Today’s budget was an opportunity for the Government to tackle the inequality which fuelled both the Covid-19 crisis and its economic aftermath. Instead, the Chancellor has delivered a budget which manifestly fails to deliver a fairer economy or clear roadmap to recovery.
Where was the focus on supporting new jobs? People in Chadderton, Oldham and Royton needed to know that the government would be relentless in its focus to get people back into work. But there was nothing designed to tackle unemployment as it reaches 10% here in Oldham West & Royton.
The budget showed that the Conservatives want to go back to the same insecure economy and unequal country that people in towns like ours have put up with for far too long. There was no mention of schools or teachers, crime, our NHS or social care. But there was room for a stamp duty bung to second homeowners whilst working people are struggling to make ends meet. The Chancellor’s priorities are way out of touch with working people in this country.”
I’m pleased to see that the hospital has recognised that practices the CQC saw last year were unacceptable. Patient safety and infection control during a pandemic is absolutely vital.
The Northern Care Alliance has told me they’ve already made a number of changes in the aftermath of the visit, and I’ll continue to liaise with them to make sure that everyone who works at Royal Oldham Hospital and all the patients requiring urgent treatment are kept as safe as possible.
The demanding nature of the second wave of Covid-19 and years of underfunding of our NHS means that our frontline heroes are understandably under huge amounts pressure, but we cannot compromise patient safety.
The only way to realise improvement is to develop a culture of openness, transparency and continuous improvement. That takes time and investment, but it is essential to serve the people of our town.
This #HeartUnions week, I want to say thank you to all trade unionists working hard to keep people safe in the workplace during the pandemic, fighting for better pay and better terms & conditions at work.
The trade union movement was born to give people power in the workplace, in our economy and in our society. And over the course of the last year I’ve seen first hand just how much our unions care about their members.
I’ve worked with Usdaw Union to try and protect warehouse and distribution workers from unsafe practices, Unite the union and GMB Union to try and prevent the use of awful fire and rehire tactics in numerous workplaces, and The Communications Union to try and stop compulsory redundancies at BT.
Trade unions show the power of coming together and organising collectively, that when we come together there’s very little we can’t achieve. Find the right trade union for you here: tuc.org.uk/joinaunion
Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon and the Councillors Phythian & Hannah Roberts Royton North and Councillors Marie Bashforth, Steven Bashforth and Amanda Chadderton in Royton South plan to object to the Energy Recovery Facility on Mossdown Road once the consultation period begins.
The plans for the 55m tall facility are due to be submitted to Oldham Council’s planning department any day now, but ahead of that Royton’s representatives have voiced their concerns.
Jim McMahon said, “After meeting with the developers, studying the material they have produced in support of the planning application, and looking at the application itself, I cannot support the proposals. Previous attempts to build a similar facility on the same site have been refused by planners at Oldham Council and I’ll be urging them to refuse this one too.”
“The current plans indicate the facility will be as tall as 12 double-decker buses and plans that were previously submitted and refused were for facilities one-fifth of the size. The visual impact that this would have on the area – and the wider borough once the chimney stack and exhaust gases are factored in cannot be overstated.”
“Likewise, I remain unconvinced that the traffic impact the facility will have on the surrounding roads has been considered in the right way. And given the disruption and impact the site would have only providing forty jobs once up and running does not even begin to mitigate against that”
Cllr Amanda Chadderton, Councillor for Royton South, said “The size of this facility makes it impossible for us to do anything but strongly oppose it, compared to the surrounding buildings it will be mammoth.”
“We all have real genuine concerns that not enough consideration has been given to the number of heavy-goods vehicles that would be coming in and out of the site.”
“With Broadbent Moss earmarked for development too, I can’t foresee a situation where this doesn’t massively impact the likelihood of people wanting to live there.”
Cllr Hannah Roberts, Councillor for Royton North said, “The proposed building is too big and in the wrong place. It would dominate the Beal Valley and surrounding homes as well as increasing traffic in the local area.”
“These new proposals are even more unacceptable than the previous planning application which was refused, and I support the call to turn down this new application when it is considered”
“We have lost millions of miles of bus routes and millions of bus journeys over the last ten years, with a franchise system we can reinvest the money previously taken by bus operators as dividends into new routes that take people where they need to be. The truth is that the deregulated model was meant to improve competition, it has done nothing of the sort. In some instances, it has left people with no bus service at all.”
“I fully support the introduction of a franchised bus network, to deliver local control of our buses, to simplify ticketing and bring down prices, deliver vital community bus routes and reinvest in our bus fleet to make it cleaner and greener.”
In his letter the MP describes the current bus network as a result of bus regulation in the 1980’s ‘a failed experiment that has only benefit the bus operators, and not those who use the system’. Jim is also encouraging everyone in Greater Manchester to respond to the consultation using the Better Buses for Greater Manchester tool which only takes a few minutes.
“I had the opportunity to sit down recently with Transport for Greater Manchester to discuss the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on bus services and our plans in Greater Manchester and I am convinced that franchising is still the best option.”
“If the government is serious about its commitment to the North and rebuilding after the pandemic, it should absolutely commit helping Greater Manchester transition to the new franchised system as bus services are vital to our city-region and it’s economy.”
Shirley Buckley out on the campaign trail in December 2019’s General Election
Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon has nominated his constituency Office Manager, Shirley Buckley for a Special Award for Connecting Communities at the Parliament’s People Awards, and the Oldham resident has made the final shortlist of three ahead of the winners being announced on Monday 25th January. The unique Openreach Special Award for Connecting Communities is designed to recognise the extra mile that people that work for MPs do to support their communities and society.
Shirley has been Jim’s Office Manager since he became the Member of Parliament for Oldham West and Royton in 2015, and before that worked for Michael Meacher MP since the late 1990’s. Her commitment to social justice and equality shines through in her work ethic, and the fact that she gives her undivided attention to every constituent and case that crosses her desk.
One of Shirley’s many accomplishments over the years is the work she did in supporting Jim to secure a statue of Oldham’s own suffragette, Annie Kenney, now standing proudly outside the Old Town Hall in Parliament Square.
Jim said, “Shirley is the heart and soul of the constituency, she has helped literally thousands of people over the years and her dedication to helping me and the rest of my team is unquestionable.”
“The truth is there are thousands of people in Oldham who Shirley has helped without them knowing that she was the one helping them, she has dedicated the last 25 years to trying to make the lives of Oldhamers better and she was vital behind the scenes in helping us bring Annie Kenney back to Oldham.”
“She deserves every possible recognition and I’m so pleased that she’s made it to the shortlist for this award. She is integral to the way my constituency office runs and her support over the last five years has been invaluable.”
Shirley Buckley said, “I was quite shocked when I got the email to say I’d been nominated and shortlisted, Jim and everyone else in the office kept it quiet that I’d been put forward so I was a little taken aback and didn’t quite know what to make of it.”
“I’m really pleased to have got this far, I don’t expect any awards for what I do. I just see it as doing my job and trying my best to solve the problems people have when they come to their MP.”
5 years ago today I made my maiden speech in the House of Commons, in a debate titled ‘The Cost of Public Transport’ – how appropriate given my currently role as Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary.
A maiden speech is the first opportunity a new Member of Parliament gets to speak in the Chamber, traditionally Members pay tribute to their predecessors and talk about the place you have been elected to represent, they’re usually light-hearted and a chance for some lesser known stories from local history to be shared, which I tried to do with the story of Royton Town Hall’s very own gunpowder plot.
In mine I paid tribute to the late Michael Meacher, he was a dear friend of mine and to the people of Chadderton, Oldham and Royton, he served our town with distinction for 45 years and will be missed and remembered locally by many people for all work he did to try and make Oldham a better place and to help the people of our town.
I was then, just as I am today, grateful for the trust that the people of Oldham West and Royton placed in me as electing me as their representative in Parliament. The Borough of Oldham played a pivotal role in the history of our country, our town was after all the King of Cotton. At its height there were 17million cotton spindles spinning in our town, which was more than in the whole of the United States and 80% of the total number of spindles in the UK.
But the history of our town is not all sunshine and roses, the truth is that people were exploited in the making of our town; people came to Oldham for a better life, but sadly they struggled in poverty whilst a lot of the money they generated left our town and the slaves picking cotton in the American south faced unimaginable exploitation.
And sadly, today for too many in our town work does not pay and they are still struggling to make ends meet. The last ten years have seen living standards, a welfare state that supports people when they need it and decent homes and jobs have all been eroded.
The battles of the North-South divide I warned about in my maiden speech half-a-decade ago still ring true today, power must be moved away from Whitehall to empower communities, rather than simply moving power from central government to another layer of government. If devolution is to be a success in this country, we need to bring people with us in a co-operative manner.
Thank you to everyone I have encountered over the last five years as the Member of Parliament for Oldham West and Royton, whether we met on the doorstep, at a constituency surgery, in the street or in the supermarket, these little encounters stay with me more than you may realise and you sharing your lived experience of our town has helped me represent everybody in Parliament better.
Oldham West and Royton MP and Chair of the Co-operative Party Jim McMahon is encouraging Oldhamers who are either working in the retail sector or friends and family of those who are to take part in a questionnaire ran by the Home Affairs Select Committee.
Jim said, “All too often people working in shops in Oldham are faced with abuse and assault that quite frankly isn’t part of the job.”
“I’d like to encourage all shop-workers in Oldham to take part and highlight their experiences in the survey before it closes on Friday – which should only take a few minutes to complete.”
“People working in our shops are literally keyworkers keeping our country going and making sure we all get the food and other supplies we need, the fact that incidents of abuse have increased since the start of the pandemic is shocking.”
“I’m hopeful that this inquiry by the Select Committee will finally push the Government to act as so many shopworkers and those in the retail industry have been doing for months now.”
“I’ve organised a meeting with Deputy Mayor Bev Hughes with other MPs tomorrow to discuss what we can do here in Greater Manchester to combat the rise in abuse and assaults of our shopworkers.”
Jim McMahon OBE MP 