Cycling network improvements targeted by Saddleworth Liberal Democrats

Cycling network improvements targeted by Saddleworth Liberal Democrats

Borough news
Saddleworth Liberal Democrats are already working on the next round of cycle routes for the district, even before the current proposals are brought forward.  Having set key priorities for the network – connecting village centres, travel interchanges and parks – they drew up key routes that would connect existing cycle routes to those areas, and have put forward those proposals to the highways engineers in charge of the Active Travel Fund plans.  Local Liberal Democrat Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani said: “It’s really important to have a vision for how we are going to join up the existing cycle routes that we have, and with new work that is going ahead. “For example, the routes in Greenfield are going to connect a new Tameside loop route. I’ve proposed that the next extension should connect…
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Council fails to deliver equality objectives again

Borough news
Oldham Council has again failed to deliver its new equality objectives and strategy – with them not being ready in time for the November Council meeting. The Council had a statutory obligation to renew the objectives at the start of 2020 – well before any delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but delayed them, claiming that they needed to ensure that they aligned with the forthcoming strategy in order to be effective. However, despite this being repeatedly flagged by Liberal Democrat Councillor Al-Hamdani, the Council failed to bring them forward in June, September and again in November, despite saying that they were a priority and were nearly ready. Councillor Al-Hamdani said: “What it boils down to is fairness. That’s what equality policies must deliver – and after a year of waiting for this…
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Lib Dems uncover ‘blindspot’ in data on COVID-19 impact on BAME communities

Parliamentary news
The Liberal Democrats have exposed the Government's failure to collect data on the ethnicity of those being tested for COVID-19, and outcomes in terms of the number of people who have tested positive for the virus, and the number who have died.Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat Equalities spokesperson, asked the Department of Health for this key data, broken down by ethnicity. She received a response stating that that data is “not currently available in the format requested.” Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat Equalities Spokesperson said:  “The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on BAME communities is deeply alarming. The Government must do everything in its power to understand what lies behind this worrying trend.  “It is shocking that the Government appear not to have collected data on ethnicity as part of their COVID-19 testing programme. This leaves a huge blindspot in…
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