Banner blasted as misleading

ONE of the disputed banners on the Civic Centre

COUNCIL banners on the walls of the Civic Centre are “misleading”, according to a community forum.

The banners on the Rochdale Road side of the building said Oldham Council delivers 700 essential services for just £2.56 per household a day.

But members of community forum iRoyton.com claim the figure should be more like £13 per household a day.

The council figure was found by dividing the borough’s total council-tax bill of £84,478,000 by the number of households charged for council tax (90,317).

This gave an average annual council tax bill of £935.35 which was divided by 365 to get a daily rate.

However, iRoyton said the banners list schools, which are predominantly funded by Government grants, as part of the essential services.

It said calculations should therefore be made from the council’s annual total income of £433.5 million in 2009-10, which includes Government grants, rather than only its council tax income.

A forum spokesman said: “The banners include schools as one of the 700 services that are delivered.

“This is despite the fact that Oldham’s schools are funded by the largest of the Government grants, the Dedicated Schools Grant, which totals around £165 million per year.

“How many more of the 700 essential services are actually funded by government grants and not by the local council tax?”

A council spokesman said the banners on the Civic Centre were “factual, accurate and wholly truthful”.

He said the banners did not highlight services that were not funded by council tax, such as housing benefit, policing or fire and rescue services.