Cllr Garth Harkness
I write following the press statement from the Leader of Oldham Council, Jim McMahon. Under the District Investment Fund In total, over the next two years £720,000 worth of funding will be handed out to local projects so they can help improve neighbourhoods and the lives of residents.
Saddleworth and Lees District partnership had their budget cut by nearly a third have been given £54,000 for projects on footpaths and allotments with other bids such as improving parking rejected. This accounts for 7.5% of the total for Saddleworth and Lees.
There are 8 District partnerships looking at others such as Chadderton £106,000 and Oldham West £263,000 It is hard reading for Saddleworth and Lees which has 52% of the landmass of the borough. Yet again Saddleworth being ignored. This just is not good enough.
Cllr Garth Harkness
That sounds about right….
…that was a party political broadcast from the Liberal Democratic Party
Is there an election coming up Garth?!
So now we’ve had a political statement from the Labour Party and one from the Lib Dems on Saddleworth News
Oh I miss the good old days when Saddleworth News used to go out and proactively get a balanced view on local matters rather than just reactively publish any old tosh sent into them by politicians looking for a soap box
PS other parties are available (including Independents!)
Crikey! Is it election time already?
This has been going on for years, it isn’t new. Unfortunately, despite continuous assurances from the representatives put forward and elected by the party that Councillor Harkness is a member of, nothing has ever been done to challenge the inequality that he rightly speaks about.
I was present at a meeting of the said District Partnership last year, in the public seats, when Councillor Stretton explained that the money the council borrowed (£10 million) to repair road surfaces in the borough was to be shared equally amongst the district partnerships in the borough, despite Saddleworth having far and away the most roads mile for mile, and of course, the roads worst affected by the weather.
When she was casually and politely asked why this was the case, she replied that money is evenly distributed on all other levels, such as tackling deprivation and social issues etc., therefore it is only fair that the same be done with the pot of money for highways. As Councillor Harkness has correctly illustrated above, this is clearly not true, however, everyone just more or less accepted it and capitulated. It was quite embarrassing to be frank. I wanted to say something but, as is the fine democratic way, was not allowed to as members of the public are not ‘permitted’ to speak and can only ask questions that are submitted before an elusive deadline which is never promoted.
Nothing goes Saddleworth’s way, even when it is something that we desperately need.
It seems to me though that the only thing that matters to our politicians is whether their party can gain/regain control of Oldham council. It’s all about ego and not about representing the people of Saddleworth properly.
This is typical of Liebour if you live in an area that has three Liebour Councillors then your will always have more money than the rest, Having attended a few of the meetings you usually find that bids for money have been submitted before any one else knows there is money, just look at Hollinwood & Failsworth most goes into Failsworth (wonder why) Don’t knock Cllr Harkness for standing up for This area its what he was elected to do
Dear Silver Surfer,
I think we agree with each other about the negative effects of party politics. With reference to your remark about attacking Cllr Harkness I have to disagree. Local politics should be about clarity and being able to ask questions of elected representatives. In short, I’m not asking for an analysis of the problem, but simply what Cllr Harkness intends to do about it? It was the only thing missing from an otherwise informative letter. I think it’s beneficial for Saddleworth that more information of this nature be made available.
Dear Readers,
I very well understand the frustration which we all are going through, However just by writing about problems will not solve problems.
I have made my mind up, I think it will be better to have councilor in Saddleworth from the party which is in power locally so they can provide better funds for the area.
If that means voting for Labour, be it.
Richard
we have got a labour MP. Not that she can be bothered but if the councillors fawning around her will not be persuaded to give more money to Saddleworth then some tu’ppeny ha’penny local councillor won’t make a difference. The issue here is geography. Oldham council don’t want Saddleworth as it does not have enough people to generate enough council tax to cover local services. As people say we have 52% of the Oldhsm council area but probably generate less than 20% of the counciul tax so that, comounded by the hard done to labour attitude that we are all rich up here means crap money and unsupported local services. Vote for someone who lives here and cares about the place not someone who is using it as a stepping stone to the higher and grubbier offices of local politics.
I await being shot down in flames with reference to accurate poll tax figures!!!
Nice one Garth. I like the 52% land mass of the borough as if this means anything at all.
Is representation to be linked to land-ownership? How very feudal!