Great to meet with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, Deputy Mayor for Safer & Stronger Communities Kate Green, Head Of Estates at GMP Peter Bannister, and Oldham Council Leader Arooj Shah last week as part of our local campaign to secure a restored justice centre for our borough to go alongside plans for a new police station.
This is a once in a generation chance to secure a new Oldham police station and get the facilities our borough deserves. We need to seize this opportunity and get it right. After years of Tory cuts which resulted in the closure of the Magistrates Court & County Court in Oldham as well as police posts at Limeside, Chadderton & Royton; we are finally turning a corner.
It’s one thing to end the ‘Oldham Premium’ – which means due to poor parking, it costs more to attract officers & staff with the current police station – by getting our Oldham GMP team the facilities they deserve to be able to best tackle crime & antisocial behaviour. It’s a whole other thing to bring back a wider justice centre with court space and custody cells so we can truly bring local confidence back to our policing and justice system. That’s why as your local MP, I am pushing for more.
There are plans in place which are being developed to make the police station a reality and there is a case which we are making to bring custody cells too so local people are no longer undersold. All crime needs to be punished, deterred & prevented, hard-working officers and public servants can only do that if they have proper facilities & capacity.
Much more is needed to be done to make people feel that their community in Oldham, Chadderton & Royton feels like a safe place. However, this constructive meeting last week following up from our letter to the GMCA & Oldham Council in August is a step in the right direction.
Investment, infrastructure, enhanced powers, and a proper prevention strategy: this is the difference with Labour. Taking both crime and its causes seriously with action, not just words.
We have been campaigning for this new police station for years, and having a renewed justice centre alongside it as a possibility makes our fight all that more important.
Jim McMahon OBE MP 