transparency – Saddleworth Liberal Democrats

13Jul 2022 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Liberal Democrats deliver more transparency on public decisions

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…

31May 2021 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Liberal Democrats delivery on transparency promise

Borough news, Saddleworth News

The introduction of new standing orders for Saddleworth Parish Council has delivered a promise from Saddleworth’s Liberal Democrats to increase public involvement and transparency in the way the Council works. They have scrapped a clause from the previous standing orders which required members of the public to submit questions to the Council in writing two working days before the date of a meeting. With Council meetings taking place on Mondays, that meant that questions would in practice have to be submitted on the Wednesday of the week before. This meant that it was virtually impossible for urgent matters to be brought to the Council to be addressed. Sam Al-Hamdani, the leader of Liberal Democrats on the Parish Council, said; “Councils must be as close to the communities they serve as…

24Nov 2020 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Online-only consultation now includes those most affected

Borough news

With £8 million in cuts promised for next year, Oldham’s Council was failing to ask for the opinions and feedback from the very people who will be most affected by these cuts. Local Liberal Democrat campaigner, Mark Kenyon, had discovered that details of the proposed cuts and the way for residents to give council feedback could only be found online: “Despite Boris’s promises to help with financing, Oldham’s Labour Council is proposing nearly £2.5 million of cuts to services for those in sheltered housing, adult social care and supported living. Many users of these services don’t use the internet.” The proposed cuts are due to begin in April next year, less than five months away. Mark Kenyon continued: “You can’t raise fears in people, then fail to give them any…

20Jul 2020 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Lib Dems bid to block corporate lawsuits watering down protections post-Brexit

Parliamentary news

The Liberal Democrats have launched an attempt in Parliament to block corporations from using secretive tribunals to water down environmental or worker protections, and safeguard human rights and transparency in post-Brexit trade deals. Liberal Democrat MPs have tabled an amendment to the Trade Bill – which is due to be debated in the House of Commons on Monday – to require the Government to assess each new trade agreement’s impact on citizens’ rights with regard to gender, age, race, class and economic well-being. With separate amendments, the Party’s MPs will attempt to stop the Government from introducing controversial “investor-state dispute settlements” – better known as ISDS. Through such mechanisms, large overseas corporations can sue the UK if they believe that certain laws, such as environmental or worker protections, harm their…

Tag: transparency