(time limit 30 minutes – maximum of 2 minutes per question and 2 minutes per response)
Minutes:
The Leader of the Main Opposition, Councillor Sykes, raised the following two questions:
Question 1:
“For my first question tonight I want to refer to the report published last month by the campaigning coalition End Child Poverty into child poverty across the UK. Overall the report found that Oldham was the local authority with the 7th worst estimated prevalence of poverty in the UK. Most shockingly Coldhurst was identified as the electoral ward with the highest estimated level of child poverty in the country, with over six in ten children living in poverty. Regrettably, Werneth, St. Mary’s and Alexandra also featured highly with over fifty percent of all children in poverty. But child poverty is not simply confined to these areas – there are children living in poverty everywhere in our Borough. Sadly, you will also find pockets of economic deprivation in Shaw, Saddleworth, Chadderton and Royton – all are a criminal indictment of the indifference of policy makers and financiers in the affluent nation that is 21st century Britain.
Of course, much of the blame for the increase in poverty must be laid at the feet of a Conservative Government which continues to insist on austerity and has punished the poor with a benefit freeze. Yet there were previously investments amounting to tens of millions of directed at our most deprived neighbourhoods, Coldhurst, Glodwick, Derker, Fitton Hill, Hathershaw, Limeside, Werneth and Westwood during previous Government’s including Labour. I will mention just four.
· The Single Regeneration Budget
· Neighbourhood Renewal Fund
· The New Deal for Communities
· Housing Market Renewal
Despite their high sounding titles, very little seems to have changed on the ground. This Administration talks a lot about the ‘game changer’ that the redevelopment of our town centre will represent, but for the children of these neighbourhoods who are hungry or ill-shod a real ‘game changer’ would be having enough food to east and decent shoes and clothes to wear right now.
My first question to the Leader tonight is this – does this Administration along with its partners have a practical strategy, a ‘game changer’, with real achievable, measurable targets to address the poverty, and therefore the life chances of these disadvantaged children? This is one league table we need to get off the top of and better still Oldham needs relegated to a lower division. At least 4 wards in the top flight of poverty is not where we need to be. If there is not such a strategy, does she not think it is about time that we put one in place as a top priority – for I can tell her now the Liberal Democrats stand ready to help or is another generation to be condemned to poverty?”
Councillor Stretton, Leader of the Council, responded that unfortunately it was not new that Oldham was a low wage, low skilled economy with pockets of deprivation. Much of the blame was at the door of the Conservative Government with persistent benefit caps and cuts to benefits. Austerity was a benign term for the vicious attacks on local government and the people it served. Budgets had been cut by over 50%. As much as it would have been liked to put in a range of initiatives, the ability to do this was constantly attacked. Local government and the LGA had made representations to government for adequate funding for adults and children’s services. There were a range of strategies about improving lives of the people of Oldham which included the Town Centre Masterplan which would bring more investment and this would take time. The Leader agreed to meet with colleagues from the Liberal Democrats for joint discussions to take forward to officers.
Question 2:
“I would now like to return to another very important issue for many residents in our Borough – access to modern primary care facilities in their locality. The NHS Clinical Commissioning Group has recently consulted on proposals to create five local ‘clusters’, each to service approximately 50,000 patients at which local GP practices will be concentrated, along with a range of high-quality primary care services that will be tailored to the especial needs of the host community. I am confident that patients and carers in Chadderton, Saddleworth and Shaw and Crompton will be excited to hear this news as they are currently obliged to attend health centres that are well past their best to say the least. In fact their facilities are so poor that I would suggest that if a patient presented in such a condition they would be immediately referred for emergency treatment by triage. They are quite literally falling to bits. If we do indeed have a National Health Service that provides everyone with access to equal treatment at their point of need, why do we not have a Local Health Service that does the same? Certainly the hard working tax payers in Chadderton, Saddleworth, Shaw and Crompton are being seriously short-changed with their current provision. We have been promised new health centres in these areas for years; it would be nice to see this finally happen – and soon. The recent appointment of our own Chef Executive Dr Carolyn Wilkins, to a key position and leading role in our local NHS gives me some hope that things may now finally move in the right direction. With this in mind my second question to the Leader tonight is when can we expect to see new health centres in all areas of our Borough that are fit for the 21st Century?”
Councillor Stretton, Leader of the Council, responded that the information was not immediately available. There would be more influence on decision making than there was previously and welcomed the appointment of the Single Accountable Officer who would lead on the decision making. It would be a priority to ensure all areas had to public health services which were as good as it could be.
Councillor Hudson, Leader of the Conservative Group, asked if the Leader would speak to Cabinet members and officers would look into the openness and transparency and referred to Westminster, Local government or Parish. It was asked if the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny System could be improved by asking what other authorities did and make sure that scrutiny was done by members of the opposition parties and not the ruling group. Councillor Hudson referred to the scrutiny process at Tameside Council. This was not condemning any labour members, but was in the interest of openness by letting people know that if the authority believed in Overview and Scrutiny, then the policies should be scrutinised by those other than whose policies were being put into action.
Councillor Stretton, Leader of the Council, responded that she was not sure what arrangements were in other Councils. The Leader was confident that Overview and Scrutiny Committees were well led and members who served on them took their responsibility seriously and they were not used for party political issues. The comments related to Tameside Council, where the Conservative Group were the Oppostion were noted. All members across the board respected the Overview and Scrutiny function. Councillor McLaren and Councillor Wrigglesworth were able members who led the function and every member was able to have their say with no undue favouritism.
The Mayor reminded the meeting that Council had agreed that, following the Leaders’ allocated questions, questions would be taken in an order which reflected the political balance of the Council.
1. Councillor Brock asked the following question:
“The Budget and the Spring statement did not do anything to address the funding problems in local government and offered nothing for our staff who have had many years without a pay increase. Does the Cabinet member for Finance share my disappointment at the government’s refusal to acknowledge the damage this continues to do to Oldham’s services and residents and does he have any further comments to make about this?”
Councillor Jabbar, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Finance and HR responded that he had been disappointed in the Chancellor’s announcement. There was no money to meet statuatory responsibilities and included children’s social services or adult social care which were the two areas under greatest pressure. There had been more than 40% increase in demand for children’s social care and funding had been put in place to meet the additional demand. Representations had been made to the Government and the Chancellor but the Council did not get anything. The Council was allowed to increase the council tax by an additional 1% to address the pressures. Council tax for the authority was already too high, the additional 1% delivered £830K, but the pressures in children’s services was £8.6m. The Government were putting the burden to local level which Oldham could not deal with. It was hoped that the Green Paper on Adult Social Care would provide adequate funding for statutory responsibilities. There was no idea of the local government funding plan beyond March 2020, therefore future planning could not be done. As part of the review of revenue funding an appeal would be made as to what was happening.
2. Councillor Jacques asked the following question:
“The Metrolink Tram stops at Failsworth and Hollinwood have yet again been subjected to mindless acts of vandalism resulting in assaults on individuals, ticket machines and glass panels being smashed. When are TFGM going to realise and act against anti-social behaviour, where a small but growing minority can act with impunity wrecking stations. It’s a downright disgrace that innocent passengers are being challenged by Travel Safe officers if they have a valid ticket, when they obviously cannot purchase one, whilst gangs of youths use the line unchallenged in the evening and subject innocent communities to yobbish behaviour in the streets, leaving residents feeling vulnerable and unsafe. The true economic and social cost of not having Travel Safe officers on stations and trams goes way beyond staffing costs. Is TFGM ignoring this issue and happy to pass on the real cost of a lack staffing onto our communities and police force. TFGM are aware of the issue but have failed to take effective action. I would like to ask the cabinet member responsible if there is an expensive lesson to be learnt here.”
Councillor F. Hussain, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services assured that addressing anti-social behaviour was a priority for Transport for Greater Manchester and they were as concerned about it was the Council was, but they could not deal with this alone. Metrolink staff, no matter how many there were, did not have the powers of arrest so they needed the help and support of GM Police, and TfGM were working with them. Even before the most recent serious assault at Freehold, the new Metrolink operator, KAM, had increased staff presence in the area with patrols of Travel Safe Officers and Customer Services staff. TfGM have funded GM Police in terms of the Travel Safe Unit, further warranted officers and now almost 50 PCSOs. Furthermore intelligence was being shared with local police and working together with police on the overall strategy and provided really good CCTV evidence to police working on several other cases in the area. Arrests had also been made in the Freehold case.
3. Councillor A. Alexander asked the following question:
“Could the relevant Cabinet Member inform me, how many people are awaiting housing in Oldham and how many can truly afford to buy their own homes? Is there a breakdown of these figures?”
Councillor Brownridge, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Cooperatives responded that as at Tuesday, 27th March 2018 there were 5,778 households in housing need on the Council’s Social Housing waiting list, an increase of 245 since December 2017. As the Council operated an ‘open waiting list’, there were also a further 16,056 households who were not in housing need but could bid for a percentage of homes that were advertised for rent on a ‘first come first served’ basis. How many households on the waiting list who could afford to buy their own home could not be confirmed. New applicants were asked to provide their household income, it was not a mandatory questions and the vast majority chose not to answer it. The Council collected the information which enabled landlords to establish whether prospective tenants were able to afford a tenancy and not to assess whether they were able to buy their own home. Research had suggested that nearly 40% could only afford social rented accommodation.
4. Councillor Harkness asked the following question:
“I welcome the launch of the Council’s new online reporting system for fly tipping. It is clear that fly tipping has increased. There appears to be two issues:
· A reduced capacity for residents as a result of the three weekly bin collections
· An increase in commercial dumping of waste; this is a particular problem in my ward where there are isolated spots which fly tippers take advantage.
What is being done to support those who have large families and no transport to utilise Arkwright Street for their excessive waste?
What strategies are being considered to address the increase in commercial fly tipping?”
Councillor Brownridge, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Cooperatives responded that the three weekly bind collection had led to an increase in flytippng. There were hotspots for flytipping in the town which had been in existence for a long time. If it had been as a result of the introduction of the three weekly collection it would have been expected that the problem would had been more widespread. Flytipping was a national problem caused by a number of concerns. Different measures were being tried to deal with this issue and were currently being evaluated. Tribute was paid to the people of Oldham on the introduction of the three weekly collection scheme which had gone smother than anticipated and the recycling rate was up to over 45%. The introduction of the three weekly bin collected had had a real benefit with recycling. Additional provision was available to large families by making a request which would be assessed. In terms of commercial flytipping, this was a huge problem where operators did not want to pay the fee to dispose of waste properly. Work was ongoing locally to prosecute offenders. This was also a national problem with the Environment Agency tracking down perpetrators.
5. Councillor Shuttleworth asked the following question:
“A Care Quality Commission (CQC) report published in August 2016 rated The Royal Oldham Hospital “Inadequate”, I understand that the CQC carried out a more recent inspection in autumn 2017. Could the relevant Cabinet Member please advise us of the outcome of this inspection, and give us and the residents of Oldham some assurance that the Royal Oldham Hospital is on a journey of improvement that will ensure that the hospital delivers the highest standard of care in every department.”
Councillor Moores, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing responded that on 1st March, the CQC published its findings and final report following the latest inspection of the services for the Pennine Acute Trust carried out in October and November 2017. The findings of the inspection for Pennine Acute Trust were:
· Safe –moved from Inadequate to Requires Improvement
· Effective – stayed at Requires Improvement
· Caring – stayed at Good
· Responsive – stayed at Required Improvement
· Well-led – moved from Inadequate to Good.
The overall rating for the Trust had also improved from Inadequate to Requires Improvement. Services at the Royal Oldham Hospital had also improved from Inadequate to Requires Improvement. The Royal Oldham Hospital had also seen:
· Maternity care and Urgent and Emergency services had improved significantly with overall rating of Good
· A&E working with CCG and partners to further develop urgent care services to Good
· Rating in Safe services for urgent and emergency care had improved to Good
· Surgical services were rated Good for Caring, Responsive and Well led
· Critical Care services had improved as had services for children and young people.
An improvement plan was being developed to continue the Trust’s improvement journey. The Health and Wellbeing Board had agreed to write to Sir David Dalton welcoming the improvement to the Royal Oldham Hospital and the Trust as a whole.
6. Councillor McLaren asked the following question:
“Over recent weeks I have witnessed severe delays to traffic travelling from Oldham to Chadderton via Middleton Road, this is due to the traffic flow being restricted by vehicles wishing to turn right from Middleton Road onto Featherstall Road. Could the Cabinet Member responsible for Highways, please arrange for Officers to look into this issue and find a solution to a problem that is frustrating many road users.”
Councillor F. Hussain, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services responded that the Council’s Highways Team had been in contact with Transport for Greater Manchester who were responsible for all the traffic signal operation and optimisation within Greater Manchester and so within Oldham too. As regarded whether this junction would benefit at all from alternative arrangements, for example a right turn filter arrow from Middleton Road onto Featherstall Road. This would only be beneficial if other works to lane markings / separation on Middleton Road were introduced too and the matter was being considered. It was also likely that the immediate congestion issues along Middleton Road were being compounded significantly currently by the major necessary bridge works on Oldham Way / Middleton Road bridge. It might be possible for alternative diversion routes which were currently being considered to be installed. It was hoped that the possible introduction of such a diversion arrangement would ease the existing congestion at the Middleton Road/Featherstall Road North junction.
At this point in the meeting, the Mayor advised that the time limit for this item had expired.
RESOLVED that the questions and the responses provided be noted.