane Williamson.

After the service, stones were laid on Crompton War Memorial; The act of placing visitation stones is significant in Jewish bereavement practices. Small stones are placed by people who visit Jewish graves in an act of remembrance or respect for the deceased. The practice is a way of participating in the mitzvah of burial. It is customary to place the stone with the left hand.

“We hope to see the event grow bigger next year and to have more schools take part” said Councillor Diane Williamson who led the service.

*Survivors of the Holocaust and of genocide often talk about the One Day when everything changed, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for better.