The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Oldham Council, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, has written to the Chief Executive and Leader asking for a portrait of the HM The Queen to be displayed in the Council Chamber.
“Council debated this issue earlier this year when we sat in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Now Councillors will finally be returning to the Council Chamber for their deliberations in December (delayed from November), it seems the opportune time to display a portrait of Her Majesty the Queen in the Council Chamber and at the Civic Reception, particularly as we celebrate her Platinum Jubilee next year,” said Councillor Sykes.
Anyone who is eligible for a booster can now get their third jab at one of our walk-in clinics across the borough. You can also book via the national booking system from five months although you will still need to wait until six months after your second jab to receive your third dose.
Those eligible include:
Those living in residential care homes
All adults aged 50 years or over
Frontline health and social care workers
All those aged 16 to 49 years with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe Covid, and adult carers
Adult household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals
This third dose will be Pfizer or Moderna, even if people received AZ for their first two doses.
12 to 15-year-olds
Young people aged 12 to 15 can have a vaccination by appointment using the National Booking Line.
Appointments are available at Royal Oldham Hospital and young people can also receive their vaccine at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, which has greater availability.
Any child who missed their original school appointment or any home-schooled children yet to have their jab can book via the National Booking Service website
Around one in seven young people (14%) are suffering from long Covid, according to a study from Great Ormand Street Hospital. This is symptoms lasting more than 15 weeks and can include respiratory illness, chest pain and palpitations. So while the risk of serious illness, hospitalisation and death is low, the effects of Covid can still be life limiting for many young people if they do catch the virus.
Parents who are unsure about whether to consent to their child being vaccinated can find the most accurate information at: Why you should have your child vaccinated
A procession will assemble at the Royal British Legion Club, Newtown Street, Shaw, at 10.30am proceeding to the War Memorial at 10.40am.
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.”
I have been informed by the council that despite their best efforts they will not complete all the food and garden collections in Shaw and Crompton today.
They will have a number of small pockets outstanding on the country round (the smaller vehicles used for hard access areas).
Residents are advised that their missed bins will be collected first thing on Saturday morning so you should leave their bins out for collection. They apologise in advance for any inconvenience.
Oldham Council are being held to account on their promise to implement any relevant findings of the Home-Office sponsored Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) by Liberal Democrat Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani.
With the most recent report by the Inquiry covering child protection in religious organisations and settings, Councillor Al-Hamdani has written to the Council’s Managing Director of Children & Young People, and its interim Chief Executive Harry Catherall, to ask for an update on the work that has already taken place, and for what it has planned to do going forward.
Councillor Al-Hamdani said: “The previous chief executive had confirmed that the Council would implement any relevant recommendations from the Independent Investigation, and I wanted to ensure that our incoming chief executive was fully aware of the work that has been done, but also the work that still needs to be done on this.
“While we are still waiting for the report on child exploitation in Oldham to be published, there is important work that we can and should already be doing, and it is vital that the new senior management of the Council have full awareness and oversight of it, to ensure that does progress.”
The latest report is on child protection in religious organisations and settings, with previous reports including child sexual abuse in contemporary institutional contexts, on engagement with children and young people, and on support services for ethnic minority communities in the last 12 months.
Councillor Al-Hamdani continued: “I hope that when we hear from the inquiry into historic allegations in Oldham that no-one says ‘lessons will be learnt’. It is about improving our culture and our practices, and – as we are with the implementation of these recommendations – working every day to make things better, and to rebuild confidence and trust, for survivors, and for anyone affected by these terrible crimes.”
The Oldham Liberal Democrats have been shocked to read that North West water company, United Utilities, has the worst record for poisoning our local rivers with raw sewage – and that Conservative MPs chose to back them in a recent vote in Parliament.
Figures published by the Environment Agency show that in 2020 water companies discharged raw sewage into rivers in England more than 400,000 times last year.
Untreated effluent, which includes human excrement, wet wipes, and condoms, was released into waterways through overflows for more than three million hours in 2020.
The biggest offender was North West water company United Utilities which did so for 726,450 hours, almost one quarter of the total.
“Thank goodness, Mole, Rat, Toad and Badger, the four animal characters from Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows, are not around today boating and fishing in our local rivers; because if they were having a day out on the Beal, Irk and Tame, they would most likely been poisoned like our other local wildlife is by such discharges,” said Liberal Democrat Group Leader and Shaw Councillor Howard Sykes MBE.
Liberal Democrat and Labour MPs recently backed a proposal from the House of Lords that would have amended the government’s Environment Bill to require the government and water companies to work to reduce discharges of untreated sewage and ‘take all reasonable steps’ to avoid using combined sewer overflows.
The amendment was defeated when 265 Conservative MPs voted against it.
Councillor Sykes added: “The vote demonstrated that when it comes to a contest between profits and public health, most Conservative MPs put profit first. Just like United Utilities, and Britain’s other water utilities, who continue to focus more on making bumper profits and paying shareholders huge dividends than they do on investing to tackle this problem.”
“The Environment Agency has declared that every river in England is polluted; that is why the Liberal Democrats brought a motion to the last full meeting of Oldham Council (3 November) calling on the government and United Utilities to clean up their act and make the Beal, Irk and Tame safe for Mole, Rat, Toad and Badger and their friends again.”
First Bus are offering free bus travel across the entire network including the Vantage service operated on the guided busway from Leigh and Atherton to Manchester Royal Infirmary this Thursday 11th November and Remembrance Sunday 14th November to serving Armed Forces personnel, cadets, and veterans to help them attend commemorative events.
To claim free travel, all current and former military personnel will need to wear their uniform or medals or show their military ID card when boarding the bus.
First drivers may also pull over to honour the two-minute silence at 11am on Remembrance Day, 11th November and Remembrance Sunday, 14th November where it is safe for them to do so.
After the Labour run Oldham Council removed any mention of divestment from a motion calling for the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) to stop investing in fossil fuel companies, the managers of the fund have refused to come and meet with councillors to explain why they are against the change.
Liberal Democrat Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani proposed the motion, and following the amendments to it, accepted an offer from cabinet member Abdul Jabbar to have the GMPF explain their reasoning. However, GMPF then responded to say that they “have decided not accept such invitations for now.”
Councillor Al-Hamdani said: “This is not acceptable. Oldham Council is among many public bodies which has accepted that we are facing a climate crisis. Yet our money is going into the largest pension fund of its kind in the UK, which is continuing to invest in fossil fuel companies.
“GMPF claims that this is because it ‘aims to be an active voice in the calls for companies to lower their carbon emissions’.
“‘Aims’ is not good enough. We should be forcing companies to stop investing in fossil fuels, and if GMPF don’t agree, then they should be prepared to talk to the Councils who are part of their fund to defend that decision.”
Oldham Council is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2025, yet GMPF is only aiming for that by 2050. And GMPF’s investment in fossil fuel companies has actually been increasing – Fossil Free Greater Manchester (FFGM) analysed GMPF’s holdings at 31 March, 2020 versus 31 March 2019 and concluded that holdings in the oil and gas giants Shell and BP went up by 27.3% and 18.6% respectively and Glencore, a commodity trading and mining company whose operations include coal, increased by 42.3%.
Councillor Al-Hamdani continued: “There are extremely sound financial arguments for investing pension funds in sustainable investments. And there are extremely strong ethical ones for stopping investing in fossil fuels. At the very least, the people who are investing this money should be prepared to come and explain why they are refusing to do that.”
Two years on from the Oldham Liberal Democrats calling for the law to be changed to make illegal sexual contact between persons in ‘positions of trust’ and young adults in their care, Group Leader Councillor Howard Sykes MBE has written to the Deputy Prime Minister calling for long-overdue action.
In September 2019, the Liberal Democrats brought a motion before the Full Council in support the NSPCC ‘Closing the loophole’ campaign. The children’s charity wants the Position of Trust law changed to cover all roles where an adult holds a position of power, care or responsibility over a 16-or 17-year old and to make it illegal for that adult to engage in sexual activity with that young person, even in circumstances where this activity is mutually-consensual. The motion received cross-party support.
After almost 18 months of inactivity, in January of this year, Councillor Sykes asked Daisy Cooper MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Justice matters, to table a Parliamentary question about progress. In his written response, Justice Minister Alex Chalk MP stated that the government was ‘considering next steps with both pace and care’ and that he hoped to be able to update Parliament shortly.
Nine months on, there is still no news and Councillor Sykes has decided to take the matter higher.
“After all this time, the government’s pace on making the necessary changes to the law is pitiful; all the while our young people continue to be at risk from sexual predators in ‘positions of trust’,” said Councillor Sykes. “Dominic Raab has been recently appointed Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, and, in these capacities, I have written asking him to make one of his personal and departmental priorities securing a change in the law at the earliest possible time.”
