Sam Al-Hamdani – Page 11 – Saddleworth Liberal Democrats

18Jul 2022 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Calm during Council chaos

Borough news, CSE, health and social care

In another extraordinarily chaotic Council meeting last night, councillors from all parties managed to put aside rancour for a few minutes to support a Liberal Democrat motion on child safeguarding. Mark Kenyon, Liberal Democrat councillor for Grotton, Springhead & Lees, said: ”The recent report into CSE in the borough is a challenge for the Council to do things differently. My motion, which was passed last night, is a straightforward response that we can do straight away – it will mean that every single time council makes a decision, it’ll be explicitly weighed against the potential risk to children and on the level of Council spending locally. “A lot of the time politics in this borough seems to be a pantomime and last night’s meeting was no exception. I’m appalled with…

18Jul 2022 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Oldham care homes ranked in bottom 10 in the country

Borough news, health and social care

A ‘revolution’ in social care funding is required to address Oldham’s failing care homes according to Liberal Democrat Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE. Research carried out by the online care home comparison site ‘Lottie’, found that Oldham ranked within the bottom ten local authorities for care home provision in the UK. Councillor Sykes said: “This is a damning revelation. The UK has an ageing population. It’s estimated that the demand for social care will rise 50% to nearly 1.5 million people by 2039. Yet in this year’s Queen’s Speech, the Conservative government haven’t brought forward a single measure on social care. Nothing short of a social care funding revolution is needed if we are going to address this problem. “The government must act to ensure that social care does not…

18Jul 2022 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Lib Dems Blast Barnes

Borough news, fairer council

Wednesday’s Oldham Council meeting was another extraordinarily chaotic affair after which local Liberal Democrats have condemned Conservative Councillor Robert Barnes who represents Chadderton South. https://twitter.com/CharGreenLDR/status/1547546189222010881?s=20&t=lx_hR9HtOut7XKr83D5R6w Mark Kenyon, Liberal Democrat councillor for Grotton, Springhead & Lees, said: “Local Conservative voters must be wondering what exactly it is they’ve done wrong to deserve a Tory councillor quite like Robert Barnes. “I speak to voters every single day and Conservative people tend to be fierce advocates for the value of tradition and playing by the rules. They also tend to be keenly interested in the council getting things done rather than waffling on. He continued: “So there must be a lot of head scratching going on after seeing Barnes’ performance on Wednesday. Barnes repeatedly refused to follow the rules, completely ignored the Mayor…

13Jul 2022 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Clean Air Zone: More than £3 million spent on signs, Liberal Democrats reveal

Borough news, environment

Information obtained by Oldham’s Liberal Democrats has revealed that Transport for Greater Manchester have spent more than £3 million on signage for Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s Clean Air Zone. Oldham’s Liberal Democrat Leader, councillor Howard Sykes issued Burnham’s Mayoral office with a Freedom of Information request which asked how much money had been spent on CAZ signs to date. The £3.04 million sum was paid to the public works contractor McCann Ltd for the CAZ signs that are spread across Greater Manchester. A further £120,000 was paid to McCann for the ‘under review stickers’ that were used after the original Clean Air Zone was paused. Councillor Sykes said, “It is ridiculous that such a large sum of money has already been spent on signage when we still don’t know…

13Jul 2022 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Liberal Democrats deliver more transparency on public decisions

Borough news, fairer council

Oldham Council is changing its approach to recording Cabinet decisions after local Liberal Democrat councillor Sam Al-Hamdani raised concerns over a lack of transparency when making commercially sensitive decisions. Until last month, when decisions were made using information from reports which were not put in the public domain, the minutes of the decisions simply showed “that the recommendations as contained within commercially sensitive report be approved”. Councillor Al-Hamdani said: “That is simply not good enough. That report is not made public, so that minute simply doesn’t tell the public what the Cabinet has agreed to do, and they have no means of finding out. “We work for the people of Oldham, and all the decisions that we take should be transparent. No-one should have to hunt to find out what…

11Jul 2022 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Funding for infant free school meals in Oldham slashed by more than £200,000

Borough news

The government has slashed funding for free school meals for 4–7-year-olds in Oldham by £212,797 in real terms, shocking new figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats have revealed. The party have slammed the government for “short-changing our children.” Oldham’s Liberal Democrat Leader, councillor Howard Sykes MBE said: “Universal Infant Free School Meals were introduced by the Liberal Democrats, to support all pupils in reception, Year 1 and Year 2. However, since the policy was introduced seven years ago, the Conservatives have increased funding per pupil by just 4 pence, from £2.30 to £2.34, or an increase of 1.7%. Had the funding increased with inflation, it would currently stand at least £2.46 per pupil. This amounts to a real-terms cut of £35.8 million this year across the UK, or £22.80 per…

11Jul 2022 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Putting local children first

Borough news, CSE, fairer council

Oldham & Saddleworth’s Liberal Democrat councillors have said that the report into historic safeguarding and CSE in the borough is a challenge to put children at the heart of everything the Council does and so have submitted a motion for the next Council Meeting on 13th July. Mark Kenyon, Liberal Democrat councillor for Grotton, Springhead & Lees, said: “The implications of Newsam & Ridgway’s report will take a long while to unpick – we have 50 outstanding questions alone – but there’s two things we can do straight away to make a change. Our motion for the next Council meeting asks that all future Council decisions made either by officers or councillors be explicitly weighed against the potential risk to children and on the level of Council spending locally.” Mark…

08Jul 2022 by Sam Al-Hamdani

50 questions for Burnham and council bosses

Borough news, CSE, domestic abuse and violence

Liberal Democrat councillors have said that the report into historic safeguarding and CSE in the borough is just the start of a rigorous investigation into what went wrong for Sophie and other children. They have submitted 50 questions to Council Chief Executive Harry Catherall, Greater Manchester’s Mayor Andy Burnham and to the authors of the report, Gary Newsam and Malcolm Ridgway. Mark Kenyon, Liberal Democrat councillor for Grotton, Springhead & Lees, said: “The report raises more questions than it answers. It was intended to give us all assurance that CSE was and is being targeted effectively. While these questions are outstanding, none of us can have that assurance.” Questions being asked include: why the reports authors weren’t allowed free access to GMP records, why only half of the 104 people…

08Jul 2022 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Government leaves local councils £10 billion short for social care costs

Borough news, health and social care

Oldham’s Liberal Democrats have slammed Conservative ministers after research from the Conservative dominated County Councils’ Network revealed that the governments planned social care reforms would leave a £10 billion funding gap in the sector. Government Ministers had previously said that local councils would have to find their own ways to raise funds. Oldham’s Liberal Democrat Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE said: “While Conservative MPs worry about who the next Prime Minister will be, the real issues like social care funding are being side-lined. The government is telling councils to cover the costs when everyone knows the money isn’t there. All the while, the social care sector is haemorrhaging staff and the government won’t even listen to their own Conservative colleagues in local government.” In the wake of the pandemic and…

02Jul 2022 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Out with the old – what about the new

Borough news, CSE, domestic abuse and violence

At this week’s [27/06/22] meeting of full Council, GM Mayor Andy Burnham said that former Chief Constable Ian Hopkins was replaced because of a lack of progress in providing information to the CSE inquiry in Oldham. This contradicts the statements put out at the time that he had resigned because of the police being put into special measures. It also fails to address the subsequent 11-month gap between his resignation and ANY information being provided to the CSE inquiry, and fails to explain why information was only provided on one of the 11 cases under review – with that one showing serious failures on the part of GMP. Liberal Democrat spokesperson Sam Al-Hamdani said: “This is an absolute failure. “GMP has been warned about failing victims of domestic abuse repeatedly…

Author: Sam Al-Hamdani