Council’s Christmas shutdown

COUNCILLOR Jabbar

OLDHAM Council will scale down its services over Christmas.

Many public services and facilities run by the local authority will be restricted. Emergency out-of-hours services will remain available for urgent situations such as social care.

The services affected — and details of emergency contact telephone numbers — are on the council’s website at www.oldham.gov.uk/christmas_closures.

No waste collections on December 25 and January 1, so alternative arrangements have been made. Council staff are taking three days out of their annual leave on December 29-31 to permit the Christmas closure.

Councillor Abdul Jabbar, Cabinet member for finance and human resources, said: “Our Christmas closure has now been running for years. We’ve planned so that residents are largely unaffected.”