(time limit 30 minutes)
Motion 1
Councillor Arnott to MOVE and Councillor Lancaster to SECOND:
Oldham’s Roads Are Not Racetracks For Criminals.
In 2020, close to 680m vehicle miles were travelled in Oldham. Given the sheer number of vehicle miles travelled, it is sadly inevitable that collisions and accidents will occur, even when drivers are law abiding and drive considerately.
On average 681 people are killed or seriously injured on the roads of Greater Manchester each year. Of all reported collisions, 58% involved a driver aged between 17 and 35 and a staggering 80% of all fatal incidents involved a male driver.
However, there is a dangerous group, of mostly young men and women, who consider the roads of Oldham as their own personal racetrack, and routinely and recklessly speed on our roads with no regard for the safety of themselves or others, putting other drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians in real danger of serious injury or worse.
A number of these vehicles are not taxed or insured and have been modified to increase speed and performance at the expense of safety and security. Speed cameras are sadly not enough as, our roads have become the plaything of these people with some using stolen vehicles and plates to race each other and then abandon those same vehicles also. Several vehicles are used in crimes such as burglaries, carjacking’s, transportation of narcotics, get away driving, prostitution, and illegal street racing.
This Council resolves :
Motion 2
Councillor Al-Hamdani to MOVE and Councillor Williamson to SECOND:
Time for the Fair Game manifesto in football
Council believes that football, the national game in the UK, is currently in crisis.
COVID-19 has devastated the revenue of many lower-league clubs, with the loss of some notables, and dozens more clubs teetering on the brink of survival. Frequently bad management has gone unnoticed or ignored and clubs are run unsustainably, putting at risk all the history, heritage, and economic benefit they bring to an area – often in pursuit of short-term gain.
Council believes that football clubs are not ordinary businesses; they are historic sporting institutions that are both a civic and community asset, and a source of pride and unity, in their hometown or city.
Council therefore supports Fair Game, a national campaign that seeks radical reform of the way football is managed and run, specifically its call for:
· An independent regulator for the sport.
· A refocus on ‘values’ rather than profit.
· The establishment of a Sustainability Index, which will reallocate the payments made to clubs to reward those which are run well, respect equality standards and properly engage with their fans and their community.
· Fans to be given the final say on any proposed change to a club’s ‘crown jewels’, including the club’s name, nickname, colours, badge and the geographical location from where the club plays.
Council also notes that former Sports Minister Tracey Crouch MP is about to publish a Government-commissioned fan-led review into football governance and believes that some of its findings will mirror Fair Game’s aspirations.
As a Co-operative Council, we would also like to see football clubs co-operatively owned by their fans, rather than owners with no connection to a town or with more interest in extracting profits from the club, rather than the team’s on-pitch performance.
Council therefore resolves to:
· Declare its support for the Fair Game manifesto, ‘Solutions for our National Game’, and calls on other councils to join us in our support.
· Ask the Chief Executive to write to the Minister for Sport, our local Members of Parliament, and the Chair of the Local Government Association Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, asking them to support and work towards implementing Fair Game's manifesto and the findings of the fan-led review led by Tracey Crouch MP.
· Ask the Council’s representative to the Co-operative Council’s Innovation Network to request the CCIN investigate how best member councils can support the registration of their local football clubs as Assets of Community Value and facilitate their future purchase and operation, when the opportunity arises, as fan-owned co-operatives.
Motion 3
Councillor Woodvine to MOVE and Councillor Byrne to SECOND:
Earthshot Oldham.
In 2020 H.R.H the Duke of Cambridge founded the Earthshot Prize, inspiring innovative ideas and incentivising change, across this country and around the world. It is ambitious and prestigious. A year on Oldham can also be inspired by the words and work of the Royal Family and these ‘Earthshots’ – simple but ambitious goals which, if achieved by 2030, will improve life for us all, and for generations to come.
Each Earthshot is underpinned by scientifically agreed targets including the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and other internationally recognised measures to help repair our planet. Together, they form a unique set of challenges rooted in science, which aim to generate new ways of thinking, as well as new technologies, systems, policies and solutions.
By bringing these five critical issues together this Council can recognise the interconnectivity between environmental challenges and the urgent need to tackle them together. Like the Prize, this Council can aim to turn the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism, by highlighting the ability of human ingenuity to bring about change, and inspiring collective action.
As it is a decade of action this Council notes that:
• Species face extinction as habitats are destroyed, but destroying nature threatens our lives too. Forests and natural land are vital to human health and happiness, helping to prevent global warming and producing oxygen that we breathe.
• Thousands of children in Oldham breathe toxic air every day, causing countless deaths that could be prevented. We refuse to accept this – clean air and healthy lives are within our reach.
• Warmer temperatures, pollution, plastic and harmful fishing practices are having devastating impacts on the ocean, putting life underwater in jeopardy but this decade we can choose to make our ocean healthy.
• The world we have built is not like this; we throw everything away, and this is harming our planet but we have the power to build something better.
• Carbon in the atmosphere is making our planet warmer, to levels which threaten all life on Earth but it is not too late; if we act now, we can make the world a better, more sustainable home for everyone.
By 2030 this Council chooses to:
• Repair and preserve the habitats that our animals need to live, from forests and grasslands, to wetlands, lakes and rivers.
• End outdated transport that emits toxic fumes, remove pollution from the air using both technology and nature, and eliminate the burning of fossil fuels, choosing 100% renewable energy for everyone – from our towns to villages.
• Bring forward a new era where everyone uses the ocean sustainably and to refuse to accept a world where turtles, dolphins and coral reefs vanish from our seas.
• Eliminate food waste, single-use packaging, and inspire a new generation of people, companies, and industries to reuse, repurpose, and recycle.
• Build a system that can work forever, where people in Oldham can live safe, healthy and happy lives, without waste.
• Fix our climate so that life everywhere can thrive for generations to come.
As we must act now to protect our future this Council resolves to:
• Protect and restore nature in Oldham, ensuring that for the first time in human history the natural world around us is growing and not shrinking.
• Clean our air, ensuring that everybody in Oldham breathes clean, healthy air – at the World Health Organisation standard, or better.
• Revive our oceans, repairing and preserving our oceans for future generations.
• Build a waste-free Oldham, and world, where nothing goes to waste and where the leftovers of one process become the raw materials of the next – just like they do in nature.
• Fix our climate by cutting out Carbon and building a Carbon-neutral economy that lets every culture and community in Oldham thrive.
Motion 4
Councillor H Gloster to MOVE and Councillor Murphy to SECOND:
Increasing and promoting the Warm Home Discount
This Council notes:
· The Warm Home Discount Scheme, a Government initiative administered by energy suppliers, provides eligible households with a £140 discount on their electricity bill between September and March each year which has remained fixed for over 9 years.
· Energy prices have increased significantly in recent years, with the costs of energy increasing by 40% in the last year alone.
· Additionally, Ofgem has recently set an unprecedented price cap hike, a measure which the End Fuel Poverty Coalition has predicted will propel a further 1.2 million people into fuel poverty (up from 4.1 million to 5.3 million).
· Following a consultation earlier this year, the government has pledged to increase the rebate in England and Wales and to expand the scheme so that an additional 780,000 households become eligible.
Council believes:
· That the Warm Home Discount is vital in helping to tackle fuel poverty.
· The £10 increase is wholly inadequate given price inflation over the last nine years and the increases proposed in the future.
· That many eligible households are not aware of the discount or how to apply for it.
This Council resolves:
· To ask the Chief Executive to write to the Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to urgently increase the value of the Warm Home Discount Scheme to reflect price inflation and future increases and to identify new ways to promote the rebate so many more eligible households are aware of it and apply for it.
Minutes:
Motion 1
Councillor Arnott MOVED and Councillor Lancaster SECONDED the
following MOTION:
Motion 1 - Oldhams Roads Are Not Racetracks For Criminals.
In 2020, close to 680m vehicle miles were travelled in Oldham. Given the sheer number of vehicle miles travelled, it is sadly inevitable that collisions and accidents will occur, even when drivers are law abiding and drive considerately.
On average 681 people are killed or seriously injured on the roads of Greater Manchester each year. Of all reported collisions, 58% involved a driver aged between 17 and 35 and a staggering 80% of all fatal incidents involved a male driver.
However, there is a dangerous group, of mostly young men and women, who consider the roads of Oldham as their own personal racetrack, and routinely and recklessly speed on our roads with no regard for the safety of themselves or others, putting other drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians in real danger of serious injury or worse.
A number of these vehicles are not taxed or insured and have been modified to increase speed and performance at the expense of safety and security. Speed cameras are sadly not enough as, our roads have become the plaything of these people with some using stolen vehicles and plates to race each other and then abandon those same vehicles also. Several vehicles are used in crimes such as burglaries, carjacking’s, transportation of narcotics, get away driving, prostitution, and illegal street racing.
This Council resolves :
· That the Chief Executive of Oldham Council, on behalf of the people of this Borough, write to the Division Commander of Oldham and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to demand that they take these vehicles off the road and target these groups of “boy racers” who consciously and deliberately set out to drive at speed, with reckless abandon putting the lives of others at risk.
· That the Council work with and give full use and access to GMP of cameras, buildings, and offices in implementing a crackdown.
· That Oldham Council share its records with GMP on reports of incidents which residents have reported and look to build a database which they can then target criminals with.
· That the Chief Executive of Oldham Council recommend that GMP should look to seize and crush vehicles that partake in these dangerous acts of driving as well as cash fines and points on their licence.
· That the Chief Executive of Oldham Council recommend that GMP look to deploy a team to patrol some of the worst highways from the evening to the early hours of the morning when many of these crimes take place.
· That Oldham Council takes a zero-tolerance approach to all crimes that involve narcotics and will support GMP in their efforts to test and arrest those driving whilst under the influence of narcotics.
AMENDMENT
Councillor Chadderton MOVED and Councillor Williams SECONDED the following AMENDMENT:
Delete Paragraph 3 and insert:
We acknowledge that the majority of Oldham residents are responsible drivers, who do not as a matter of course, drive in a way that would endanger themselves or anyone else. However, there are a minority of residents that continue to speed and drive in a dangerous manner and this isn’t acceptable.
Over recent years, Oldham Council has deployed a combination of evidence based, date led Engineering, Enforcement and Engineering initiatives. This has been successful and in recent years we have seen a steady decrease in the number of road traffic injury collisions in line with national targets.
We currently undertake a range of initiatives designed to reduce dangerous driving and teach young people about road safety as part of our Road Safety Education and Training which is delivered in schools and the local community.
However, Oldham Council can only do so much on its own. The responsibility for catching and taking action against dangerous drivers falls to Greater Manchester Police and we would welcome a more proactive approach from GMP on dealing with these drivers, particularly in some our ‘hot spot’ areas.
Bullet point 1 – delete ‘…to demand that they take these vehicles off the road and target these groups of “boy racers” who consciously and deliberately set out to drive at speed, with reckless abandon putting the lives of others at risk’
And insert ‘to ask for clarity on what is Greater Manchester Police’s policy in seizing cars that are involved in dangerous driving, causing a nuisance or organised crime and how many cars have been seized in Oldham over the past five years’.
Delete bullet points 2 & 3
Delete bullet point 6 and insert
· Ask how much money and resource GMP deploy in Oldham to tackle speeding and dangerous driving and how this compares with the other nine Greater Manchester Authorities.
The amended motion to read:
In 2020, close to 680m vehicle miles were travelled in Oldham. Given the sheer number of vehicle miles travelled, it is sadly inevitable that collisions and accidents will occur, even when drivers are law abiding and drive considerately.
On average 681 people are killed or seriously injured on the roads of Greater Manchester each year. Of all reported collisions, 58% involved a driver aged between 17 and 35 and a staggering 80% of all fatal incidents involved a male driver.
We acknowledge that the majority of Oldham residents are responsible drivers, who do not as a matter of course, drive in a way that would endanger themselves or anyone else. However, there are a minority of residents that continue to speed and drive in a dangerous manner and this isn’t acceptable.
Over recent years, Oldham Council has deployed a combination of evidence based, date led Engineering, Enforcement and Engineering initiatives. This has been successful and in recent years we have seen a steady decrease in the number of road traffic injury collisions in line with national targets.
We currently undertake a range of initiatives designed to reduce dangerous driving and teach young people about road safety as part of our Road Safety Education and Training which is delivered in schools and the local community.
However, Oldham Council can only do so much on its own. The responsibility for catching and taking action against dangerous drivers falls to Greater Manchester Police and we would welcome a more proactive approach from GMP on dealing with these drivers, particularly in some our ‘hot spot’ areas.
A number of these vehicles are not taxed or insured and have been modified to increase speed and performance at the expense of safety and security. Speed cameras are sadly not enough as, our roads have become the plaything of these people with some using stolen vehicles and plates to race each other and then abandon those same vehicles also. Several vehicles are used in crimes such as burglaries, carjacking’s, transportation of narcotics, get away driving, prostitution, and illegal street racing.
This Council resolves :
· That the Chief Executive of Oldham Council recommend that GMP should look to seize and crush vehicles that partake in these dangerous acts of driving as well as cash fines and points on their licence.
· That the Chief Executive of Oldham Council recommend that GMP look to deploy a team to patrol some of the worst highways from the evening to the early hours of the morning when many of these crimes take place.
· Ask how much money and resource GMP deploy in Oldham to tackle speeding and dangerous driving and how this compares with the other nine Greater Manchester Authorities.
Councillor Al-Hamdani spoke to the amendment.
Councillor Hobin spoke against the amendment.
Councillor Arnott exercised his right of reply.
Councillor Chadderton exercised her right of reply.
A vote was then taken on the AMENDMENT, which was CARRIED and became the SUBSTANTIVE MOTION.
Councillor C. Gloster spoke in favour of the motion.
Councillor Woodvine spoke in favour of the motion.
Councillor Arnott exercised his right of reply.
On being put to the vote, the MOTION as amended was CARRIED.
RESOLVED that:
· That the Chief Executive of Oldham Council be asked, on behalf of the people of this Borough, to write to the Division Commander of Oldham and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to ask for clarity on what is Greater Manchester Police’s policy in seizing cars that are involved in dangerous driving, causing a nuisance or organised crime and how many cars have been seized in Oldham over the past five years.
· That the Chief Executive of Oldham Council recommend that GMP should look to seize and crush vehicles that partake in these dangerous acts of driving as well as cash fines and points on their licence.
· That the Chief Executive of Oldham Council recommend that GMP look to deploy a team to patrol some of the worst highways from the evening to the early hours of the morning when many of these crimes take place.
· That the Chief Executive asks how much money and resource GMP deploy in Oldham to tackle speeding and dangerous driving and how this compares with the other nine Greater Manchester Authorities.
Motion 2
Councillor Al-Hamdani MOVED and Councillor Williamson SECONDED the following MOTION:
Motion 2 - Time for the Fair Game manifesto in football
Council believes that football, the national game in the UK, is currently in crisis.
COVID-19 has devastated the revenue of many lower-league clubs, with the loss of some notables, and dozens more clubs teetering on the brink of survival. Frequently bad management has gone unnoticed or ignored and clubs are run unsustainably, putting at risk all the history, heritage, and economic benefit they bring to an area – often in pursuit of short-term gain.
Council believes that football clubs are not ordinary businesses; they are historic sporting institutions that are both a civic and community asset, and a source of pride and unity, in their hometown or city.
Council therefore supports Fair Game, a national campaign that seeks radical reform of the way football is managed and run, specifically its call for:
· An independent regulator for the sport.
· A refocus on ‘values’ rather than profit.
· The establishment of a Sustainability Index, which will reallocate the payments made to clubs to reward those which are run well, respect equality standards and properly engage with their fans and their community.
· Fans to be given the final say on any proposed change to a club’s ‘crown jewels’, including the club’s name, nickname, colours, badge and the geographical location from where the club plays.
Council also notes that former Sports Minister Tracey Crouch MP is about to publish a Government-commissioned fan-led review into football governance and believes that some of its findings will mirror Fair Game’s aspirations.
As a Co-operative Council, we would also like to see football clubs co-operatively owned by their fans, rather than owners with no connection to a town or with more interest in extracting profits from the club, rather than the team’s on-pitch performance.
Council therefore resolves to:
· Ask the Chief Executive to write to the Minister for Sport, our local Members of Parliament, and the Chair of the Local Government Association Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, asking them to support and work towards implementing Fair Game's manifesto and the findings of the fan-led review led by Tracey Crouch MP.
· Ask the Council’s representative to the Co-operative Council’s Innovation Network to request the CCIN investigate how best member councils can support the registration of their local football clubs as Assets of Community Value and facilitate their future purchase and operation, when the opportunity arises, as fan-owned co-operatives.
Councillor Byrne spoke in favour of the motion.
On being put to the vote, the MOTION was unanimously CARRIED.
RESOLVED that the Council:
· Declare its support for the Fair Game manifesto, ‘Solutions for our National Game’, and calls on other councils to join us in our support.
· Ask the Chief Executive to write to the Minister for Sport, our local Members of Parliament, and the Chair of the Local Government Association Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, asking them to support and work towards implementing Fair Game's manifesto and the findings of the fan-led review led by Tracey Crouch MP.
· Ask the Council’s representative to the Co-operative Council’s Innovation Network to request the CCIN investigate how best member councils can support the registration of their local football clubs as Assets of Community Value and facilitate their future purchase and operation, when the opportunity arises, as fan-owned co-operatives.
Councillor Woodvine MOVED and Councillor Byrne SECONDED the following MOTION:
Motion 3 – Earthshot Oldham
In 2020 H.R.H the Duke of Cambridge founded the Earthshot Prize, inspiring innovative ideas and incentivising change, across this country and around the world. It is ambitious and prestigious. A year on Oldham can also be inspired by the words and work of the Royal Family and these ‘Earthshots’ – simple but ambitious goals which, if achieved by 2030, will improve life for us all, and for generations to come.
Each Earthshot is underpinned by scientifically agreed targets including the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and other internationally recognised measures to help repair our planet. Together, they form a unique set of challenges rooted in science, which aim to generate new ways of thinking, as well as new technologies, systems, policies and solutions.
By bringing these five critical issues together this Council can recognise the interconnectivity between environmental challenges and the urgent need to tackle them together. Like the Prize, this Council can aim to turn the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism, by highlighting the ability of human ingenuity to bring about change, and inspiring collective action.
As it is a decade of action this Council notes that:
· Species face extinction as habitats are destroyed, but destroying nature threatens our lives too. Forests and natural land are vital to human health and happiness, helping to prevent global warming and producing oxygen that we breathe.
· Thousands of children in Oldham breathe toxic air every day, causing countless deaths that could be prevented. We refuse to accept this – clean air and healthy lives are within our reach.
· Warmer temperatures, pollution, plastic and harmful fishing practices are having devastating impacts on the ocean, putting life underwater in jeopardy but this decade we can choose to make our ocean healthy.
· The world we have built is not like this; we throw everything away, and this is harming our planet but we have the power to build something better.
· Carbon in the atmosphere is making our planet warmer, to levels which threaten all life on Earth but it is not too late; if we act now, we can make the world a better, more sustainable home for everyone.
By 2030 this Council chooses to:
· Repair and preserve the habitats that our animals need to live, from forests and grasslands, to wetlands, lakes and rivers.
· End outdated transport that emits toxic fumes, remove pollution from the air using both technology and nature, and eliminate the burning of fossil fuels, choosing 100% renewable energy for everyone – from our towns to villages.
· Bring forward a new era where everyone uses the ocean sustainably and to refuse to accept a world where turtles, dolphins and coral reefs vanish from our seas.
· Eliminate food waste, single-use packaging, and inspire a new generation of people, companies, and industries to reuse, repurpose, and recycle.
· Build a system that can work forever, where people in Oldham can live safe, healthy and happy lives, without waste.
· Fix our climate so that life everywhere can thrive for generations to come.
As we must act now to protect our future this Council resolves to:
· Protect and restore nature in Oldham, ensuring that for the first time in human history the natural world around us is growing and not shrinking.
· Clean our air, ensuring that everybody in Oldham breathes clean, healthy air – at the World Health Organisation standard, or better.
· Revive our oceans, repairing and preserving our oceans for future generations.
· Build a waste-free Oldham, and world, where nothing goes to waste and where the leftovers of one process become the raw materials of the next – just like they do in nature.
· Fix our climate by cutting out Carbon and building a Carbon-neutral economy that lets every culture and community in Oldham thrive.
AMENDMENT
Councillor Jabbar MOVED and Councillor Roberts SECONDED the following AMENDMENT:
Insert as new para 2: Oldham Green New Deal Strategy sets a target of 2030 Carbon Neutrality for the borough.
Add at end of notes (after bullet point 5) For many years now, Oldham Council has been a leading council regionally, nationally and internationally in a number of key areas in climate change strategy and community energy. Further to this, in September 2019 Oldham Council declared Climate Emergency and in March 2020 adopted the UK's first local authority Green New Deal Strategy
Delete: From by 2030 …to …generations to come
Insert As at the beginning of we must act now
Add at end of bullet point 1 - by amongst other policies delivering the Northern Roots Country Park and bio-diversity net gain through the planning process
Add at end of bullet point 2 - through, for example, our commitment at a Greater Manchester level and in Oldham to the Bee Network, Bus Franchising and the Clean Air Plan.
Insert at beginning of bullet point 3 Support work to and add at end continue to implement our plan to reduce the use of single use plastics.
Insert at beginning of bullet point 5: Do out bit to f (delete capital F) and add at end – including using the policies in Places for Everyone - Chapter 5 of the Places for Everyone (PfE) Publication Plan 2021 is on Sustainable and Resilient Places and includes a section on Addressing Climate Change which is set within Greater Manchester’s vision to be at the forefront of action on climate change by becoming a carbon neutral city region by 2038.
Add new bullet point 6
Add new bullet point 7
· Ask the Chief Executive to write to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, inviting him to visit Oldham to discuss our innovative and leading-edge Green New Deal plans and proposals, and to identify how the Government can help us to meet our ambitious carbon neutrality targets for both the Council and the Borough, and secure jobs and training opportunities for Oldham residents in the key growth Green Technology and Services sector.
Revised motion to read:
In 2020 H.R.H the Duke of Cambridge founded the Earthshot Prize, inspiring innovative ideas and incentivising change, across this country and around the world. It is ambitious and prestigious. A year on Oldham can also be inspired by the words and work of the Royal Family and these ‘Earthshots’ – simple but ambitious goals which, if achieved by 2030, will improve life for us all, and for generations to come.
Oldham Green New Deal Strategy sets a target of 2030 Carbon Neutrality for the borough.
Each Earthshot is underpinned by scientifically agreed targets including the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and other internationally recognised measures to help repair our planet. Together, they form a unique set of challenges rooted in science, which aim to generate new ways of thinking, as well as new technologies, systems, policies and solutions.
By bringing these five critical issues together this Council can recognise the interconnectivity between environmental challenges and the urgent need to tackle them together. Like the Prize, this Council can aim to turn the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism, by highlighting the ability of human ingenuity to bring about change, and inspiring collective action.
As it is a decade of action this Council notes that:
· Species face extinction as habitats are destroyed, but destroying nature threatens our lives too. Forests and natural land are vital to human health and happiness, helping to prevent global warming and producing oxygen that we breathe.
· Thousands of children in Oldham breathe toxic air every day, causing countless deaths that could be prevented. We refuse to accept this – clean air and healthy lives are within our reach.
· Warmer temperatures, pollution, plastic and harmful fishing practices are having devastating impacts on the ocean, putting life underwater in jeopardy but this decade we can choose to make our ocean healthy.
· The world we have built is not like this; we throw everything away, and this is harming our planet but we have the power to build something better.
· Carbon in the atmosphere is making our planet warmer, to levels which threaten all life on Earth but it is not too late; if we act now, we can make the world a better, more sustainable home for everyone.
For many years now, Oldham Council has been a leading council regionally, nationally and internationally in a number of key areas in climate change strategy and community energy. Further to this, in September 2019 Oldham Council declared Climate Emergency and in March 2020 adopted the UK's first local authority Green New Deal Strategy.
As we must act now to protect our future this Council resolves to:
· Clean our air, ensuring that everybody in Oldham breathes clean, healthy air – at the World Health Organisation standard, or better through, for example, our commitment at a Greater Manchester level and in Oldham to the Bee Network, Bus Franchising and the Clean Air Plan.
· Support work to revive our oceans, repairing and preserving our oceans for future generations and continue to implement our plan to reduce the use of single use plastics.
· Build a waste-free Oldham, and world, where nothing goes to waste and where the leftovers of one process become the raw materials of the next – just like they do in nature.
· Do our bit to fix our climate by cutting out Carbon and building a Carbon-neutral economy that lets every culture and community in Oldham thrive including using the policies in Places for Everyone - Chapter 5 of the Places for Everyone (PfE) Publication Plan 2021 is on Sustainable and Resilient Places and includes a section on Addressing Climate Change which is set within Greater Manchester’s vision to be at the forefront of action on climate change by becoming a carbon neutral city region by 2038.
· Deliver the vision, Objectives and Pledges in the in the Oldham Green New Strategy, including the 2030 carbon neutrality target for the borough.
· Write to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, inviting him to visit Oldham to discuss our innovative and leading-edge Green New Deal plans and proposals, and to identify how the Government can help us to meet our ambitious carbon neutrality targets for both the Council and the Borough, and secure jobs and training opportunities for Oldham residents in the key growth Green Technology and Services sector.
A vote was then taken on the AMENDMENT, which was CARRIED and became the SUBSTANTIVE MOTION.
On being put to the vote, the MOTION as amended was CARRIED.
RESOLVED that:
· The Council would protect and restore nature in Oldham, ensuring that for the first time in human history the natural world around us is growing and not shrinking by amongst other policies delivering the Northern Roots Country Park and bio-diversity net gain through the planning process.
· The Council would clean our air, ensuring that everybody in Oldham breathes clean, healthy air – at the World Health Organisation standard, or better through, for example, our commitment at a Greater Manchester level and in Oldham to the Bee Network, Bus Franchising and the Clean Air Plan.
· The Council would support work to revive our oceans, repairing and preserving our oceans for future generations and continue to implement our plan to reduce the use of single use plastics.
· The Council would build a waste-free Oldham, and world, where nothing goes to waste and where the leftovers of one process become the raw materials of the next – just like they do in nature.
· The Council would do our bit to fix our climate by cutting out Carbon and building a Carbon-neutral economy that lets every culture and community in Oldham thrive including using the policies in Places for Everyone - Chapter 5 of the Places for Everyone (PfE) Publication Plan 2021 is on Sustainable and Resilient Places and includes a section on Addressing Climate Change which is set within Greater Manchester’s vision to be at the forefront of action on climate change by becoming a carbon neutral city region by 2038.
· The Council would deliver the vision, Objectives and Pledges in the in the Oldham Green New Strategy, including the 2030 carbon neutrality target for the borough.
· The Chief Executive be asked to write to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, inviting him to visit Oldham to discuss our innovative and leading-edge Green New Deal plans and proposals, and to identify how the Government can help us to meet our ambitious carbon neutrality targets for both the Council and the Borough, and secure jobs and training opportunities for Oldham residents in the key growth Green Technology and Services sector.
Motion 4
Councillor H Gloster MOVED and Councillor Murphy SECONDED the following MOTION:
Motion 4 – Increasing and promoting the Warm Home Discount
This Council notes:
· The Warm Home Discount Scheme, a Government initiative administered by energy suppliers, provides eligible households with a £140 discount on their electricity bill between September and March each year which has remained fixed for over 9 years.
· Energy prices have increased significantly in recent years, with the costs of energy increasing by 40% in the last year alone.
· Additionally, Ofgem has recently set an unprecedented price cap hike, a measure which the End Fuel Poverty Coalition has predicted will propel a further 1.2 million people into fuel poverty (up from 4.1 million to 5.3 million).
· Following a consultation earlier this year, the government has pledged to increase the rebate in England and Wales and to expand the scheme so that an additional 780,000 households become eligible.
Council believes:
· That the Warm Home Discount is vital in helping to tackle fuel poverty.
· The £10 increase is wholly inadequate given price inflation over the last nine years and the increases proposed in the future.
· That many eligible households are not aware of the discount or how to apply for it.
This Council resolves
· To ask the Chief Executive to write to the Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to urgently increase the value of the Warm Home Discount Scheme to reflect price inflation and future increases and to identify new ways to promote the rebate so many more eligible households are aware of it and apply.
On being put to the vote, the MOTION was CARRIED.
RESOLVED that the Chief Executive be asked to write to the Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to urgently increase the value of the Warm Home Discount Scheme to reflect price inflation and future increases and to identify new ways to promote the rebate so many more eligible households are aware of it and apply.