Budget: two demand separate funds
Reporter: Dawn Eckersley
Date published: 03 October 2008
THE replacement of community councils with area committees has brought some changes to the way meetings are run.
All three wards in Oldham East will meet together rather than separately and the budget will be higher.
Each ward gets £6,000 to spend on activities, organisations and groups, and each councillor is allocated £3,000 to spend on whatever they see fit within their ward.
Seven out of the nine councillors chose to pool all the money, which would bring the committee’s total budget for the year to £45,000.
But St Mary’s councillors Aqeel Ali Salamat and Shadab Qumer decided to keep their £3,000.
The matter was deferred for discussion but the likely outcome will be £39,000 for the area committee as a whole and £6,000 for the two councillors.
St Mary’s residents said they would prefer to pool all the money and make budget decisions as a committee, but the two councillors stood firm saying they wanted tighter control on money that would affect residents of their ward.
Councillor Mohammed Masud said: “The whole point of an area committee is to bring wards and areas together.
“The decision to segregate the budget like this will lead to a segregation of the area committee which cannot be a good thing.”
Masud named as chairman
COUNCILLOR Mohammed Masud was elected chairman of the area committee and will head the meetings which involve St Mary’s, St James’s and Waterhead wards.
In St Mary’s, Abid Hussain, George Kenworthy, Russell Kershaw and David Wilkinson were chosen as co-opted members.
Sonja Costello, Kevin Dawson, Steve Fairbrother and Steve Hardy were elected as co-opted members in St James.
And Myra Wyers was selected for Waterhead leaving three vacancies for co-opted members in this ward.
Steve Fairbrother will be vice-chairman for area committee meetings and Kevin Dawson will be the committee’s representative on the Oldham Partnership.
The delegated sub group will be made up of councillors Mohammed Masud, Roger Hindle and Linda Dawson as well as co-opted members David Wilkinson, Sonja Costello and Myra Wyers.
Assaults increase at Ramadan
POLICE were forced to put a special operation into action following reports of gangs of Asian youths causing trouble during Ramadan.
Sgt Brian McGill told the area committee that they had received calls from residents concerned about groups congregating as well as an increasing number of assaults and robberies.
Operation Ganthorpe was set up in Clarksfield and Operation Medway took place in West Oldham, and Sgt McGill said the information gathered during the Muslim holy month would help the police to prevent further trouble next year.
Extra officers have been put on high visibility patrol in Clarksfield following reports of increased anti-social behaviour.
The operation led to a number of high-profile arrests.
Action has also been taken to prevent vandalism at Sacred Heart School, Derker, in the form of Operation Whiteboard which saw uniformed patrols, officers in plain clothes and the mobile police station used.
This has led to fewer problems and residents in the area now feel safer, but officers are appealing to the public to help them by reporting any unusual behaviour.
