Shoab Akhtar

Cllr Shoab Akhtar – Werneth Ward                                

My Ward priorities

·         Environment

·         Highways

·         Education

·         Health and Well-being

·         Hartford Mill Site

·         Music \room in Werneth Park

Work in thecommunity

•     Hartford Mill demolition is complete and the area is being cleared for a new development

•     Various roads across the ward have been resurfaced

•     Working with ASRA to address issues around phase 1 & 2 of Suthers development.

•     Parking issues enforcement consultation being carried out with residents onPrimrose Bank.

•     Keepmoat second phase in Primrose Bank and Suthers St is completed just environmental work needs to be completed.

•     Don’t Trash Oldham campaign succesfully carried out in Werneth and now enforcement action to be taken on key hotspot areas .

•     Werneth Park MUGA, a £35,000 grant from the Council’s Local Improvement Fund has been obtained hopefully this grant will lever in £105,000 from the Football Foundation funding for Playzones to make a real impact on sports provision for Werneth.

•     Tudor St pitch surface replacement funding bid to Football foundation will be submitted, however Council contribution is confirmed

Funded the following projects through the Councilor’s budget.

•     Children's Celebration Appeal

•     Coppice United

•     Grit Bins - Newport St, St Thomas Circle

•     Glodwick Dynamos FC

•     GM South Asian Women Support

•     Retaining Wall Chelmsford Street

•     Werneth Cricket Club fencing

•     Street Play Sessions

Participation on outside bodies and partnerships

Details of participation in groups and bodies attended as a representative of the Council.

•       Board member of Sixth Form College

•       Director of Oldham Enterprise Trust

•       West District Partnership

•       Primrose Community Centre

Achievements as Cabinet Member for Employment and Enterprise

•     Created two ambassador roles – Frank Rothwell – Business Ambassador and Anwar Ali - Social Enterprise Ambassador

•     Hosted Business Breakfasts with Ambassador for Business, Frank Rothwell.  Each with over 100 businesses in attendance at each event.

•     Launched the District Business Networks.  To date 2 events have taken place in Chadderton and Royton with another one planned for South Oldham shortly.

•     Produced 12 editions of the Oldham Council Business newsletter each of which goes out to 5,056 businesses/people.

•     Supported the 15th annual Oldham Business Awards celebrating business in the Borough.

•     Secured funding of £8.4m from the Levelling-up Fund for the creation of a Green Shoots Business Centre.

•     Our Build a Business events, which include a monthly networking coffee morning and Start Up Huddle, attracted 354 attendees with 98 1 to 1s delivered by the SME Champion.

•     Build a Business workshops were attended by 254 people.  Over a three-day series, attendees learned about setting up and running a business, the fundamentals of market research and how to use the BIPC’s business support databases, and how to protect their ideas in an introduction to Intellectual Property.

•     Start-Up Huddle continues to go from strength to strength and we ended the year with a Christmas marketplace.  30 local businesses booked stalls at the event at Oldham Library on the 7th December to exhibit their goods and services. Online, the huddle now boasts a Facebook group with 240 members.

Employment 

•     Restart contract- since winning a % of the Oldham Restart contract, we have started 832 residents onto the programme, 276 residents have secured paid employment so far and 155 of these are earning the required threshold to generate an outcome. We are over 100% on contract for customer and job starts, and in the months leading up to Christmas of 2022, Oldham Council were the highest performing provider across Greater Manchester for three months running, Oct, Nov and Dec 2022 for job starts!

•     JETS – as the JETS programme comes to its end we have had huge successes in delivery for Oldham, securing over 300 job outcomes, which take us over 200% to contract profile.

•     NCS – since the success of delivering the National Careers Service as a sub-contractor of the Growth company, we have won exclusivity in Oldham to deliver in Oldham, now with the new prime, Seetec. This has increased our contract value by 200%! Since starting the new contract in Oct 2022, Oldham Council is the best performing provider across Greater Manchester in the Seetec supply chain, and we are in discussions for growth, meaning more Oldham residents will be able to benefit from the increase in resources.

•     Removing Barriers to work in the NHS- since securing an extra £50,000 of AEB funds, we have delivered the first of three cohorts, generating in 25 engagements, 15 completing the full training programme and work experience placements and 11 securing a paid job within the NHS so far. The next cohort starts in March 2022!

•     GOW Job Fair – September 2022- 61Employers and 1,143 Members of the public in attendance. 678 Jobs; 152 Apprenticeships; 120 Work experience / Volunteering on offer on the day with a result of 200+ residents gaining employment since attending the event so far!

•     NCA JOB FAIR – January 2023 - GOW working in partnership with Northern Care Alliance, put on a hugely successful NHS Health and Social Care Recruitment Event. 308 residents attended the event; 76 candidates successful with interviews for various NCA roles; 122 expressions of interest in Volunteer Hospital roles.

•     GOW Stats: April 2022 – Present- 2096 employment related opportunities created; 1419 employment related opportunities filled with Oldham residents (target was 1250 by March 2023).

•     Kickstart – 2022 - 72 Kickstart positions filled; 49  filled within Oldham Council; 23  filled for local employers, using Oldham Council as a gateway provider

Markets

•     Introduced free parking after 3:00pm in the market car park

•     Indoor Market traders rent reduced by 50%

•     Work has started at Spindles for the new market hall

Contactme

E:shoab.akhtar@oldham.gov.uk

T: 0161 287 2005

M: 07973 101633

Twitter; @shoaboldham

Facebook: www.facebook.com/shoabakhtar
Surgeries

Please contact me by phone or email for any issues or problems.