Liberal Democrat Leader announces Oldham Real Opposition Team for 22-23

Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, has today announced his Real Opposition team for 2022/23.  The announcement comes after a successful set of local elections for the Liberal Democrats which saw the group gain a seat in Saddleworth West and Lees.

Councillor Howard Sykes said: “I am proud to be leading the Liberal Democrat Group on Oldham Council and to be leading a team that is ready to hold the Council and Labour to account.  This year we are joined by the newly elected councillor Alicia Marland, who is joining Mark Kenyon and Sam Al-Hamdani making up a formidable team of community champions for Saddleworth West and Lees residents.”  

“At a time when so many people across the Oldham borough are facing the effects of the Conservative cost-of-living crisis, the Liberal Democrats remain the only group holding Labour to account on Oldham Council, and we shall continue to take that responsibility seriously,” added councillor Sykes.

“Oldham Liberal Democrats will continue to oppose Labour’s indulgent and wasteful spending at the Civic Centre.  Now more than ever, we need councillors who will speak out against vanity projects such as £68 million on ‘Spendles’.  We need to direct more of our residents’ hard-earned Council Tax money into the front-line services that most matter to people, such as street cleaning, parks maintenance, road repairs, social care and alike,” he said.

“The Liberal Democrats will also be fighting for better facilities and an improved retail and leisure offer in our district centres.  We will keep up the pressure on to make sure the new health centre for Shaw and Crompton gets back on track.  We shall continue to be opposed to Green Belt development, including Labour’s ‘Places for Everyone’ plan.  Our beautiful and unique local environment must be safeguarded for future generations.”

“People expect the Council to get the basics right – that is clearly not the case at the moment and this failure will continue to be our focus that will make a difference to people’s lives.  That is what the public have told us they want,” he claimed.

Details of the appointments follow:

Group Officers

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE – Group Leader

Councillor Chris Gloster – Deputy Group Leader

Councillor Louie Hamblett – Group Chair

Councillor Diane Williamson – Group Secretary

Councillor Hazel Gloster – Group Treasurer

Councillor Mark Kenyon – Group Political Secretary

Shadow Cabinet Members:

Regeneration and Housing – Howard Sykes

City Region

Economic Growth

Strategic Housing

Housing quality and enforcement

Planning and Building Control

Transport

Homelessness

Landlord Licensing

External Relationships and Partnerships

Capital projects and investment

Borough Strategy

Finance and Low Carbon – Chris Gloster

Finance

Revenues and benefits

Energy

Green New Deal

Corporate Property and Assets

Clean Air

Culture and Leisure – Diane Williamson

Culture

Leisure

Libraries, Heritage and Arts

Sports and sport development

Events

Education and Skills – Sam Al-Hamdani

Education and Skills

Education Alliance

School Place Planning

Looked After Children – educational performance

Work and Skills Strategy

Lifelong Learning

Apprenticeships

Neighbourhoods – Dave Murphy

Highways

Trading Standards and Licensing

Registrars and Cemeteries

Environmental Services

Waste and recycling

Parks and Countryside

Justice and Community Safety

Community Cohesion

Emergency Planning

Districts

Children and Young People – Hazel Gloster

Child safeguarding

Children’s Partnership

Adoption and fostering

Children Looked After

Children’s health and wellbeing

Youth Service

Early Years

Early Help

Health and Social Care – Louie Hamblett

Adult Social Services

Adult safeguarding

Provider services

Disability services and adaptations

Family support

Integrated Care System development

Health Improvement

Mental Health and wellbeing

Isolation

Corporate Services – Alicia Marland

Workforce and Organisational Development

Transformation

IT and Digital

Customer Services

Performance

Legal Services

Employment and Enterprise – Mark Kenyon

Employment

Get Oldham Working

Employability

Business Support

Markets

Supporting VCSFE sector

Social Infrastructure

Official Spokespersons/Lead Members on Boards and Committees:

Chris Gloster: Audit Committee, Licensing Committee, Traffic Regulation Order Panel

Hazel Gloster: Planning Committee

Alicia Marland: Health Scrutiny

Mark Kenyon: Performance Overview and Scrutiny

Diane Williamson: Policy Overview and Scrutiny, Standards Board

District Leads

Diane Williamson: Chair, Shaw and Crompton (Vice Chair North District)

Sam Al-Hamdani: Official Spokesperson, Saddleworth and Lees (East District)

Government threatens to scrap levelling up plans days after they were announced

The government came under heavy criticism from councils and developers after it emerged that plans had been made to scrap their Levelling Up plans just days after the Bill was announced in the Queen’s Speech.

Oldham Liberal Democrat Leader, Howard Sykes MBE said, “The government have promised to deliver a levelling up agenda for years now and when we finally see a Bill being brought forward, they’ve left themselves a sneaky hidden option to drop it all together when things get tough.  Clearly ‘Levelling Up’ is just a political slogan to this Conservative government and they want to make sure they can still use it at the next General Election.”

“The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill commits the government to ‘levelling up missions’ around the country.  These missions – which have yet to be put before Parliament – are aimed at tackling regional inequalities and addressing the north-south divide.  But the Conservative government have hidden an emergency exit in the Bill and can choose to drop levelling up missions altogether.”

Back in February, councillor Sykes said that the governments levelling up agenda was “all fur coat and no knickers” when ministers abandoned plans for local high-speed rail across the north.  See: So-called Conservative Government levelling up agenda is all fur coat and no knickers say local Liberal Democrats | Howard Sykes (mycouncillor.org.uk)

Councillor Sykes said, “This Bill just proves that our concerns were well founded.  The government is leaving whole communities behind.  Levelling-up is just the latest Tory buzzword and has no real substance whatsoever.” 

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