Councillors raise concerns over new meetings format

West Oldham Districtm partnership report

LOCAL representatives and residents were given an outline of what to expect from the new West Oldham District Partnership meetings and ward forums.

Neighbourhood manager Zaime Khan said the new format, which replaced four area committees within the ward, will be more business-led while the forums will allow community engagement. The meeting will be made up of 12 West Oldham councillors and representatives from the police, NHS, First Choice Homes and children’s services among others.

Zaime said: “The district partnership will be a decision-making body which will set out how services are delivered.”

But councillors raised concerns about the level of public participation within the district partnerships.

Councillor Ateeque ur Rehman asked whether the forums was an avenue for people to genuinely raise their concerns.

There were also suggestions of amalgamating forums with police kinship meetings and local partners to give residents a chance to put their questions to them.During the meeting members elected Councillor Fida Hussain as chairman and Councillor Jean Jones as vice-chairman.

£6,000 budget per ward

THE district partnership will have a £24,000 budget, £6,000 per ward.

Decisions on where the money will be spent will be taken collectively by the councillors after consulting with partners on the district partnership.

Safe, Clean and Green funding of £38,000 (£9,500 per ward) will be spent on improvements. Each councillor will also have an individual allocation of £3,000 on which they will take decisions themselves. But they will have a choice to pool together their budgets with the district partnership budgets or agree with other councillors to jointly fund projects.