Liberal Democrats welcome Conservative climbdown on school meals scandal

The Oldham Liberal Democrats have welcomed Boris Johnson’s recent climbdown over the provision of school meals to the children of England’s poorest families.  The Conservative Government has pledged £396 million of targeted support for 1.7 million children over the Christmas, Easter and Summer school holidays.  The Prime Minister conveyed the good news in a telephone call on Saturday with campaigning footballer Marcus Rashford OBE.

The Liberal Democrats brought a motion to the last meeting of the Oldham Council (4 November) in support of Marcus Rashford’s campaign to tackle holiday hunger and child poverty in England. 

On hearing the welcome announcement, Saddleworth North Councillor Garth Harkness, who proposed the motion, said:  “We congratulate Marcus Rashford on his successful campaign to turn around government policy on this issue.  Only days before, Tory MPs had disgracefully voted against awarding money for school meals in Parliament; all the while taking advantage of the publicly subsidised canteens in Westminster.  Over one million people signed a petition in support of the campaign of the Manchester United and England player, and the Oldham Liberal Democrats in bringing forward this motion wanted also to show our support for Mr Rashford’s initiative”.

Crompton Councillor Louie Hamblett, who seconded the motion, added:  “The Oldham Liberal Democrats believe that to let children go hungry in the United Kingdom, one of the world’s richest economies, is truly disgraceful.  We hope that in passing this motion, Oldham Council will send a clear signal of support to Marcus Rashford and to Henry Dimbleby, who chaired the National Food Strategy group, in their fight to end child food poverty”.

The motion was carried at the Council meeting last Wednesday (4 November).

Liberal Democrats hopeful that temporary £20 per week Universal Credit increase will be extended

The Oldham Liberal Democrats are hopeful that the Conservative Chancellor, Rishi Sunak MP, will extend the £20 a week temporary increase in Universal Credit for a further year in next year’s Spring Budget.  The temporary increase was first made at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to provide extra financial support to citizens faced with unemployment following the economic downturn.  

In October, Councillor Sykes wrote to the Chancellor asking him ‘to make a clear and principled policy decision’ and make the temporary rise permanent.  Commenting, Councillor Sykes said:  “This temporary uplift of £20 per week, or £1,040 a year, if made permanent would be a Godsend to our poorest residents and their families. For many it will represent the difference between being able to put food before the family at mealtimes or keeping the lights on or keeping their home warm; or being unable to do so.  Although I would prefer the increase to be made permanent, it is rumoured that the Chancellor will only agree to pay the increase for a further year in the spring budget, but this is at least a move in the right direction.”

Local Restrictions Support Grant Fund

The Government has introduced Local Restrictions Support Grants to help businesses within the Business Rates System that have been legally required to close due to restrictions being put in place to manage coronavirus.

Who is eligible?

The grants are available for those businesses within the Business Rates system that were open and providing in-person services to customers from their business premises and were then legally required to close. Eligible businesses are those:

  • required to close during localised restrictions when Oldham was placed in Tier 3 restrictions from 23 October 2020 until 4 November 2020 (i.e. before national lockdown began). This affects:
    • pubs and bars who had to close from this date, it excludes pubs and bars that stayed open to operate as if they were a restaurant – which means serving substantial meals, like a main lunchtime or evening meal and where alcohol was served as part of such meal
    • casinos
    • bingo halls
    • betting shops
    • adult gaming centres
    • soft play centres
  • required to close from 5 November 2020 until 2 December 2020 under the national lockdown This affects businesses as determined by law
  • required to close in March 2020 and not yet been allowed to reopen. Eligibility for this scheme starts from 1 November 2020 until 4 November 2020 (i.e. until national lockdown began) and affects nightclubs and sexual entertainment venues

For more information:

https://www.oldham.gov.uk/localrestrictionssupportgrant

CANCELLED – Remembrance Church Service at Oldham Parish Church

The church service at Oldham Parish Church will be no longer be held on Remembrance Sunday.

The national lockdown has prevented the holding of our planned church service on Sunday. 

However, the service will still be streamed via the council’s website at www.oldham.gov.uk/RemembranceSunday and also on Oldham Community Radio, from 10.50am on Remembrance Sunday with some pre-recorded elements including wreath laying at all of the civic districts (inc Crompton).

Although not all of the service may now be broadcast live, the new arrangements will hopefully ensure that the broadcast is as meaningful and respectful as it would have been if we were able to be there in person.

A copy of the Order of Service will also be available on the Council’s website alongside the broadcast.

We would also like to remind everyone that they are very much invited to commemorate Remembrance this year from home; keeping everyone safe in these most challenging and difficult of times.

People can still individually lay wreaths (at any time) and pay their respects at specific memorials but there are no organised services and people need to be mindful of social distancing and other National Lockdown rules when they do.

Please do support The Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal – details below:

https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAiA4o79BRBvEiwAjteoYJqet4w6TxNIKB-TYma1AMPrRgTUfHZjI_rZVe71o734aq2t7Q0p_RoCHt8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

My two allowed Leader’s Questions to Oldham Full Council 4 November 2020

Question 1)

A future for Oldham’s town centre shopping centres?

My first question tonight concerns the future of the Spindles and Town Square shopping centres.

It would be remiss of me firstly to not congratulate the Leader on becoming Oldham Borough’s biggest shopkeeper.

It is a bold venture to purchase not one, but two shopping centres, in today’s retail climate, but I understand the Leader described it as an ‘absolute bargain’.  Let us all hope so.

Many of the units in both the Spindles and the Town Square shopping centres lie empty, some of these for a long time, and consequently many residents are wondering whether this in fact represents a risky purchase.

Town centres across Britain are becoming increasingly devoid of customers as many people are today wary of stepping much further than their doorsteps with the ever-present threat of Covid-19, and the pandemic has massively exacerbated the trend of the last decade for shoppers to turn more and more to their keyboards to order goods from mail order stores or the supermarket. 

The Leader has spoken about moving Tommyfield Market in its entirety into these two shopping centres and relocating hundreds of Council staff above the shops, though I am sure many will be working from home for the foreseeable future, if not forever.

These actions to repurpose the shopping centres will cost significant sums of money as will their refurbishment.

The Council’s relationship with some Tommyfield Market traders has in recent history not been a happy one with some traders feeling abandoned. 

Can the Leader tonight tell us what discussions Council officers have held in advance of the purchase with the Tommyfield Market traders, what their response has been to the proposals, and what incentives and support this Council will provide them with to make the move?

Now the Leader has let us know the purchase cost of £9.5M to Oldham Council Taxpayers.

Can he also tell us more about the Administration’s plans for these two shopping precincts to make them vibrant once more, whether as a renewed and reduced retail offer, as town centre homes, as a new civic hub, or even as a potential new home for Coliseum? 

Question 2)

Building on Brownfield Sites

I wish to turn to a very topical subject for my next question.

A subject heightened in importance by the recent publication of the latest Oldham Plan and the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework proposals, namely the use of brownfield land to build houses upon.

I am sure that the Leader will be aware that the Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017 require local authorities to prepare, maintain and publish a register of brownfield land.  The register should identify previously developed sites in the Borough that are considered as being suitable for housing.

The present government supposedly has a target to build 300,000 homes in each of the next five years.

A recent study by the countryside charity, the Council for the Protection of Rural England, has found that there is enough brownfield land that has been previously developed to provide space to build 300,000 homes in England in each of the next four years.

And then some. 

In fact, enough land to build One Million Three Hundred Thousand homes in all.

Given that this administration has now – rightly – adopted a Brownfield First policy and the Oldham public are, rightly, up in arms about any possibly of building on the Green Belt, can the Leader tell me how many homes the sites listed currently on the Council’s Brownfield Register accommodate?

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Oldham Council

Libraries – during National Lockdown

  • Click and collect available at all libraries that are currently open
  • Limited number of computers available for IT sessions, by appointment only, at all currently open libraries, with a maximum time slot of 1 hour (evidence from booking to date is that library IT is only being used for essential purposes – primary work applications, benefits applications etc)
  • Continuation of home delivery service in partnership with Age Concern
  • Continuation of element of service which provides books to schools