You can make it happen

OLDHAM Council leader Jim McMahon has called on Oldhamers to be more neighbourly after warning that services would be affected by budget cuts.

The Labour chief says the authority spends about £2million a year to keep streets tidy — with around half the cost wasted cleaning up rubbish the public could remove themselves.

He added: “I’m talking about things such as stray children’s toys, empty food packets, discarded leaflets... and that’s before we get started on fly-tipping and graffiti.

“If we all started to think about what being a good neighbour is and make little selfless changes we can really help make our communities better places.

“Not only that, we can reduce council spending in that area and free it up to invest in quality frontline services and ensure there is no council-tax rise.”

The message came as Councillor McMahon tried to explain his aspiration for Oldham to become a co-operative council in his weekly blog at www.oldham.gov.uk  — an online newsletter he has started in a bid to connect to residents.

He added: “The co-operative council vision is about recognising that — in terms of the budget reductions we are facing — staying the same is not an option. Services are going to be affected — that is a fact.

“My focus here is on looking at how and where we spend money and re-examining it to find new ways of doing things. It’s about bringing people together to do their bit.”

Councillor McMahon said he wanted to see the “outstanding” voluntary sector supported, nurtured and encouraged, ward councillors supported to do their jobs more effectively and groups helped to set up their own co-operatives.

He said: “Rather than Oldham being about ‘us and them’ I want to see us all working together to redefine our relationships.

“I want each person to do their own bit — big or small — in their own different roles and responsibilities. All united together in one purpose: to improve our borough.”