Emergency funds allocated to Oldham food banks in case of no-deal Brexit

Town hall bosses in Oldham have put aside £20k to subsidise food banks in the borough in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The amount was revealed at a meeting of the full council, where leader Sean Fielding presented a report outlining how the authority intends to handle leaving the European Union.

He told assembled councillors that senior officers had formed a project group led by the director of legal services, Paul Entwistle, to assess preparations.

Oldham has been allocated £315k in total from the government towards preparing for exiting the EU , but so far has only designated the use of £20k of that pot.

This cash would be used to support Oldham’s emergency food provision sector, and has now been transferred to providers to support them as they try to feed ‘people in need’.

Coun Fielding, “We are providing funding to food banks to buy additional food because the anticipation is that as generous Oldham households who donate foodstuff to foodbanks come under more pressure because of the economic fallout of Brexit, they will make fewer donations to food banks.

“There are genuine concerns about the effect on community cohesion of no-deal, not least because in the year after the EU referendum hate crime are recorded to have increased by 29pc.”

Cabinet member for health, Coun Zahid Chauhan added, “If people don’t have food for themselves, how are they going to donate for those who need it?”

Liberal Democrat group leader, Howard Sykes spoke to second the report which he described as ‘very scary’.

“Brexit will leave the costs of all the chaos with the people of Oldham borough with fewer pounds in their pockets,” Coun Sykes added.

But he queried the report’s findings that there had been no problems of ‘community cohesion’, adding it was ‘not my experience’.

Tory group leader, John Hudson – who had been heckling throughout the presentation of the report – told the chamber he thought that Brexit had become a ‘dirty word’.

“I think most people are fed up, whether they voted leave or remain, they just want the damn thing done and move on,” he said.

“You have to remember you’re in a council chamber that represents people and democracy.

“The majority – it was far bigger than any of us got in here. It’s four pc – I suspect in May many of us would be happy to get four pc and get back on the council.”

But he added that he personally didn’t want no-deal to happen.

The report states that areas such as Oldham which are ‘relatively worse off’, households are likely to experience ‘considerably more difficulty in adjusting to negative economic shocks resulting from Brexit in the longer term’. 

“Leaving without an actual deal and transitioning to full WTO rules is widely agreed to be the worst option, and it is unclear what the impact would actually be, although potentially seriously disruptive,” it adds.

On Wednesday night government ministers published details of their Yellowhammer contingency plan, after MPs voted to force its release.

It outlines a series of ‘reasonable worst case assumptions’ for the impact of a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.
These include riots on the streets, food price rises and reduced medical supplies.

---

Do you have a story for us? Want to tell us about something going on in and around Oldham? Let us know by emailing news@oldham-chronicle.co.uk , calling our Oldham-based newsroom on 0161 633 2121 , tweeting us @oldhamchronicle or messaging us through our Facebook page. All contact will be treated in confidence.