Cllr Garth Harkness
Parish Councillor Garth Harkness sent the letter below to the editor of Saddleworthnews.com. The Liberal Democrat who represents Springhead Lower is questioning how much Oldham Borough Council ‘cares’ for Saddleworth. For more on Garth Harkness click here.
If you want to respond to the points made in the letter, you can either leave a comment below this post, or send an e-mail by clicking on the Contact option at the top of this page. If you would like an e-mail published on this website then please mark it as a letter to the editor, and I’ll be happy to do so.
“Oldham Borough Council seems to be showing again that they care little for Saddleworth and cannot get the priorities right. We are seeing the Labour-run council spend millions on subsidising the Latics, closing swimming pools and failing in sharing resources with Rochdale to save money.
“Now we see agreed schemes in Saddleworth under the last administration being axed. Under the new proposals for the Capital Investment programme we will see scheduled work in Delph on Gartside Street and Holland Close being axed.
“In addition Dobcross will be hit where the much needed work on Sugar Lane will be dropped. Much needed work on the many footpaths also seems to be being ignored last time we saw debts of £43 million and Saddleworth seeing nothing and it looks like we may see this again.”
Cllr Garth Harkness
Whinge Whinge Whinge Whinge Whinge Whinge Whinge
Typical Saddleworth.
Can’t wait for Oldham to dump Saddleworth and get on with providing services instead of having to deal with the perpetual whiners
Cllr Harkness is right I am sorry but Saddlecloth is at the wrong end of the borough and when the money starts to run out you will get hit first looks like its started all ready with the pool fiasco and I know that there is a limited amount of funds to spend and when its gone its gone, and it has gone. spare me 10p for a cup of tea mister
If only the people in the area could choose people to make sure that the Council represented our interests.
I wonder what we would call these people? Maybe ‘councillors’?
As long as Saddleworth residents continue to believe that anyone from one of the major parties will ever put the interests of Saddleworth above their own party politics then we are doomed.
A long time ago, just down the valley, Mossley learnt that the only answer to being ignored or worse was to elect their own independent councillors.
Maybe it is time for Saddleworth to do the same?
Firstly, the standard of written English from the Lib Dems is atrocious. Though that as an aside, the truth of the matters that Cllr Harkness is referring to could be addressed as follows;
My understanding is that Saddleworth Parish Council has ‘quality parish council’ status. This means that it can take over some council services from Oldham, including directing cash to the maintenance of footpaths and roads that it believes to be a priority. However, this Lib Dem controlled council chooses not to exercise these powers. Of course, to take some extra responsibility would require them to take the criticism if they mess it up. This, both locally and nationally seems to be something that the Libs are allergic to.
As the Labour candidate at last year’s hustings said “The Lib Dems want all of the power, and none of the responsibilty.”