Councillors clash over merger plan

THE argument between area committees and community councils is rumbling on with opposition councillors dismayed by two mergers.

At Wednesday’s Oldham Council meeting, councillors agreed to replace 12 community councils with 10 area committees — merging Royton with Shaw and St Mary’s with Waterhead and St James.

The ruling Lib-Dems defeated Labour amendments to keep the committees separate for each area.

But councillors were furious they were not allowed a proper debate on the controversial decision and have accused the Lib-Dems of not following residents’ wishes.

Consultation from Royton showed 27 against the merger with 14 for, and in Shaw 20 against with 21 for.

Royton Labour councillor Steven Bashforth said when the merger was first mooted, Royton Community Council was not allowed a vote on it, but residents at a meeting were opposed and were told the Lib-Dems would abide by the results of consultation.

He said: “The overwhelming majority of people were against them. Both towns are big enough to sustain their own committee. The Lib-Dems told us that the decision to merge or not was dependent on the results of the survey and despite a clear majority against they have decided to merge.

“They said they wanted people to have more say and the first opportunity they had to make that good, they have turned their back on it.

“We are very upset about this. We won’t leave it at that but will try to bring it back to council. I think it’s a mistake.”

He argues that each town has its own issues and residents won’t want to sit through debates on matters that don’t interest them. It would also cause meetings to drag on and result in decisions being made because people want to go home.

Conservative councillor John Hudson was upset that he had not been allowed to talk at the meeting. He wanted the matter deferred to the next council meeting to allow a proper debate.

He said it did not seem right for a small ward like Hollinwood with three Lib-Dem councillors to have its own committee, but Shaw and Royton, in different constituencies, would see committees merged.

Views

“They should go off the feelings of the existing committee,” he said. “The perception will be they only listen if it suits them.”

Lib-Dem councillor Rod Blyth said many of the objections to the merger had come after the consultation and had been engineered by Labour.

He added: “I don’t feel it is the views of the people of Royton, I think it is the views of a few people in Royton. The Shaw and Royton area committee worked excellently.”

He said a merged area committee would have more money and power and that if the debate had been delayed the committees might not have come into effect until Christmas.

Council leader, Councillor Howard Sykes, said he would have discussed Labour’s amendments if they had approached him beforehand. He added that Labour’s tactics of recorded votes and lengthy debates stretched the meeting to four hours and prevented a debate on area committees.