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Spending row on £200,000 for N-W in bloom
Reporter: Jennifer Hollamby
Date online: 01/07/2009
An ugly row is brewing over Oldham Council’s decision to spend £200,000 on sprucing up the town centre as part of Oldham’s North-West in Bloom entry.
After council staff last week unveiled the new look old town hall, complete with colourful paintings by local artists, Councillor Dave Hibbert attacked the moves, saying that the money would be better spent on new alleygates across the borough.
He said: “The council has decided to spend £200,000 on hanging baskets and planters in Yorkshire Street, where nobody lives, and on cartoons on the boards over the windows of the empty town hall.
“Their justification for this is a pretty town centre will make people feel better and that it will encourage outside developers to invest in the borough. None of the £200,000 will be spent on other constituent town centres.”
As well as the old town hall paintings, which include reproductions from a number of well-known artists, including John Stanley Bates and Harry Rutherford, floral displays and trees have been installed around the town centre and in the New Deal for Communities Area, Fitton Hill. St Mary’s Way is also being developed as a wildflower garden as part of the scheme, alongside a new gateway garden in Ashton Road.
Councillor Hibbert added: “Nobody would doubt the attractiveness of flowers, but should they be such a priority that the council spends £200,000 of council taxpayers’ money on them? The flowers should be provided out of existing parks budgets.”
But council leader, Councillor Howard Sykes, hit back, saying: “If Dave Hibbert thinks that all the money for this should come from the parks budget then which parks does he think we should close and rip all the trees from to fund it.
“That’s what we’d have to do if we were to pay for it entirely out of the parks budget. Would he like to see Chadderton Hall Park being closed?
“This is about bigging up the town centre. Not everybody lives here, but people come to visit here, people are employed here and that’s how the local economy works.”
Councillor Hibbert said: “This huge amount of money would be better spent on alleygating projects. Alleygates are extremely popular all across the borough. They provide security, peace of mind and an improved quality of life for thousands of residents. They reduce crime, remove rat-runs and create communal spaces for near-by residents and bring people together.”
Deputy leader, Councillor Jackie Stanton, said the council could afford the £200,000 spend because it had been planned for across different department budgets. She added: “It will be worth every penny. It will encourage people to come into the town centre, use the facilities here, shop here and spend their money locally.
“You only have to look at how much extra interest all the Christmas events create to see how things like this can benefit a town.
“If this puts a sense of pride back into our town centre, then we have achieved what we set out to achieve.
“There are many positive things going on with this entry. Children from Blue Coat School have been gaining valuable work experience with the parks department to plant a lot of our flowers.
“Many of these changes, including the paintings, will be permanent.
“The community safety strategy will go before cabinet in the next few months and we will allocate alleygates according to where there is a proven case that there is a need in a given area.”
She said the plan was to move the competition to different districts around the borough in future years, adding: “It’s sad that Councillor Hibbert has chosen to turn this into a political football.”
Have Your Say
How about using the £200,000 to renovate the inside of the town hall!? I know that it will take much more money, but it's a start, surely?
I'm all for improving the image of the town centre, but how about doing something more permanent?
I will shop in Oldham whether we have flowers or not as it is the nearest town. I can't see the justification in £200,000 being spent, for that the plant pots should be gold plated! And as for the paintings on the town hall being permanent, does that mean that it is never going to be used again! Now that would be a waste of a beautiful old building. Alley gates would be a bonus, and in our area a dog warden to combat dog fouling would be more appreciated if we are trying to beautify the area!
I don't think a few flowers will make much of a difference. ensuring the town stays clean and safe should be a higher priority. Bearing in mind we are in the middle of a recession, £200,000 is a hell of a lot of money to spend on decorations - the majority of which will die and leave an empty space in their place, and most probably won't even be noticed by visitors
I'm sorry but i have to agree with Councillor Hibbert this is an absolute waste of money, these oversized pot plants wouldn't encourage me to shop in Oldham Town Centre, i'd much rather prefer to go to Ashton or Rochdale or even Bury, and i think the only people who actually shop in Oldham is Oldhamers who don't want to travel elsewhere
it'll take more than a few flowers and useless cartoons to win an award like that!
this council going from bad to worse!
what a waste of our money!
Lets use the flowers to hide the water whistle thingy and the clock in the floor. It does not matter how much they spend people will not come to Oldham. There is much more shopping and leasure facilities in other towns just a short bus ride away.
So the paintings on Oldham Town Hall's boarded up windows are to be a permanent feature? Is the Liberal Council Administration planning on abandoning any idea of doing something useful with it?
Does the Council Leader think that it is so important a project to spend £200,000 on flowers and cartoons that he would seriously consider shutting down parks to find the money? Completely out of touch.
Considering the legacy bequeathed to us, Coun. Hibbert & his cronies, he really has nothing useful to say on how our money is spent. Had Labour looked after the old town hall etc, there would be no need to 'temporarily tart it up' in the first place. But that's typical Labour - ruin everything when in control and have the barefaced cheek to carp when in opposition. There used to be a word everybody understood - 'shame'
Brilliant! Two big wastes of money defending another waste of money! I'm amazed that they can patronise us so much by suggesting that all Oldham needs to make it look better & feel safer is a few daubs & flowers!
Come on "hibbert", do tell us what you did for Yorkshire street and the old town hall when you were in power? Oh, I remember, you left then to ROT. You're a hypocrite.
Having been abroad for the last few years i recently returned to Oldham on a flying visit, I can not believe that Oldham wastes so much money on unusable, ugly and usless so called art and improvements, metal tubes which dont work and flowers are short term rubbish. WAKE UP!!
How many council houses can you build for £200K?
What's more important, housing your people or putting flowers out. Obviously flowers and housing people doesn't matter.
f anyone knows about 'bigging up' it has got to be Sy£es, the Feeder of the Council. There are things other than flower baskets I can think of to hang from lamp posts. Put pictures of our councillors & senior officers, complete with details of allowances/salaries, in the Town hall windows. Then we can all be reminded how grateful we are, every time we pass. More of OUR money spent on things we cannot afford & don't need. It's bloody easy when it's not yours ain't it? The clock is ticking!
"It will be worth every penny". Not in my book Councillor Stanton. "It will encourage people to come into the town centre ....". I do not think so. Feels like very expensive wallpaper to paper over the deep cracks. Feels as if most of the elected members are out of their depth in terms of sorting the real problems facing this town.
That money should of gone on Stockfield Rd and Hunt lane to sort out the boy racers and HGV`s.10 years of complaining and nothing but lame excuses!
Forget all the mainstream parties form now on, you want change it can only come from the BNP
Cllr Sykes and Stanton: What a load of old crock!
You can find the money to slap a few plants and pictures to hide what Oldham has become, yet you cannot find the money to keep essential services open. Cllr Hibbert is right. Oh I forgot, is this another "cost cutting" excercise. Lets look at our parks and Close Them! You have LOST OUR VOTE!
By wazzarsa @ 01/07/2009 12:29:15
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