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 The Saddleworth Women’s Institute is selling tickets for its latest big charity fundraiser. The Indian Summer Party will take place on 24 September at the Saddleworth Hotel on Huddersfield Road.
As always with the WI, local charities will benefit, with proceeds being split between the Dr Kershaw’s and Willow Wood hospices, and the Saddleworth Village Olympics.
There’ll be a hot supper, raffle and disco, with the fun going on until 1am. Tickets cost £20 and are available from Jen on 07967 006362. Anyone is welcome.
There’s more information about all of the Saddleworth WI’s activities at their website here.
 Cllr Howard Sykes The leader of Oldham Council has defended his decision to fly to and from a meeting with Government ministers in Bournemouth earlier this month. Cllr Howard Sykes said taking the plane was cheaper and faster than the equivalent train journey.
Cllr Sykes was responding to a public question at last week’s full council meeting, put by Saddleworth Parish Councillor Ken Hulme. Cllr Hulme queried the decision to fly, recalling that previous Lib Dem council leader and Saddleworth South member Cllr Richard Knowles had imposed a ban on domestic travel by air and first-class rail back in 2000.
Cllr Sykes and Cllr Jack Hulme, who holds the Cabinet portfolio for Children, Young People and Families, were at the Local Government Association meeting in Bournemouth to discuss the Government’s plans to end the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. The decision to suspend the programme means several schools across the borough, including Saddleworth School, now seem unlikely to get the new buildings they had expected.
The Oldham Chronicle reported that Cllrs Sykes and Jack Hulme had to leave the meeting early to catch their plane back to Manchester, meaning they couldn’t hold talks with Education Secretary Michael Gove, who was himself running late.
In his question, Cllr Ken Hulme added, “Does the apparent failure of Cllrs Sykes and Hulme to stay to meet the Education Secretary… run the risk of signalling to the Government that they are not really serious about reinstating any part of the borough’s BSF programme?”
Cllr Sykes responded by clarifying the council’s travel policy. He said that, while air and first-class train travel was indeed banned in 2000, the policy was amended slightly in 2003. According to Cllr Sykes, “it was agreed by Cabinet that council policy would be that all travel would be standard class unless the member or officer could show good reason to use first class travel which would be authorised by the relevant chief officers and Cabinet member. There is no mention of restriction on air travel.”
Cllr Sykes went on to say that, in this case, the plane tickets cost £170 per person less than the equivalent train tickets. He added that the journey took two hours less by plane, even allowing for the time taken to check-in at Manchester Airport: “Therefore on two counts to make this journey this way made sense – for council tax payers and for effective use of time. The suggestion that these would not be paramount in our considerations beggars belief!”
On the issue of whether he’d missed meeting Mr Gove, Cllr Sykes said he’d never planned to hold talks with the Education Secretary at Bournemouth, having discussed BSF in a meeting with him in June. However, Cllrs Sykes and Jack Hulme did meet Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles and his deputy Andrew Stunell, and Cllr Sykes said they “forcibly made Oldham’s case” to the two ministers.
Cllr Sykes added: “So far be it from not doing what we can about the BSF programme I would argue we have done all we can and continue to do so.”
The overcast and wet weather of the past few days is likely to continue into the weekend.
It ought to stay dry today, although the cloud is forecast to stay with us throughout. Temperatures are likely to reach 18C.
Friday starts overcast once again although there’s a chance we’ll see the sun during the morning. However, showers are forecast during the afternoon, with highs again touching 18C.
Saturday is likely to be more of the same, with cloud and the odd shower, and highs of 18C.
Sunday is predicted to be a bit brighter with more regular sunny spells. However, we’re likely to have some showers during the afternoon, with highs of 19C.
 Dove Stone Reservoir Saddleworth Parish Councillors have expressed concern over the lack of people using the tourist bus to Dove Stone Reservoir. One councillor told Monday night’s meeting of the council that “every bus that has gone past has been absolutely empty.”
The Parish Council is funding the Saddleworth Hopper bus, which runs in a loop between Greenfield Station, Uppermill and Dove Stone on Saturdays and Sundays. It came into service last month, but several councillors pointed out that few people had been using it.
Greenfield-based Cllr John Hudson said every bus he’d seen going past his house had been “absolutely empty.” He added, “People are stopping me saying it’s a waste of money. People are just going on the normal bus to the Clarence. I do hope it does improve.”
Cllr Derek Heffernan said he had been on the first service last month, but admitted he was one of only three people on it, one of whom was a trainee driver. He told the meeting, “It is an absolutely super service… It if gets the passengers it’s money well spent, if it doesn’t get the passengers it won’t be.”
Cllr Ken Hulme said the bus was a “brave effort.” He suggested the recent poor weather may have been a factor in low visitor numbers, and said he thought the bus was still a good idea: “You’ve got to experiment, take a chance, push the boat out a bit.”
Several councillors agreed that a lack of publicity was a problem. Cllr Brian Lord said: “If you don’t live in Saddleworth you’d have no idea this thing was operating.” He called for large signs to go up advertising the park and ride facility at the Saddleworth Rangers car park on Shaw Hall Bank Road.
Cllr Barbara Beeley told the meeting she had already asked Oldham Council about signs, adding that the process was “ongoing.” She added that it would help if local people were made aware that they too can hop on and hop off the bus, and that it offers a more direct service than the regular bus.
The bus leaves from near Greenfield Station 12 times a day each weekend, starting at 10:55am on Saturdays and 11:10am on Sundays, to tie in with the train timetables. The bus is scheduled to run until 26 September, and it’s free for anyone with a valid bus or rail ticket to Saddleworth, and for the over 60s. For everyone else the fare is £1 per day.
 A charity concert in aid of Help for Heroes takes place at the Junction pub in Denshaw this Saturday afternoon. There’ll be live acts on stage in the car park between 2pm and 8pm, along with a barbecue, auction and raffle.
The event is being put on by the new team running the Junction, Marj Schofield and her daughter Kelly Tracey. Kelly, who has sung for 15 years at pubs and clubs in and around Oldham, has got several of her old friends on board for the event, and brewery Lees has donated a wagon to use as a stage.
Marj and Kelly are keen to hear from anyone who might be able to help out by donating items for the auction and raffle, and of course all local people are welcome to go along on the day and support both the pub and the charity.
After 8 o’clock the fun will carry on in the pub with some more singers mixed with karaoke. If the weather’s bad earlier in the day the acts will perform indoors during the afternoon.
There’s lots more information at the event’s Facebook page here.
I interviewed Marj and Kelly earlier this month, and you can read that here.
 Uppermill Civic Hall Saddleworth residents are facing a bill of almost £800,000 to upgrade Uppermill Civic Hall, Saddleworth News can reveal. Under the Parish Council’s plan to borrow £500,000 to fund the work and then pay the money back over the next 25 years, the total amount payable by the council would total £796,416.50.
The figures are contained in a confidential report circulated among councillors at a meeting held last week to discuss the Civic Hall extension, from which the press and public were excluded. Saddleworth News has obtained a copy of the report, which puts the total cost of the work at £518,309, including VAT.
The Parish Council is to apply to the Government to borrow £500,000 from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB), a Treasury-funded organisation which makes loans to local authorities. If the Parish Council’s application is successful, it would repay the money over 25 years in annual instalments of £31,856.56, making a total of £796,416.50.
Under the council’s plans for the building, the single-storey rear extension would be replaced by a two-storey structure, which would have better access for disabled people, new toilets on the first floor, and improved kitchen facilities. However, proposals for a new extension at the side of the building, and a staircase to the third floor, were removed from the plans to save money.
Since 1998, the Parish Council has been spending £25,000 a year to repay the loan which was taken out to fund the first phase of improvement work at the Civic Hall. Now the first loan has been paid off, that annual sum of £25,000 can go towards repayments on the proposed new loan.
That means the Parish Council must find an extra £7,000 a year to meet the repayments on the new loan. The confidential report states that, in 2009/10, the Parish Council made £3,000 more than expected from hiring out the hall. The report also predicts that the Parish Council should be able to make an extra £1,500 a year on top of that once the new facilities are in place, accounting for a total of £4,500 towards the annual repayments. The report states that the rest of the money should come from savings in staff costs of £2,500 a year.
Only 11 of the 20 councillors were at last week’s closed meeting at which these issues were discussed, with several of those absent either ill, away on holiday, or unable to attend because of short notice. Despite the low turnout, the councillors agreed to press ahead with the plans outlined in the confidential report.
The Civic Hall was discussed at last night’s regular open meeting of the Parish Council. Independent Cllr Ken Hulme, who has spoken out against aspects of how the process has been handled, criticised what he said was “a lack of a business plan saying where the additional usage is likely to come from.” He said questions about whether the new bigger building would require additional running costs, and whether the cost of renting the hall would change, had not been answered.
Chairman Cllr Keith Begley agreed with Cllr Hulme’s point about the business plan, saying, “It was my understanding we couldn’t get a loan without a business plan of some kind.” He said he had been involved in drawing up similar plans during his career in industry, adding that information such as the predicted future use of the hall, “should be shown in a business plan, however brief.”
Senior Liberal Democrat Cllr Brian Lord, who has played a lead role in planning the extension, said that a detailed business plan wasn’t needed, because the business of how the hall would operate will not be changing. He said, “The whole idea was to provide a better hall than we’ve currently got. The idea was not to try to raise tons more bookings.”
Cllr Lord pointed out that the upgraded building will on the same footprint as the current one. He added, “We are just trying to keep pace with modern requirements.”
Cllr Barbara Beeley added that the current hall only just meets official requirements for disabled access. She said there was a “crying need” to improve facilities for disabled people.
The Parish Council is now waiting to hear whether it will be allowed to submit a formal application to borrow the £500,000. If the work goes ahead it will be carried out by Wiggett Construction, which, according to the confidential report, submitted the lowest of five tenders.
To read more coverage of the Parish Council from Saddleworth News, go here.
More information about the PWLB is available here.
(Editor’s note: The councillors who attended last week’s closed meeting were Cllrs Begley, Cullen, Bagley, Beeley, Birse, Hudson, B Lord, P Lord, Parry, Renold and Shaw. Those who did not attend were Cllrs Atherton, Bingley, Buckley, Davenport, Franklin, Heffernan, Hodgkiss, Hulme and McInnes)
 The gypsy camp at Brushes Clough on Crompton Moor this morning. A group of gypsies has set up camp on Crompton Moor. According to local residents, they moved in to the area near the Brushes Clough car park at around 10 o’clock this morning.
Within an hour, the camp was made up of six caravans and four other vehicles. Several young children were among those at the camp off Buckstones Road, between Shaw and Grains Bar.
Marian Herod, from the Friends of Crompton Moor campaign group, said: “The council said they wanted open access for all on Crompton Moor, now we can see what they had in mind!”
A spokesman for Oldham Council said the authority was aware of the camp. He said that council officials would be visiting the site shortly, and they would give the gypsies 24 hours to move on.
 The Old Bell in Delph, winner of the Best Blooming Pub prize. Saddleworth Parish Council has announced the results of its Saddleworth In Bloom competition. The Old Bell in Delph took the award for Best Blooming Pub, with the other prizes for private gardens going to winners in Greenfield, Grasscroft and elsewhere in Delph.
Judging took place last Thursday. The panel consisted of the Parish Council’s Chairman, Cllr Keith Begley, along with local gardening expert Frank Ashton and members of the Parish Council’s sub-committee for Special Projects.
The prize winners were:
Container Garden
1st Mrs Helen Hall, 8 Church Street, Delph
2nd Mrs Ann Smith, 47 Platt Lane, Dobcross
3rd Mr Richard Dawes, 51 Oldham Road, Springhead
Small Garden
1st Mr Edward Butterworth, Lowood, 2 Wimberry Close, Greenfield
2nd Mr Tony Finnegan, 17 Bridge Street, Springhead
3rd Mr Paul & Mrs Pamela Davies, 833 Huddersfield Road, Austerlands
Medium Garden
1st Mr Thomas Adamson, 46 Burnedge Lane, Grasscroft
2nd Dr Eamon & Mrs Pauline O’Daly, 22 Church Road, Uppermill
3rd Mrs Christine Fish, Hill View, Kinders Lane, Greenfield
Large Garden
1st Mr Harry & Mrs Val Pinkerton, 8 The Nook, Greenfield
Best Community Garden
1st Mrs Sheila Cronley, 81 – 85 Beech Avenue, Greenfield
2nd Mr Michael Marsh, Shady Vale, Church Street
Best Blooming Pub
1st The Old Bell Inn, Huddersfield Road, Delph
2nd The Hanging Gate, Huddersfield Road, Diggle
3rd The Railway Hotel, Shaw Hall Bank Rd, Greenfield
 Holmfirth Holmfirth featured in a special edition of the BBC’s Countryfile programme last night. It was screened just after the first episode of what is to be the final series of Last of the Summer Wine, the sitcom which has been filmed in the village for almost four decades.
The show focused on how the series has affected the village, and also featured reports on other aspects of local rural life including peat-cutting, reservoirs and forestry.
Just in case you missed it (for example if you were watching Top Gear, which was on the other side at the same time) then the whole programme is available to watch again on the BBC iPlayer for the next week here.
Delph and Dobcross enjoyed victories in both the T20 Cup and the Huddersfield League over the weekend. The results mean they’re now into the last four of the T20 competition, and maintain their third position in the league table.
On Friday night, D&D finally got on the field for their rain-delayed T20 quarter-final away to Rastrick. The home side were bowled out for 120 in the 18th over, a target which D&D reached comfortably for the loss of three wickets, to set up a semi-final at home against Elland. There’s a report on the match on the D&D website here.
D&D were back in league action on Saturday, and managed a four wicket win away to Barkisland. After putting the hosts in, D&D restricted them to 163/7, with Arron Lilley taking 3/28. D&D didn’t have it all their own way in their reply, losing six wickets, but managed to reach their target with more than 21 overs to spare. Bilal Khiljee top scored with 57. You can view the scorecard and report on the D&D website here.
The table can be viewed at the Huddersfield League website here.
And for the latest results from the Saddleworth League, click here.
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