Labour & Co-operative | Serving the communities of Oldham West, Chadderton & Royton
We are devastated that Afsheen Chauhan has passed away at such a young age.
Our love and prayers are with Zahid, their wonderful children, her parents, family and friends.
She was an outstanding mum, a dear friend, and a warm Mayoress of Oldham supporting Zahid in his mayoral year.
May she rest in peace.
Today I virtually attended a roundtable regarding the ongoing concerning digital infrastructure developments and installations we are seeing in Oldham, Greater Manchester and across the country.
The roundtable was encouraging, with many MPs committed to tackling this issue and asking the government to look at what they can do on an urgent basis to address our communities concerns.
I raised the issues we are having in Chadderton & Royton and the ongoing issues around siting, regulation and legacy concerns that we need to see addressed immediately to give a voice back to our communities.
The government said it would take our comments on board, and will be updating MPs with their course of action as soon as possible. I will make constituents aware of any changes we see off the back of the roundtable.
The Greater Manchester Bee Network expands to Oldham, Chadderton and Royton today.
Buses will run more frequency, later into the evening, earlier in the morning, and operate in the public interest.
Single ticketing across bus and tram and live bus times will make life much easier, and hopefully attract more people to use public transport.
It also shows that devolution works; undoing years of deregulation and empowering local political leaders to make the right calls.
Today I held a Westminster Hall Debate in Parliament regarding the current issue with the installation of 5G & telecommunications masts and changes to national planning law which make these installations, among other issues like HMO conversion, far too easy for developers to secure.
The installation of equipment, whether it’s 5g or wireless broadband covers three main areas;
Firstly, Planning policy and permitted development. Secondly, guidance on siting of cabinets and poles. And thirdly, access to the existing network. I covered these areas in the debate, which you can view below.
In Oldham, we are seeing these main issues reflected in the installations in our communities. At Chadderton Hall Park, the installation abuts the children’s play area and the café, with no effort made to minimise the impact. This is mirrored at Denbydale Way in Royton, where we are seeing residents left feeling powerless to stop the installations outside their homes.
I have urged IXWireless to review the installation on Denbydale Way and suggested they remove it entirely or use infrastructure already available.
Our residents need a voice; we need to change the law to make meaningful consultation with residents a legal requirement, guidance on siting made legally binding to mitigate impacts on communities and finally to legislate to force companies to share the same infrastructure to fundamentally reduce the number of installations on our streets and in our communities, without reducing connectivity and capacity.
We have had success, however, in Oldham my office held a workshop in July last year, with residents from all communities coming together to meet with IXWireless to discuss the siting and appearance of poles, with many moved, though not all. Alongside this, the company have reached an agreement with the Council to seek ‘prior approval’ which does allow for more community consultation, however in law they could remove this good faith and continue under permitted development rules.
In response to the debate, the Minister offered a roundtable between MP’s to review and discuss how rules and changes to enforcement could be tightened up, this would be a welcome start.
Consistent Conservative top-down implementation must be changed, and community power respect.
You can view the full debate here;
https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/3b5d1bc0-1c14-4bfc-bf43-ce72089d5fda?in=16:00:00
My office has been supporting a number of residents from across the constituency impacted by the roll out of 5g/wireless masts.
We have been engaging with the main equipment installer, IX Wireless, and held a residents workshop to go through each of the sites where concerns were raised.
Some progress has been made, and following our representations some have been removed or relocated. But there remains a big problem with the legal powers given to equipment installers and the weak protections for local communities.
I have secured a debate in parliament, tomorrow Wednesday at 4pm in Westminster Hall. Though I have raised the issue in the Commons before, this format allows a more detailed exchange to take place.
Thank you to residents who have contacted my office already but I’m keen to hear from anyone who has yet to get in touch to ensure we don’t miss any key points or issues.
After moving the debate the Government Minister will respond and I’ll ensure a full update is provided.
Thank you.
It was great to join the inspiring Frank Rothwell last month at Boundary Park for a celebration of his stunning achievement rowing 3000 miles across the Atlantic (for the 2nd time!!) in aid of Alzheimer’s Research UK, raising over £1.3 million with his latest magnificent effort.
Though we didn’t secure a win at home to Kidderminster, it was a great day for the community with the highest attendance in 16 years at over 11,800!
Great to see another local hero in Professor Brian Cox, together with Council Leader Arooj Shah and many others in support.
I put on record my amazement at Frank’s achievement yet again and asked the Government to commit to debate the very real issue of the near million people who are affected by Alzheimer’s in the UK and the need for more funding and early diagnoses.
This budget revealed that the British contract is broken.
Working people are being failed, the idea that if you work hard you can get on in life and you can build something for yourself and your family has been taken away from people.
This hits at the heart of our country on a fundamental level. The economy is broken and we need a rewritten contract. We need a General Election where Labour will deliver the change Britain needs.
In my speech to the House today I spoke on the state of the economy & how Labour will fix it, how Oldham has been left behind by the government and how co-operative ideas will help spearhead our economy into the future.
It’s time to end the sticking plaster politics and have a long term plan for all of our communities sakes.
Local councils and communities are on the brink due to decisions made in Downing Street. Funding has been slashed, the fair funding review delayed, business rate reset postponed, reserves are depleted, community assets sold off and accounts go unsubmitted.
More and more councils are lining up for emergency support amid concerns of bankruptcy.
The government have no plan, it seems they are doing as the country is and waiting for a Labour government.
Jim McMahon OBE MP 