Social media posts alleging a political cover-up of child grooming have cast a long shadow over Oldham in recent years, enabling the rise of a new independent political group and contributing to the dethroning of two council leaders in successive years.
And a week after the release of a damning report into child sexual exploitation in the Greater Manchester borough, local anger is showing no sign of abating. Protesters heckled and booed Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham at a fiery public meeting last night and Amanda Chadderton, who recently took over as leader, was met with furious calls to resign.
During the meeting council and police speakers were shouted down and booed by the public gallery as around 100 people were allowed into the main chamber at the Civic Centre, with many holding up paper signs reading 'Cover Up' and some turning their backs on proceedings.
The meeting was held to give the public and councillors the chance to quiz officials about the findings of the report, which found vulnerable children had been failed. Local Democracy Reporter Charlotte Green captures the hostile atmosphere in her live blog here .
A specific case dating back to 2005 involving ‘Sophie’, a 12-year-old girl who was repeatedly raped, is singled out for intense criticism for the way authorities dealt with the investigation into her assaults by strangers, and for not taking action when she was being groomed online.
In Sophie’s case both Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and Oldham council were said to be more concerned with their reputations and ‘covering up their failures’ than acknowledging the harm done to the young girl. However, when assessing the claims about a widespread cover up of abuse in the borough, the review team finds ‘no evidence’ to support this.
GMP have now instigated a new police probe named Operation Sherwood to apprehend Oldham-based offenders who have historically preyed upon children. But Conservative councillor Robert Barnes asked what GMP will do to ensure officers that failed Sophie are held to account. He called the review a 'whitewash' and said 'sunlight is the best disinfectant'.
Mayor Burnham said Cllr Barnes called the report a 'damning indictment' and a 'cover up', adding: "With respect it can't be both". The Labour mayor said: "It's action, it's prosecution that the public of Oldham will want to see. People are already trying to undermine Operation Sherwood in this room tonight."
He was angrily heckled by the gallery as he asked whether children and young people will have more confidence to come forward following the 'conduct of this meeting'.
As Charlotte writes in this essential long read , next year Oldham’s election will be ‘all out’ meaning that rather than a third of members, all 60 seats will be up for grabs. And she adds: "It may well be that the previous two local elections may have been merely tremors compared to the political earthquake that could potentially unfold in May 2023."
Levelling Up missions 'should not be set in stone', says Minister
Last month the Northern Agenda noticed a "get out of jail free card" in the small print of Michael Gove's 12 levelling up missions .
Buried in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill is a clause that allows the Government to amend the missions where they deem necessary and it also provides provision for ministers to alter the strict timetable for delivery that was originally promised.
At the time, Labour frontbencher Lisa Nandy said the move was akin to moving the goalposts - but ministers offered little or no explanation, until yesterday, reports Westminster Editor Dan O'Donoghue.
Levelling Up Minister Kemi Badenoch, fielding questions in the Commons , said: "The fact is that these missions should not be set in stone, as the economy adapts, so too might the missions to reflect the changing environment and lessons learned from past interventions. Some of the targets cut across spending review periods, it wouldn't make sense not to review things."
Not wanting to let the minister off the hook, Lancashire Tory MP Jake Berry - who chairs the Northern Research Group - called for a longer term levelling up funding guarantee for the North.
The MP for Rossendale and Darwen said: “Would she accept that it’s hard to deliver long-term ambitious levelling up plans as set out in law without a long-term mechanism for funding them? Would she agree to meet with me and members of the Northern Research Group who’ve called for a levelling up formula to equalise Government spending across our UK?” She replied: “I’m very happy to meet.”
Cost-of-living woes force town halls to abandon financial plans
Both Mr Gove and Ms Nandy - who the Tory Minister described yesterday as the “Marty McFly of politics” - are up in the Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate this week as the Local Government Association holds its annual conference.
The Levelling Up Secretary will speak this afternoon with other prominent guests including Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey and parish council internet sensation Jackie Weaver.
Ahead of the conference starting today local authorities warned of “disastrous” emergency funding cuts to local services due to spiralling inflation and other pressures which are threatening their financial viability.
Many councils have been forced to abandon their financial plans set just three months ago owing to the “unprecedented crisis”, with rising costs meaning many will struggle to meet their legal duty to balance the books this year.
New analysis by the Conservative-led LGA has found inflation alone will add £800 million in additional cost pressures on budgets in 2022-23. The combined impact of general inflation, energy costs and projected increases to the National Living Wage takes that total to £2.4 billion, increasing to an estimated £3.6 billion in 2024-25.
Meanwhile, Sheffield City Council says South Yorkshire is missing out on £103 million European Union funding a year because of Brexit.
A new report said the area will get £22 million funding a year from the government’s Shared Prosperity Fund in three years’ time to replace EU funding known as the European Structural and Investment Programme.
However, analysis showed that in 2021 the EU would have given South Yorkshire a significant increase in funding estimated to be £125 million a year because it had been recognised as an area in highest need.
The £3bn prize for reaching a devolution deal in North East
It's been a long time coming as local leaders cast envious eyes to other parts of the North. But a devolution deal to reunite councils on opposite sides of the Tyne and elect a new North East mayor will be worth more than £3bn if it goes ahead.
Fresh details have emerged of the new funding and powers that look set to be handed to the region, if local leaders and the government can finally reach a long-awaited agreement. A document seen by Local Democracy Reporter Dan Holland confirms that the proposed deal would deliver more than £3bn of government funding over 30 years and could generate 17,000 jobs.
This would be a bigger settlement than the two most recent devolution deals in West and South Yorkshire, worth £1.8bn and £900m respectively.
Negotiations have been taking place for months over a move that would see a regional mayor elected to govern a new combined authority covering Gateshead, Sunderland, South Tyneside, Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland. County Durham would be excluded as it has been pursuing its own single-county devolution deal.
The £3bn-plus settlement would include the “full suite of powers” already available to mayors in other parts of England that boast more substantial devolution deals than are currently held by North of Tyne Jamie Driscoll.
The deal could also see the new mayor’s role merged with that of the Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, as both would cover the same geography, potentially setting up a rumoured contest between Mr Driscoll and Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness to secure Labour’s nomination for the top post.
World cycling event closed down spa town's centre for weeks
A long-delayed review into Harrogate ’s hosting of the 2019 UCI Road World Championships concluded the cycling event “effectively closed down” the town centre for almost a month with an “unacceptable” impact on residents and businesses.
The review from Harrogate Borough Council’s overview and scrutiny commission also raised questions over the “fairness and transparency” of VIP tickets for councillors and council officers.
It marks another set of conclusions of the nine-day event which has already been the subject of an economic impact study and several surveys, writes Local Democracy Reporter Jacob Webster. Town centre traders suffered a drop in earnings due to road closures, while residents said the event caused disruption to their daily lives.
The event will also be remembered for leaving parts of the town's treasured Stray green space severely damaged after the parkland was used as a fan zone during wet weather.
Conservative councillor Nick Brown – who chaired the cross-party review – said in a draft report: “Looking to the future, there is a place for exciting, perhaps shorter, events that portray Harrogate and North Yorkshire in a good light, nationally and throughout the world.”
But the controversy hasn't put off other town hall leaders in the North investing public money in big cycling events. It's emerged that Redcar and Cleveland Council paid organisers a race fee of £76,000 to secure a leg of the Tour of Britain cycle race in September.
The money paid to Sweet Spot Group Limited was funded by the Tees Valley Combined Authority, writes Local Democracy Reporter Stuart Arnold. A council report said there would also be delivery and supporting costs, as well as further council activity around the event, which it said was budgeted for.
The report said the cycle race was a “cornerstone” of the British sporting cycling calendar, attracting global cycling stars. The Tour of Britain will begin in Aberdeen on September 4 and reach Redcar three days later.
We're on less than minimum wage, say striking barristers
Crown courts in the North ground to a halt yesterday after barristers around the country went out on strike in a row over pay. About 100 lawyers picketed outside Manchester Crown Court in Spinningfields, holding placards with slogans including 'crime doesn't pay', 'no legal aid cuts' and 'save British justice'.
Barristers say they have had a real terms wage decrease of 28 per cent since 2006, and that droves of criminal lawyers are leaving the profession. One junior barrister told Andrew Bardsley of the Manchester Evening News she earns less than minimum wage while working as a criminal barrister for cases funded by legal aid.
And another recalled how she didn't have enough money to pay for a train fare to attend court. The Criminal Bar Association, which represents barristers, said junior lawyers in their first three years of work earn a median income of £12,200, which is below minimum wage.
Many cases at Manchester Crown Court were halted due to a lack of defence barristers. Jurors in a number of trials were told to return tomorrow as barristers are due to walk out again today.
Meanwhile planned strike action by hundreds of bus workers on Merseyside has been suspended after workers received a revised pay offer .
Local members of Unite employed by Stagecoach on Merseyside were due to walk out on Thursday. Unite regional officer Dave Roberts said: “Following lengthy negotiations, Stagecoach came forward with a revised offer, which Unite’s members are now being balloted on.” If the offer is rejected, a second strike scheduled for Monday will go ahead, said Unite.
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Northern Stories
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The first puffin sculptures have taken pride of place on the Yorkshire coast , part of a new public art trail that will see more than 40 larger-than-life seabirds installed. Puffins Galore! makes puffins the stars of the show, their designs inspired by endangered wildlife of the coasts and seas, the global warming crisis and the growth of green energy, as well as the people and stories of the East Yorkshire coast. Organisers placed the first sculpture at the RSPB Bempton Cliffs centre, near Bridlington , home to almost half a million seabirds, and the second has found a perch at North Landing, Flamborough.
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New powers could be introduced in Macclesfield town centre next month to crackdown on booze-fuelled anti-social behaviour . Drunken louts have been urinating and defecating in public during the day and night and intimidating visitors to the town as well as shop staff. Now Cheshire East’s environment and communities committee is being asked to implement a public spaces protection order which could see people fined £100 if they refuse to hand over alcohol when asked to.
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A temporary unit set up in a car park at the Royal Preston Hospital to deal with a feared spike in Covid patients is set to be dismantled later this week . As Local Democracy Reporter Paul Faulkner writes, the hospital’s Nightingale Surge Hub was one of eight to be commissioned nationwide late last year as the first Omicron wave took hold. The NHS established the facilities amidst concern that the rapid spread of the highly-transmissible variant could translate into a sudden increase in the number of people being hospitalised with the virus.
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Councillors at Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Authority’s annual meeting failed to agree on the appointment of a chair for the coming year . Two Labour councillors, Sunderland City Council representative Cllr Phil Tye and Gateshead Council’s Cllr Gary Haley, each received seven votes to take the position from those in attendance. Chris Lowther, Tyne and Wear chief fire officer and clerk to the fire authority, speaking at the meeting, said there was “nothing in the standing orders which prepared for this eventuality.”
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NHS chiefs are planning a bespoke health service for the proposed asylum seeker centre near York in order to prevent existing services from becoming overloaded. Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group is to commission a “bespoke, standalone enhanced primary care service for the asylum seeker population” at the former RAF station in Linton-on-Ouse, according to its governing body’s board papers. Plans to move up to 1,500 men aged 18-40 to the small village have proven controversial, with MP Kevin Hollinrake calling the proposal “absolutely wrong”.
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Almost 1,000 new jobs are to be created in Huyton on Merseyside as a former spirits business is transformed . A new multi-let industrial estate aimed at light industrial, logistics and SME businesses is to be created on the former Halewood International site following its closure in August 2020. The project, operated by Network Space who acquired the land when the 44,000 square metre site closed, has been made possible by a £15.5m loan from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
