This is the latest news on the Coronavirus rapid testing plans for asymptomatic people particularly our resident facing key workers and staff that find it difficult to socially distance in their workplace.

The good news is that from Monday 18^th January they will begin testing at four sites at Oldham (times and details on the link below). These are:

• Shaw Life Long Learning – 6 High St, Shaw, Oldham, OL2 8RQ
• Failsworth Town Hall – Oldham Road, Failsworth, M35 0FJ
• Oldham Community Leisure Centre – Middleton Road, Oldham, OL9 6AF
• Uppermill Civic Hall – Lee Street, Uppermill, Saddleworth, OL3 6AE

https://www.oldham.gov.uk/info/201170/coronavirus/2557/coronavirus_book_a_free_test/4

This asymptomatic testing will play an important part in Oldham’s continuing attempts to contain, manage and ultimately defeat Coronavirus.

Who is this test available to:

•           Anyone working with the public

•           Anyone working in a shared workplace

•           Anyone performing a key worker task who can’t ‘work at home’

No appointment is necessary, however invited people will need to bring identification which confirms place of work or status as a key worker, for example work identification badge or key work letter. 

Over the course of this week you will begin to see these sites being set up. This will include involvement by military who have been seconded onto the project by the Government.

Plans for a major industrial incinerator on the edge of Shaw, at the Mossdown Industrial Estate beside Metrolink, are to be submitted shortly.  Waste is likely to be brought in through Royton via Broadway and Shaw via Milnrow Road, a likely 18,000 extra HGV journeys a year.

While the site is in Royton, emissions and traffic from this plant will impact on Shaw and Crompton. “We are supporting local groups and will be actively opposing this development,” stated Councillor Howard Sykes.

A Planning Application has been submitted to Oldham Council seeking to convert the former Weavers Answer public house on Milnrow Road, Shaw into an 18-room temporary homeless hostel.

A planning application was eventually submitted towards the end of November after Shaw Ward Liberal Democrat Councillors asked Oldham Council planning enforcement officers to visit the premises twice to investigate apparently unauthorised works that were taking place. 

After their intervention and to ensure that the planning application is properly considered in the public arena, local councillors exercised their right to ask that the application be considered by councillors at a meeting of the full Planning Committee rather than decided by planning officers under delegated powers.

Liberal Democrat Councillor for the Shaw Ward, Howard Sykes MBE said: “Once we became aware of the initial unauthorised works we ensured action was taken to address this, and upon being told an application had been submitted, in early December 2020, we asked that this application be considered by a meeting of the full Planning Committee, rather than just planning officers.”

“The public consultation with neighbours has been limited to only seven addresses, as is required by planning law, but our actions will ensure that all residents can still make their views known and these will be considered as late as the day of the meeting of the Planning Committee.  This date has yet to be determined,” he added.

“I am also pleased report the rubbish and fly-tipping left when a large refuse skip was removed from the site has also been reported for action last week,” stated Councillor Howard Sykes.

Shaw and Crompton Parish Council, as a statutory consultee, will also consider the application at its own Planning Committee meeting on 26th January 2021 after which their views will form part of the report considered by Oldham Council’s Planning Committee.

Residents are encouraged to share their views on the Oldham Council website planning portal under reference FUL/ 345796/20.  You can search for the application at:

https://www.oldham.gov.uk/info/200351/planning/1866/search_for_an_application

 

Coronavirus support is available to employers and the self-employed, including sole traders and limited company directors. People may be eligible for loans, tax relief and cash grants, whether their business is open or closed.

To find out what support is available for specific businesses, use the business support finder online here.

A summary of the national support offer is below:

• Government has extended the furlough scheme until the end of April 2021. The government will cover the cost of 80 per cent of the wages of furloughed employees for hours not worked – employers will only be asked to cover NICs and pension contributions.
• The self-employed scheme has also been extended until April 2021. This third grant, covers 80 per cent of average trading profits between November and January 2021, capped at £7,500 in total. A fourth grant, to cover February to April, will be introduced in due course.
• Businesses forced to close can claim grants of up to £3,000 per month. For businesses with a rateable value of between £15,000 and £51,000, the amount is £2,000 per month, and for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or below, the amount is £1,334 per month.
• Retail, hospitality and leisure businesses forced to close can claim a one-off grant of up to £9,000. This is £6,000 for businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000; or £4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or below.
• Councils are to be given an additional £500 million discretionary funding to support their local businesses. We will share more information on this when we have it.
• All “wet-led” pubs in areas that were in Tiers 2, 3, or 4 for any part of December will receive £1,000 as a Christmas Support Payment. This will be administered by local authorities, and we will share more information on this when we can.

Under the latest government lockdown restrictions pubs and restaurants will be barred from selling alcohol to take away from their licensed premises or by click and collect.  The new ruling means that from today they can only sell alcohol if it is delivered to their customers’ homes.

Liberal Democrat Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, thinks that is just plain wrong.  Commenting he said: “Anyone can go to a supermarket, corner shop or off-licence to buy booze and take it away, but from this week our struggling pubs, micro-breweries and restaurants will be unable to.  They can continue to sell food to customers from their premises, so why can’t they buy a few pints of fresh cask ale to go with it.”

“I asked the Council Leader at the December meeting of Oldham Council if we could publicise those local breweries and pubs which are making off-sales as this has proven to be a financial lifeline for them; now they cannot make off-sales unless they deliver.  Many of the smaller outlets will be unable to do this.”

“With this announcement, the Prime Minister has dealt yet another body blow to our struggling hospitality industry and I fear that if this lockdown lasts until Spring many of our pubs and smaller breweries will be permanently closed.”

Oldham’s Liberal Democrat Councillors want Oldham Council staff to be trained to become ‘eyes and ears’ in the community to help detect instances of child sexual exploitation.

Oldham Council has recently asked all Councillors to complete a mandatory training module into combatting child sexual exploitation. This is being delivered by experts in this field from the renowned Barnardo’s Charity.

Councillor Sykes would like to see similar training made available to Council staff who regularly meet the public in person or speak to residents over the telephone, such as street cleaners, refuse collectors or call centre operatives.  He said:  “Although social workers and child care workers would routinely receive such training and would be aware of what signs to look out for, it would be very valuable to have other council staff in front-line roles trained to be our eyes and ears when they are out in the community.”

Councillor Sykes has recently written to the Council’s Chief Executive with this suggestion and since received a positive response.

Letter sent to the Chief Executive and the Director of Workforce and Organisational Design on 10 December 2020

Dr Carolyn Wilkins OBE, Chief Executive, Oldham Council

Cc Julia Veall, Director of Workforce and Organisational Design

Dear Dr Wilkins,

I wanted to write to you in support of the proposal that elected members shall in future attend a new training session on ‘child sexual abuse and exploitation’ on a mandatory basis as part of the Member Development Programme.  I wondered if we could extend this kind of training to other key staff members who in the course of their duties work in community settings and provide services directly to the public?

Although elected members can, and must, play an important contribution in safeguarding, there are many other staff who, whilst not working specifically with children and young people, can be our ‘eyes and ears’ when working out in the community – for example, street cleaners or refuse collectors – or dealing with members of the public over the telephone – call centre operatives – and perhaps, given current budgets, a modified version of the member training could also be made mandatory for such staff?

I shall look forward to receiving your comments.

Best wishes and stay safe.

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE

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

The Oldham Council Liberal Democrat Group was disappointed to hear yesterday that the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) has refused to cut Councillor numbers and costs.

Liberal Democrats suggested a reduction in Councillors in their submission to the LGBCE late last year.

Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council currently has twenty electoral wards, represented by sixty elected councillors.  The Boundary Commission called for responses to a consultation to review the number of councillors in November.  

At the meeting of the full council (4 November 2020), the Labour Administration backed a report proposing that the status quo be maintained, but in the vote the Liberal Democrats abstained. 

The Liberal Democrats instead submitted their own proposal that the number of Councillors be reduced to two per ward believing that less councillors are now needed with a Cabinet-run council and with most business being conducted using new technology. 

This is a proposal they have made every year at budget time since 2012.  It is estimated that this measure would save Council taxpayers at least £190,000 each year, but there would be a further saving as there would only need to be two local elections every four years, instead of three at present.

The Boundary Commission chose to reject this proposal.

The Leader of the Opposition, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, said:  “This is disappointing news.  Times have changed since the current councillor numbers were agreed upon.   The Committee system has been replaced with a Cabinet so only a handful of Councillors are involved in daily decision-making.  We now live in a world of social media, emails and online meetings rather than taking letters to a typing pool or resorting to faxes, making the conduct of council business far quicker and easier, without the time-consuming commuting.”

“Even more important the number of staff at the Council and the budget with which the Council delivers services have halved over the last decade,” added Councillor Sykes.  “We believe it is only right and proper that the number of councillors should be reduced and both staff numbers, services and budgets have.”

The government has announced that the 5% Value Added Tax levied on women’s hygiene products for women and girls has been abolished from January 1, 2021 and Liberal Democrat Councillors Diane Williamson and Hazel Gloster were especially delighted to hear the news; for both Councillors had called for an end to the sexist ‘Tampon Tax’ in a motion they proposed at a meeting of the full Council in September 2018.

Councillor Diane Williamson said: “It was scandalous, and sexist, that, whilst men did not pay any VAT on personal hygiene products, women and girls did.  Until 1 January, female hygiene products were classed as luxury products and VAT was levied on them.  These are products which are essential to them during a large part of their lives and I now hope that, with this tax cut, manufacturers will reduce their prices to consumers because at this present time many people are suffering financial hardness and every saving helps.”

Both Councillors are however concerned that a nationwide scheme to provide free sanitary products to girls at school has had a low take-up.  They asked for such a scheme to be established in their motion to address period poverty where girls from low-income families must take time off from schools during their monthly period as they cannot afford sanitary products.

Councillor Hazel Gloster added: “We welcomed the introduction by the Department of Education of the provision of these products to girls in English secondary schools in January of last year.  It was simply not right that students who could not afford sanitary products had to miss days from school, and so lose out on their education. Unfortunately, only 40% of secondary schools have so far taken up the offer of free sanitary products, and the Liberal Democrats want to improve take up locally to ensure all our young people are able to attend school”.

The motion submitted to the Council meeting held September 12, 2018 read:

Motion 2 – Period Poverty

This Council notes that:

• A survey by Plan International UK found that 1 in 10 teenage girls had been unable to afford sanitary products;
• 56% of teenage girls said they would rather be bullied at school than talk to their parents about periods;
• This is particularly problematic for girls from low-income families who see their parents struggling to make ends meet and feel reluctant to ask them to add sanitary products to the weekly shop;
• In many cases, as a result, they may lose a significant number of days of schooling; 
• Regrettably, even women in low-income employment are sometimes unable to afford such products when struggling to meet household bills and feed their families;
• Ironically only female prisoners have a statutory right to access free sanitary products.

Council believes in a country as well-off as Britain ‘Period Poverty’ is a scandal that should be ended.

Council commends:

• The Scottish Government for its commitment to tackle ‘Period Poverty’ by introducing free sanitary products in all educational establishments, and notes that Scotland was one of the first countries to pilot a scheme to young women and girls in need in Aberdeen;
• The project recently established by the 21^st Oldham Friezland Rangers and the charity Red Box whereby members of the public can donate sanitary products in branded boxes located in prominent places for re-distribution to students in need attending our local schools and colleges.

Council resolves to:

• Ask the Overview and Scrutiny Board and Health and Well-being Board, working with relevant Cabinet Members, officers and partners, to explore with local secondary schools and colleges how sanitary products can be made available free to students in their establishments;

• Ask the Chief Executive to write to the Secretary of State for Education and Chancellor asking the Government to scrap the VAT levied on female hygiene products as soon as is practicable and in the meantime to use the VAT collected on these products to fund the provision of free sanitary products for girls and women in need.

Proposed by: Councillor Diane Williamson

Seconded by: Councillor Hazel Gloster

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Opposition, received an unwanted Christmas present – confirmation that a revised version of Labour’s plan to build thousands of new homes on Oldham’s green spaces will be brought back in 2021.  It is likely that this, so-called, ‘development plan of the nine’, a reference to the fact that Stockport Council has now withdrawn from the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, will not come back for consideration before the local and GM mayoral elections this May.

Councillor Sykes wrote to Oldham Council Chief Executive, Dr Carolyn Wilkins OBE, enquiring when another meeting would be convened to reconsider the plan and to seek reassurance that the period of public consultation would not be curtailed because of the legal requirements attached to ‘purdah’, a period of several weeks in advance of the date of local elections when there are legal constraints on Council activity.

In a written response, the Head of Dr Wilkin’s office confirmed that “it is unlikely that any revised plans or decisions will be presented back to Council until the new municipal year”; the new 2021-22 municipal year does not commence until after the local elections are held in May.

Commenting Councillor Sykes said: “May’s local election date is also the date that the position of the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham is up for re-election.  Andy Burnham has been the principal backer of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, the plan to build thousands of unwanted new homes on the Green Belt. The Leader of Oldham Council, Councillor Sean Fielding, and most of his Labour colleagues in Oldham have also backed this plan, as have the other Labour Leaders across Greater Manchester and the Conservative Leader of Bolton Council. 

“Only the Liberal Democrat Councillors in the ten authorities in our city region have been consistently opposed to the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework from day one, so my advice to voters everywhere who are seeking an end to this plan is back the Liberal Democrats in the local and Greater Manchester Mayoral elections.  If you lend us your vote, we will fight to save Greater Manchester’s irreplaceable green spaces from housing development.”