It is encouraging to see this application refused by the planning committee and I hope it marks a turning point in the loss of family homes, inappropriate conversions, and substandard quality of design which does not reflect or respect the heritage of the town, or add much positive except profits for developers and landlords.

Thanks to all councillors who opposed it and to Cllr Barbara Brownridge for the representations she made against it.

This week’s announcement of £442 million to tackle rough sleeping is welcome, alongside the Government’s ambition to end long-term rough sleeping at the earliest opportunity.

Greater Manchester has already shown what can be achieved through programmes like Housing First and A Bed Every Night. We need to build on that work and make sure people have somewhere safe and secure to go.

And we know ending rough sleeping is only part of the challenge.

I’ve been raising the issue of children living in temporary accommodation in Oldham. We cannot accept families spending months or years without the security of a permanent home.

That’s why we need to keep fixing Oldham’s wider housing market: building more genuinely affordable and social homes, improving standards, tackling the over-concentration of HMOs, and preventing homelessness before it happens.

Ending rough sleeping means tackling the causes of homelessness too. That work starts with making sure everyone has a decent, secure home

Following representations to Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust and Oldham Council, there is now greater clarity about the proposed changes to Orchard House Day Hospital in Royton.

It is welcome news that Orchard House itself is not closing and that existing patients will continue to receive support. However, direct referrals will stop from 28 August, which is a significant change to the service.

Orchard House provides much more than clinical treatment. For many older people, the routine, activities, friendships and social support it provides are vital to their wellbeing and independence.

There must be clear answers about what support patients will receive under the new arrangements, where it will be provided, and what happens to those who would previously have been referred to Orchard House.

Pennine Care and the Council have acknowledged that communication and engagement “have not been as clear as they should have been.” Patients and families deserve meaningful involvement in these changes and reassurance that they will not result in people receiving less support.

More widely, I continue to be alive to the worry that if we fail to provide adequate community-based healthcare, we force more people into hospital and more intensive, expensive treatment. That is bad for the NHS, bad for the taxpayer, and bad for local people.

The concerns of patients, families and the wider Royton community will continue to be raised with the NHS and local partners.

A big congratulations to everyone receiving their GCSE results today!

This is a milestone that deserves to be celebrated with a huge amount of work from students, families & teachers having gone into reaching this point.

Whatever comes next, I wish you all the very best. Enjoy the celebrations and good luck for the future!

#ResultsDay2026

I hope we now turn a corner on the free for all to date, and it’s rejected by the planning committee.

Official data shows the borough already has almost 400 HMOs, many of which are of a poor standard and contributing to the housing crisis by removing family homes from the market. Is likely now the number is higher with the time that has passed since that assessment, and those not declared to the council.

There will be circumstances where a house share arrangement works for the building being converted, its setting and the occupants, but far too often that isn’t the case.

This isn’t just about bricks and mortar, it’s about creating good homes in stable and secure communities where people feel confident about its future and contribute to its improvement. Few benefit from a race to the bottom other than the landlords and developers cashing in.

I hope the planning committee take a stand on this and future applications for low quality conversions, those which take away vital family homes, and those which are not in keeping with the neighbourhood they are proposed.

Too many local pubs have been lost. While some will have reached the end of their use as a pub, many are simply lost because it’s more lucrative to convert them into flats, HMOs, or other uses, pushing otherwise viable pubs to closure against the wishes of local communities. Even when a change of use is accepted too often the quality of conversions are often very poor with little regard given to the heritage value of the building or the established built form of the town.

You only have to look around Chadderton, Oldham and Royton to see examples of once great pubs lost to low quality conversions or even demolition, losing entirely the heritage and social history of the town.

Under new proposals planning rules will require applicants to prove the pub is no longer viable and have evidence of active marketing.

Put together with added protections to register pubs as ‘Assets of community value’ which not only protect pubs but also give time for local communities to take them on, and the newly announced Community Right to Buy fund the fight back against decline is coming together.

But it’s more than just bricks and mortar, it’s about recognising the race to the bottom on planning has to end. If we don’t value what we have, it is lost forever.

All of us recognise that not every pub holds the same value to a local community, and also that there are many factors which mean a pub may not be able to continue its former use, but without proper safeguards and a route for the community to protect those which are valued, the odds are stacked against communities and that urgently needs rebalancing.

I raised this issue during a recent meeting with council officials and I was encouraged by the response.

When I visited Wrigley Head last year, work was underway to transform a neglected site into a source of clean, renewable energy.

Now, Oldham’s first solar farm is nearing completion and will soon be generating enough electricity to power around 310 homes.

A great example of putting unused land to good use and delivering a greener future for Oldham.

Read the latest update from the Council below as our borough is leading the way

https://www.oldham.gov.uk/news/article/2944/oldhams_first_solar_farm_nears_completion_in_failsworth