Oldham Council has to save £22m from budget

The town hall has revealed it has to save a huge £22m in 2019/20 – a near 30pc increase on what finance chiefs had predicted as late as last November.

Ongoing pressures on its children’s services department has meant that they have to spend even more than planned to support vulnerable children across the coming financial year.

And over the next two years, the authority plans to make £14.4m in cuts from its services, at the loss of 24 full time staff roles.

Services that communities and the vulnerable rely on – such as mobility scooters and outdoor growing projects – are to see their funding slashed.

And the borough will have to withdraw from competing in the North West in Bloom awards, which it has won ‘best city’ at for the past nine years, after cutting tens of thousands from its horticultural budget.

Council tax is again set to go up for residents, with full council being recommended to approve a 3.99pc increase – which includes a 2pc increase in the adult social care precept.

The majority of residents who live in Band A properties in Oldham will see their bills to the local authority rise by £38, and by £62 for a Band D home.

With the extra mayoral precepts on top, the total bill for residents living in Band A homes will be £64, and £95 for ‘average’ Band D residents.

These do not include parish precepts for residents living in Saddleworth and Shaw and Crompton.

The GMCA mayoral police and crime commissioner precept, and general mayoral precept which includes fire services, are both expected to rise by more than 13pc.

And an uplift in the council’s fees and charges will see the cost of burials, taxi licences, trade waste, commercial pest control, and sports facilities all rise.

New charges are to be introduced for groups at the Music Centre, new wheeled bins and waste admin charges, non-legal wedding services and food safety.

Town hall chiefs have outlined that they intend to make the biggest cuts to their property portfolio, selling off council-owned assets to save £4.5m over three years.

The remaining are predominantly ‘back office’ savings, often involving redesigns of teams and customer services and switching to cheaper service contracts.

Jobs that are to be cut include roles within the council that are currently vacant, and bosses say they hope there will be no compulsory redundancies.

It has proposed to use £6.15m of the authority’s corporate reserves to balance the 2019/20 budget.

In November – when the deficit was believed to be just £17m – finance chief Councillor Abdul Jabbar had railed against the effect Westminster cuts to local authority funding was having on the borough.

“When the government says austerity is over – they need to come and visit Oldham,” he told councillors.

“It is very much alive and kicking, it’s not over and it’s not funny either because these cuts are actually having a devastating impact on our residents.”

Proposal to scrap grant for community transport A company that provides a ‘Dial a Ride’ service and hires mobility scooters says it may be forced to shut after the council scraps its £45k grant.

Community Transport Oldham provides a range of transportation services for people who struggle to use public transport, whether because of age or disability.

The town hall grant had contributed to the provision of mobility scooters to hire in the town centre and the hire of wheelchair accessible minibuses which provided door-to-door transport.

A report due to be presented at cabinet on Monday night states that the company say they expect to ‘cease to deliver’ the service in Oldham if the grant funding was to stop.

And they expect to be served notice ‘imminently’ on their existing premises next to Tommyfield Market car park.

Two full time employees may have to be made redundant.

There are currently 34 people registered to use the Dial a Ride service and 76 registered to use the Promobility service.

Additionally, 253 groups are registered to use the Group Travel service, 56 of which are reported to use the service at least monthly.

One traveller who uses a ‘very complex’ wheelchair which cannot be moved around easily told the council they described their regular driver as a ‘friend’.

Floral displays to be given the chop After a decade of success in the regional flower show, North West in Bloom, Oldham now faces having to withdraw as it prunes £50k from it flower planting budget.

Bosses are proposing to continue with ‘limited’ floral displays in the town centre, but the savings mean this will no longer be extended to the rest of the districts.

Assessing the impact of the cuts, bosses admit that community groups and other organisations that participate in ‘Bloom and Grow’ each year will be left “without the required support to actively become engaged”.

And the report adds: “The town centre and bloom routes will be less attractive which in turn will impact on visitors to the town potentially affecting economic prosperity.”

Fines for driving in bus lanes Drivers could be hit with new fines for veering into bus lanes on the borough’s roads as part of the budget proposals.

Bus lane enforcement is to be implemented in five areas, which is estimated to generate around £280k in income for the town hall each year.

This is based on an estimated 8,320 penalty charge notices being issued.

Market Street in Shaw will become ‘bus only’, and lanes enforced on Ashton Road (northbound), St Mary’s Way (Tommyfield), Ashton Road (northbound) and Oldham Road in Royton.

The indicative costs for the installation of the new CCTV camera system is around £97,920 with annual costs from year two of £18,372.

It is anticipated it would take around six months to implement the works and new CCTV system based on the implementation of previous bus lanes.

Public health projects to be downgraded Tens of thousands is to be cut from an award-winning public health project which revolves around community engagement, healthy eating and mental and physical support.

Bosses are proposing to take £50k away from the budget for the ‘Get Oldham Growing’ programme.

They plan on not renewing the contracts for two ‘health ambassador’ posts, ending the ‘Growing Entrepreneurs’ programme which provides support for growing in schools, and reducing financial support for the Alexandra Park growing hub.

But officers admit the cost-saving measure could have a ‘significant’ negative impact on groups and communities, and on health outcomes for residents.

“The proposal could have a detrimental effect on users of the service including families, children and young people, older people, socially isolated people, people from certain ethnic groups and people on low incomes,” they state.

Last year 468 people took part in the programme in Alexandra Park, with 186 aged under 24, 161 between 25 and 64, and 26 over the age of 65.

The focus of the programme will change from providing direct support to more signposting, and change from employing staff to encouraging increasing role of volunteers and residents.

Burial costs Funeral costs are set to rise sharply if the proposals are approved by full council.

The price of a new grave for one or two people will rise by more than £20, from £838.64 to £860 under the budget proposals.

And for non residents, this is even steeper, increasing from £1,260.53 to £1,290.

Cremation fees are also to increase by £15.25, up to 645.00 for a person over 18 years old.

Plots for cremated remains in Crompton and Hollinwood will go up by £15.29 and £10 respectively.

But an existing extra charge of £51.45 for ‘larger’ coffins of more than six feet, six inches long and 26 inches wide has been scrapped.

The full range of proposals will be voted on by councillors on February 27