The Government abandoned crucial targets, and failed to provide the funding needed to meet these new ones. It is a fig leaf for a Prime Minister who everyone can see for what he is.

If the Government is serious about levelling up, why has it just abandoned plans for local high speed rail?

Why is it loading the bill for social care on to local council tax payers, particularly those like Oldham?

Why did it abandon its target for high-speed broadband to 85% of homes by 2025?

Levelling-up is just the latest Tory buzzword and has no substance whatsoever – I hope people are not conned by it.

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.