Sector support grants close this week

The scheme is available to the following businesses: travel agents, event management companies, night clubs and ticketed live music venues that have been adversely affected and are under stress because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Businesses that operate from commercial premises could receive one-off sector support grants as follows:

• Not registered for business rates or a rateable value of less than £51,000: £7,500 grant
• Rateable value of more than £51,001: £10,000 grant

Businesses that operate from non-commercial premises and can evidence ongoing commercial costs could receive one-off grants of £1,500. The following eligibility applies:

• Priority will be given to businesses with a high economic impact (jobs) and commercial property costs
• Businesses located in the borough of Oldham
• Businesses that operate directly in international leisure travel, the events industry and night-time economy
• Businesses that are solvent and that do not face a striking off notice or liquidation
• Businesses that do or don’t pay business rates
• Businesses that are sustainable beyond Covid-19
• Businesses that were trading on 1st October 2020

You can apply at www.oldham.gov.uk/sector_support_fund

Shaw’s very own Matt Walls, Olympic Gold cycling champion could be honoured with a gold post box after an appeal to Royal Mail by Shaw Liberal Democrat Councillor Hazel Gloster.

Hazel said: “Matt has done Shaw and Crompton proud, and, fingers crossed, will do the same when he competes in the Men’s Madison event on Saturday.  His achievements in cycling cannot be underestimated and we should ensure visitors to Shaw and Crompton have a visual acknowledgment to our home-grown champion.”

“Painting a post box gold in a place associated with the winning Olympian, with a plaque to explain their success, was such a brilliant and popular idea when the Royal Mail did this after the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, yet the practice inexplicably died out”, added Hazel. 

“Public letter boxes are of course traditionally painted red and having a gold one in your high street is such a striking symbol of local Olympic success and brings pride to any town.  Today my colleagues and I have written to the Royal Mail asking them to reintroduce them.”

Liberal Democrat Councillor Louie Hamblett has received assurances following another meeting with the practice and the CCG that their telephone system has been to blame for intermittent faults and lengthy waiting times.

The practice has now sought external assistance from Oldham CCG to help change their telephony system and their provider also along with a seconded member of the CCG staff to help ensure that both patient and staff relations are no longer further strained.

Councillor Hamblett was also recently surprised to learn that the practice has absorbed additional patients from another practice that has recently been dissolved.

With the unexpected closure of Donald Wilde Medical Practice resulted in around 5000 patients having to be relocated, and this affected those practices in Oldham who absorbed these patients to their practice lists.

This has now brought three practices into one now super practice and having a limited number of GPs to deal with thousands of patients.

As the largest GP practice in Oldham with a patient list that comprises around a tenth of the town’s population, these have been acute issues for Royton & Crompton Family Practice, and they should have a responsibility to each and every one of their patients.

He is also concerned for the strain on such service would be and how other neighbouring practices that have effectively been left by the wayside to struggle in older facilities whilst such a monster of facility has engulfed its competitors to become a small hospital.

This is all yet more evidence that health facilities need improving and expanding in Shaw and Crompton.

Councillor Hamblett has another meeting in a month to monitor any progress and improvement.

“Patients should always come before profits and I think our Primary GP’s need to be reminded of this, we should have modern facilities, dispensing modern medicine for the 21st century” Councillor Hamblett added.

An appeal from the Leader of Oldham Council’s Liberal Democrat Group has finally led the Labour Administration to call time on spending over £10,000 on sending delegates to an annual international property conference in Southern France.

In mid-July, Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes, MBE, wrote to the new Council Leader and Chief Executive asking them to cease the needless spending which could be better spent on providing front-line services.

In 2018 and 2019, Oldham Council was represented at the three-day Marché International des Professionnels d’Immobilier (MIPIM) property conferences held in the French Riviera resort of Cannes at a time when Council services have been cut to the bone. 

In 2018 at least £9,892 was spent to pay for the attendance of the Head of Regeneration and Development and Director of Economy and Skills and in 2019 £10,296 for the attendance of the-then Leader of the Council and the Head of Regeneration and Development.

In 2020, because of COVID-19, the conference was called off, but £1,647 had already been spent on travel tickets and accommodation which had to be written off.

The next MIPIM conference is in September 2021.

Commenting Councillor Sykes stated: “The attendance by councillors and council officers at these conferences is just wrong.  It is an unnecessary expense on an unnecessary activity when the council has cut other services to the bone because of a lack of cash, and it is contrary to our stated commitment to become a carbon-neutral Council by 2025.  Going to Cannes is not going green and it is a waste of money.”

In the reply received from the Head of the Chief Executive’s Office it was confirmed that ‘Oldham Council will not be attending the MIPIM events later this year’.  In response, Councillor Sykes added: “I am glad that common-sense has prevailed and this money would be better spent on making our streets cleaner, fixing potholes on our crumbling roads or providing care for our vulnerable children or elderly citizens than on jet travel and expensive hotel bills for staff swanning off to the French Riviera.”

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

With the easing of COVID-19 quarantine restrictions, more people will be taking advantage of their summer break to head off to enjoy our Borough’s beautiful countryside.  Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Oldham Liberal Democrat Group, knows that the vast majority of local day-trippers will be considerate, but fears that our moorland may once more be placed in grave danger by irresponsible visitors using portable barbeques.

“We have seen the devastation caused by moorland fires triggered by idiots and arsonists in the past,” said Councillor Sykes.  “I can only pray that over the summer, especially if we experience more heatwaves, this will not be repeated, because the Conservative Government has recently told me it has no plans to outlaw portable bbqs and stiffen sentences for those causing catastrophic damage to our countryside and wildlife.”

In May, Councillor Sykes wrote to the Secretary of State for the Environment, George Eustice MP, calling for a national ban on the sale of disposable barbecues, and for greater court punishments for those found guilty of negligently or wilfully setting fire to our moors.

Councillor Sykes was disappointed to hear that the government does not intend to get tough.  Minister of State for the Environment, Rebecca Pow MP, said in her response ‘The Government has no plans for additional legislative proposals on the use of disposable barbecues’, and instead called upon people to observe the Countryside Code.

“Unfortunately, the current financial and other penalties imposed upon offenders found guilty of burning our moorland are pitiful in relation to the damage caused, and clearly the government has no intention of addressing that,” concluded Councillor Sykes. 

“Appealing to these criminal elements to observe the Countryside Code is frankly laughable; they are intent on breaking the law and are not going to read or take heed of the recommendations contained in a government booklet”.

Ash die back disease has been detected in Crompton Cemetery which has led to the felling of twenty mature trees in the cemetery as a matter of urgency. Cllr Hazel Gloster, Liberal Democrat Councillor for the Shaw Ward said ‘ it is regrettable that these mature trees have had to be felled however the Ash tree is a very important tree in the ecological system and we need to ensure that action now prevents further damage in the cemetery as the disease spreads between July and October during leafage’ .

Crompton Liberal Democrat Councillor Dave Murphy added ‘We will be working with Oldham Council’s Environmental Services Department to look at how we can replace these trees, preferably doubling the numbers felled, as replacements. It would be nice if each tree replaced was sponsored by a family in memory of a loved one and I will be speaking with council officers to see how this can be achieved’

Recycle for Greater Manchester (R4GM) are making it easier for residents to dispose of plasterboard at Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC’s).

Up until now, residents who want to dispose of plasterboard had to use a waste facility, accessing it via a weighbridge. This was put in place to help reduce the illegal disposal of plasterboard at recycling centres by traders.

Prior to the pandemic, site staff were able to loan the public Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) so that they could access the waste facility safely.  However due to Covid restrictions the public must now use their own PPE – causing issues for residents who turn up on site without knowing this beforehand.

From now on plasterboard containers were made available at HWRCs across GM, including the Arkwright Street site in Oldham. This means that residents in a vehicle under 2 metres high, wishing to dispose of plasterboard will no longer have to use a waste facility and wear PPE.

The R4GM website has been updated to reflect this service change.

For more information, please email recycle4gm@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk or call 0161 778 7110.