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Swinging the axe
Reporter: by Janice Barker
Date online: 28 July 2010
PLUG IS PULLED ON £1.1m PLAY AREA SITES
The plug has been pulled on Oldham’s £1.1million Play- builder sites which are only half finished.
The Government has frozen funding on all Playbuilder schemes across the country as it looks to save millions from public spending.
The money was being used to transform tired play areas into challenging outdoor adventure sites, more in keeping with the natural landscape. Eleven have been completed locally.
But Oldham Council has been told to stop work on all of the 11 remaining sites. A final decision will be made by the Department for Education by the end of August.
The move has been condemned by Oldham’s Labour councillors, and spokesman Councillor Shoab Akhtar said: “This is a bitter blow to areas such as Werneth, Chadderton, Crompton, Lees, Sholver and Failsworth.
“This funding was going to be used to develop 22 innovative play facilities over the two-year period. It seems as though the coalition Government has some sort of vendetta against Oldham.
It is stopping or reducing every type of funding that was allocated or proposed to come into Oldham. Building Schools for the Future, £230 million, Housing Market Renewal £4.8 million, area based grants, £1.8 million have all been victims of their cost slashing.
“This Government does not believe in investing in Oldham’s young people. It has stopped BSF and now it’s the Playbuilder’s turn. What next we wonder?”
Councillor Mark Alcock, cabinet member for citizens and neighbourhoods, said: “We are making every effort to convince the Department for Education that the children and young people of Oldham deserve new play sites.
“The council has already transformed 11 sites in year one of the programme and this shows the fantastic play opportunities afforded by our well-regarded approach to natural play.
“Many of our younger people are already using these sites.
“We want all children to have the chance to explore their surroundings through the proposed 11 new play sites located around the borough, without having to travel to the sites that are now in use.”
Comments
This is only the beginning, as this hybrid government brings the country to it's knees.
Suffer the little children?
If this funding has been stopped countrywide, then why does councillor Akhtar claim there is some kind of 'vendetta' against Oldham?
Yes, any halting of funding is not good, but has he checked the economy in the past 18 months?
As a life long Labour voter (until the Iraq debacle) it grieves me to say this but after the mess we have been left in there are few alternatives.
Cancel the funding.
Take the funding from something else (suggestions)
Raise the revenue from somewhere else (local business, council tax etc)
Councillors & MPs who feel so sorely about it can feel free to donate from their still generous expenses if they can't think of a realistic solution.
And there will be more and bigger cuts to come.
Perhaps if we stopped giving ring-fenced foreign aid to increasingly rich nations such as India, China and (incredibly) Russia, this money could be used for our kids. Trust the Tories to sacrifice children's amenities while their rich friends the bankers and such keep their fat bonuses and obscene incomes.
I agree with 'spike', this is only the beginning from the two millionaires; Cameron and his puppet Clegg.
Reference my other posting. This is how we waste taxpayers' money on wealthy nations with flourishing economies. Oh and by the way, Russia is the world's larget oil producer!
Figures for foreign aid 2008-9 show Britain gave China £40.2 million mainly for health and education projects. Russia received £1.8m in part for civil society work
Don't say you weren't warned! There's lots more to come.
Road Rocket, The aid programme is mostly credit notes that funnily enough can only be redeemed on stuff made here.
Cancel the aid programmes and you throw tens of thousands of people in this country out of work and cause the closure of hundreds of small & medium companies. Is that what you really want?
do people not realise that we are nearly bust in this country! labour just spent what they hadnt got.
if it wasnt for our hybrid government we'd still be on collision course for complete and utter economic meltdown.
i'd rather face some cuts now to sort things out rather than massive cuts in the future!
Mr Akhtar. lest you forget, your last Labour government left the country nearly bankrupt, and yes it needs to be sorted...just like your Labour lot left our council with £20 million of debt, that others had to sort, so stop the Crocodile tears and tell us what the £44 billion of cuts that Labour talked about before the elections were going to cut... or how Mr Akhtar, you would sort the mess out your lot left this country in...and what would you cut, your allowances perhaps, I think not
First we have the area in which our children are educated attacked by this ConDemn coalition, and now it is the area in which they have the opportunity to play.
It has always been considered that the Tories attack the vulnerable with their cuts, but could anyone have ever imagined that they would direct their venom at our children.
There can't be many Lib Dem supporters walking round with their head held high, and please, don't come back with the usual tripe that it's all Labour's fault!
2Suffer the little children"?
Where are this government's priorities?
What do you expect?
The Brokeback Coalition's rich kids don't have to rely on these kinds of facilities. They have their own countryside at the back of their houses. Like Deanmo says: there are a lot more cuts to come and services to go.
India get the most funding from the foreign aid budget £300m. Some weeks ago the council gave funding for a Mosque in Werneth and used funding from section 106 budget. The first time I heard about section 106 funding was for a park in Shaw. So why couldn't that money be used for these projects?
Women and children first - unfortunately its not the lifeboats its first in line for cuts.
Shameful - of course Cllrs allowances and expenses are protected against any cuts - shame on the condems.
Husting. Very greatly simplified. Section 106 money is money paid by planning applicants to meet the cost of some consequence of the planning application. EG In housing developments the developer might agree to pay money to add to a local park's facilities rather than put a play area in his development. 106 money can be used but only if there is an appropriate nearby planning application
Of course this 'planning gain' from housing developments in Saddleworth is spent outside the Parish because 'land prices are high in Saddleworth'
Several million go into Oldham to prop up the wretched Housing Renewal project in Derker while Churchill Fields an obvious candidate for 106 money in Saddleworth languishes
But the bankers will get their bonuses. Defence companies will get their weapons contracts. So it's all right.
Councillor Akhtar is quoted as saying the Government has a vendetta against Oldham - for goodness sake man, this is a country wide issue. Nice as these play parks may be they are hardly essential.
Get it right, while I cant agree with Cllr Akhtar's comments, where would you rather children played, in these areas or on the streets?
I know which I'd prefer.
Have Your Say
playgrounds are the councils responsibility! not the governments!
sounds like the council was doing it on the cheap and relying of grants to give us what we've paid for in our council taxes for years and years!
also how many job titles does alcock have? i've lost count now?
By fedupoldhamer @ 28/07/2010 12:05:16