“It’s almost like Oliver Twist begging for crumbs from the big table. We feel like we are treated like a poor relation, we really do.”
Peter Shore, a 69-year-old project manager, is explaining why he has co-founded the new Middleton Independents Party to contest the next Rochdale council elections in May.
He is sat in a room above a coffee shop in Middleton town centre where the fledgling group has just held a meeting to discuss everything from policies to publicity. Peter says he is ‘fed-up’ of his home town playing second fiddle to Rochdale - the borough’s largest town - and wants to do something to redress the balance.
READ MORE :
He is not the only one.
The electoral newcomer is planning to field three candidates in all five of the town’s wards - including Hopwood Hall - when voters next go to the polls.
While Labour currently dominates Rochdale Council with 45 of its 60 seats - some 75pc - the stakes are higher than they have been in some time. Boundary changes mean this is an ‘all out’ election where every seat is up for grabs rather than the usual third, potentially creating the conditions for a political earthquake.
And if Labour is not worried by the emergence of a hastily assembled group of independents, perhaps it should be given the success of similar groups elsewhere in Greater Manchester.
The rise of Farnworth and Kearsley First ultimately played a huge part in toppling Labour from power in Bolton, inspiring the likes of Horwich and Blackrod First along the way.
Independents have also had a big impact in Oldham - albeit far more controversially - as well as Bury, where Radcliffe First have three councillors.
Now, Peter - together with MIP co-founders Simon Footitt and Bernard Wynne - is eyeing a similar shake-up in Rochdale.
They had been weighing it up for around a year before an ‘if only’ conversation proved the catalyst.
“Simon said ‘let’s do something',” recalls Peter. “So here we are. We are doing it.”
And it’s the same feeling of being left behind by a council ‘regenerating from the centre’ that drove Farnworth and Kearsley First that is also propelling MIP.
“Nearly everything - all significant investment - is in Rochdale, nothing comes to Middleton,” Peter says.
“I was a member of the Round Table for over 30 years and as a volunteer - putting money into your community, raising funds for events.
“I’m passionate about it, absolutely passionate about it. I was born here - not in a hospital anywhere else, actually in Middleton.”
Much like hyperlocal parties in other parts of Greater Manchester, changing the status quo means targeting the dominant party - Labour. But where does MIP sit on the political spectrum?
Peter says the party is united by a desire to get a better deal for Middleton rather than any ideological allegiances.
“I don’t see myself as being particularly aligned anywhere,” he says.
What do you make of their plans? Have your say in our comments below
"The three of us [himself, Simon and Bernard] are all passionate about Middleton. I might like something Labour does, I might like something the Conservatives do.
“The problem is, for me, this all started when they started building all those houses at the top of Langley Lane - there was a very well organised opposition to that.
“Every councillor in Middleton opposed it, and it went up to Rochdale [council planning committee in 2016] and it got approved.
“I felt that was instructive. Because big decisions are being made by people that don’t represent us.”
Peter also feels that as independents they will be better placed to represent the interests of Middleton people.
“Don’t get me wrong, we have had some great Labour councillors in Middleton - we have had some bad ones as well - but it all seems to disappear when it goes upstairs to Rochdale,” he says.
“If you take the Levelling Up money virtually every penny is spent in Rochdale, nothing is spent in Middleton.”
He is right that government money under the ‘levelling up’ umbrella -for example £23.6m from the Town’s Fund, £17m from the Future High Streets Fund - has gone to Rochdale, with a particular focus on the town centre.
But the council also has a Middleton township ‘masterplan’ in the pipeline, while Andy Burnham has announced plans to bring Metrolink and an ‘MDC’ regeneration zone to the town. Does that not offer some comfort?
“I’ve got no confidence whatsoever,” says Peter, firmly. “We’ve been let down too often.”
Peter believes Middleton has been the ‘poor relation’ since the local government shake up of 1974, when it became part of the wider Rochdale borough, together with Heywood and Pennines town such as Littleborough and Milnrow.
“Middleton used to have its own council and, as part of boundary changes, got integrated and swallowed up by Rochdale - part of this big machine.”
Council bosses point to the creation of the Middleton Arena sports and leisure complex, the new bus station and regeneration of the town’s ‘Golden Cluster’ area as examples of major investment in the town.
But Peter, who intends to stand in the Middleton West ward, does not believe the town is getting its fair share.
“Rochdale is currently building its third shopping development because the other two haven’t worked,” he says. “We have not seen anything.”
The town has seen a seismic political event in very recent memory, of course.
Chris Clarkson became Heywood and Middleton’s first ever Conservative MP in 2019, as the Tories pledge to ‘get Brexit done’ saw Labour’s proverbial ‘red wall’ all crumble.
And if one issue could cause Labour a huge headache in May it is the Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone (CAZ).
In the pipeline since 2018, the backlash only really started once road signs started going up at the end of last year - but when it did, it was huge. The scheme, which applies to commercial vehicles but not private cars, has been paused over concerns the financial hit could send some firms to the wall, while others would pass substantial costs on to customers.
Greater Manchester leaders will now work with the government to design a 'substantially different' scheme which could come into force as soon as July.
Rochdale was not required to act under the 2017 government direction which ordered seven Greater Manchester boroughs to come up with a plan to bring nitrogen dioxide levels within legal limits the shortest possible time.
However, it was told it had to address exceedances at seven locations within the borough - and decided the CAZ -which includes all 10 boroughs - was the best way to go about it.
MIP say they will oppose any plans for a clean air zone that includes charging - a position now belatedly adopted by Mayor Andy Burnham and local leaders.
“We support clean air,” say Peter.
“We are 100pc behind doing to clean up the environment and produce clean air. We don’t believe that taxing people is the right way to go about it.”
He says it is ‘ironic’ that the council has granted permission for housing and commercial developments on greenfield land, while also pursuing a clean air zone.
“They are killing our green lung,” he says.
“I want clean air, but I don’t want to tax people or put people out of business.
“The socio-economic group of Middleton is pretty low in the main. We have got a lot of unemployment and people who can just about afford to run a car being told ‘because your car pollutes, you can spend £30k on an electric car or you are off the road.”
But pollutants are reported to contribute to 1,200 deaths a year in Greater Manchester alone, however. So, what’s the alternative?
“We have got a council there full of experts, challenge them to come up with their ideas,” says Peter.
“The first thing that came out of any council is to tax everybody, but that doesn’t clean the air up. Taxing people does not clean the air.
“There’s got to be a lot of people out there with a lot of knowledge who would say ‘no, what you want to do is…"
MIP’s manifesto includes regeneration of the town centre, including a new ‘business hub’, tax breaks for start-up firms, faster internet connections.
“We need serious investment and we need appropriate investment, not little fiddly schemes, we need something serious here,” Peter says.
“It feels like ‘give them a few thousand quid and shut them up. It’s not happening. This is why we want to do it. We want to fight for a better deal to get a bigger share of the pie.”
During the meeting there is unanimous agreement that ‘dipping’ the Labour vote and letting in some Tories would not be a bad thing.
There seven members in the room agree that would shift the balance away from Labour, whose members they see as beholden to the perceived Rochdale-centric strategy of the controlling group. This same dynamic - in Bolton, for example - has led to similar groups facing accusations of being a Tory-front with a ‘hyperlocal’ face.
The suggestion is dismissed by Peter.
“No, we are not,” he says, flatly.
“If we are really lucky we could probably get 12 seats out of 60. We might become the second party, but still the minority party.”
“There might come a time we need to talk to the Tories, we might need to come to some arrangement, but it’s not going to compromise our belief.
“Our belief is for a better Middleton, getting a better deal for the people that live here and getting [them] what they deserve. I’m not trying to be patronising but I want a better deal for Middleton. Simple.”
At the time of writing it was unclear as to whether candidates will officially be standing under the MIP banner or as separate independents - an application to register with the Electoral Commission went in just after the deadline.
Eight candidates are confirmed with more 'in the pipeline'.
“We are not professionals as a political party, we are the blind leading the blind,” Peter acknowledges.
“But we are intelligent enough to work things out and realise what we can do.”
“From a personal point of view if I didn’t love this town as much as I do, I would not have spent the last 30 years making this better in a small way - and now I have an opportunity to do it in a bigger way. I just love this place. I have been born here, I live here - I want to see things better.”
Rochdale council's response
Rochdale council has responded to MIP’s claims that Middleton has been left behind and criticism of its involvement in the Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone.
A spokesperson said: “In recent years significant investment has been made in Middleton and more work is planned in the future.
“Major projects completed prior to the start of the Rochdale town centre regeneration programme include the creation of the Middleton Arena sports and leisure complex, a new bus station, major public realm improvements, as well as the regeneration of the Golden Cluster area including several properties designed by Edgar Wood.
“We are also continuing to invest in jobs and skills, as well as upgrading parks and open spaces and working with the Department for Education on the creation of a new secondary school at Bowlee.”
They continued: “The government’s original assessment of whether our borough should be included in the Clean Air Zone was based on incorrect data.
“When we pointed this out and demonstrated that not being included could make our air quality worse by encouraging bus and HGV operators to transfer older more polluting vehicles to our towns, they agreed with our evidence.
“As a council we want to improve our air quality as we have a duty to protect the health of our residents but we also recognise the correct levels of funding need to be in place in order for people to adapt to the changes.
“This is why, along with other Greater Manchester councils, we have been working very hard to get an improved package of support for those that will be affected.”
Click here for the latest headlines from the Manchester Evening News
READ MORE :
ALSO READ :
