MACEDONIA BBQ

Failsworth Macedonia Cricket Club are a BBQ at their ground on the evening of Saturday 19th July 2003.
Both adults and children are welcome. Cheap food at £5/£2.50p, with money going to help the club. Starts about 7-30 to 8pm
Tickets from Larry Johnson 0161 688 4549.

LATEST CRIME FIGURES OUT

Between 1st January and 28th February 2003 a total of 521 crime were recorded in the Failsworth and Hollinwood area. This represents 12% of total crime in the Borough of Oldham.

Officers from Failsworth have carried out a number of local operations in recent months under the leadership of Inspector John McNeil.

A major drugs operation, Barron, has been carried out by divisional officers, culminating in many arrests during February of local drug dealers from all areas of the borough. This has received major press coverage.

CRICKET NEWS

SAT 31 MAY

FAILSWORTH MACEDONIA     219   ALL OUT
ELTON VALE                         125    ALL OUT

Failsworth continued their good start to the season with an impressive 5 point win at home to Elton Vale at Holt Lane.
Thanks to a steady innings by opener Pete Haselden, the later order batters managed to post a good score, with Khaliq Ur Rehman once again headlining with a great knock of 73. With the Macedonia facing new opponents each week in division 1, it is hard to asses what constitutes a good total, but so far the bowlers have risen to the new challenge, and with the help of  Chris Akin's 5-22 they dismissed Vale in confident manner to consolidate their solid start to the campaign.


SUN 1 JUNE

FAILSWORTH MACEDONIA        115 ALL OUT
GLODWICK                            116-2

Macedonia's good league form did not extend to their Calverley Cup fixture with Glodwick on Sunday, and a poor batting display led to a comprehensive 8 wicket defeat. The team did not raise their game to the higher level required when facing stronger opponents and hopefully they will learn from this performance that  a disciplined approach to batting will be needed to trouble sides in future. A bad day all round for the team, and a sad early exit from the cup.

SUN 1 JUNE

FAILSWORTH MACEDONIA 2ND X1       110 ALL OUT
SWINTON MOORSIDE                        210 ALL OUT

Macedonia's 2nd x1 were just glad to get the opportunity to play some cricket, having had all their previous league games ruined by rain, Facing early league leaders Swinton, Macedonia worked well in the field to restrict the opposition to a manageable total, as at one point , with a very fast outfield, Swinton looked on course for 280/300. They stuck to their task well, and Dave Henson brought some hope with a spell of 4-67. In the reply however, Swinton's tight bowling had "Macy" struggling and it took an aggressive knock of 53 Not Out by Dave Henson to give the scorecard some respectability. It looked all too obvious that  the team need to find some confidence after such a stuttering start to the season.

PLANNING APPLICATIONS

I have added the weekly planning list to the right hand menu bar. This will be updated each week so make sure you keep checking back.

LOCAL TENANT ELECTIONS UNDERWAY

Local Board Tenant Elections for two of the First Choice Homes Oldham areas are now underway.

A total of 10 nominees are standing for the Hollinwood and Failsworth board, with eight candidates in Chadderton.

All tenants in those areas will receive an election pack with details of each of the nominees and a short election statement to help decide who to vote for.

The election period will run until June 17 with the results advertised locally after 20 June 2003.

Chair of First Choice Homes Oldham main board Councillor Jackie Stanton said the nomination stage of the process had been extremely successful.

She added: "This is a real chance for local people to have a say on the issues affecting their homes.

"It is important tenants vote because this is their opportunity to elect the person they feel will best represent their area, who will listen to the voices of local people, and assist in making a substantial impact at this exciting time for housing in Oldham."

Elections for the boards of the four other areas of First Choice Homes Oldham will take place in the next two years.

Anyone with enquiries about the election process should contact the Tenant Participation Unit on 0161 911 3586/3587/3588.

FAILSWORTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The Society welcomes Kath Lynch to the committee as an elected member. This now completes the committee.

The next meeting of the Failsworth Historical Society will be held on Wednesday 4th June at 7.00pm, at Spinners Hall, Kershaw Road, Failsworth. Guest Roger Ivans from the Local Studies Archive will give advice on researching Failsworth which the wealth of information they store. ALL WELCOME.

For more information on joining the society please call Jim McMahon on 0161 681 6448.

AREA CONFERENCES

Local communities will soon have the chance to say what they think about where they live and what changes they would like to see in the future.

A series of Area Conferences will be held in the coming weeks across the Borough, helping to identify local issues and feed into the work of the six Area Committees and the newly appointed area managers.

Plans for each part of Oldham will then be drawn up over the summer, with a further public consultation period in autumn before they are finalised in October.

Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities Councillor Peter Dean said the move was an important part of drawing up future Council strategy.

He added: "It is very important to us that local people tell us their views on how they would like Oldham to be in the future. Public engagement is the number one priority for Area Committees and we would like to see as many people as possible coming forward to tell us what they think."

Everyone is invited to take part in the conferences, and full details will be advertised in each area.

Failsworth and Hollinwood will meet on Thursday 26 June, venue to be arranged.

Further events will be held during this phase of the consultation and will be advertised locally.

POLICE STATION UPDATE

Background to the proposed closure

The government offered funding to the Police Authority to improve the standard stations through PFI (Private Funding Initiative) which meant that a private investor/landlord would build the stations and then lease them to the police over varying terms, 10-25 years.

This plan was going ahead and a site was allocated near to Chadderton Fire Station on Broadway. Its worth pointing out that Chadderton did not want this station and opposed it from the start. Due to problems with the suitability with the land the location had to be changed.

Whilst this was going on Oldham changed the way it was to police its areas, and Township policing was born (Sept '02). This put a spanner in the works because at last residents felt the police were in control and they knew who the officers were, and most importantly felt safe. The problem this caused to the Police Authority was that people started to care about the policing, because at last it was effective.

Now we come to today. The situation is currently that the Police Authority still want to build a station in Chadderton to also serve Failsworth and Hollinwood. A new site has been selected near to the Boat and Horses on Broadway, and if they manage to get contracts signed by August this year the funding will no longer be available.....which would be good news for the people of Failsworth and Hollinwood.

The next few months will be crucial to the future of policing in Failsworth. All we will be left with if this Chadderton Station goes ahead is an information desk with no officers based in Failsworth.

Something interesting which came up was how well respected and effective Inspector John McNeil is, but it is worth mentioning that John and his team are only as effective as the support they receive from the public. The reason he is so well received is because he is here in Failsworth, he's one of us, he can't get away from the problems residents face everyday.

The anti-social behaviour orders which have just been served were only successful because of the people of put their necks on the line to give evidence against these yobs, and they did this because they knew John and his team were up the road, ready to come if there was any trouble.

This is NOT a Police decision, it is a Police Authority decision.

My message is clear; the people of Failsworth will not come second best. Do not worry how much it will cost to break a contract with the developers, ask how much it will cost in PR terms, it will take the police a very long time to recover the goodwill of the people if they take away our station!

Some facts which you may find interesting...

In 1998 a plan was drawn up to provide 3 section stations in Failsworth, Royton and Uppermill. Since then Royton now has a station, and Uppermill's is currently being built leaving Failsworth with nothing!

Failsworth West has one of the highest crime activity rates in the whole of Greater Manchester.

Failsworth has countless sites which could be used to building a police station, these include, Roman Road opposite Kaskenmoor School, The old Danny Mac site on Albert Street, the land opposite the Roxy, and the former Siemens Site.

You may also be interested in our new section of the site, Law and Order. Featuring crime prevention advice, information on the new Anti-social Behaviour Orders in force, plus where to go for help and advice.

FAILSWORTH CEMETERY

UPDATE FROM OLDHAM MBC

Work will get underway next week to carry out checks on the safety of thousands of smaller memorial headstones in Oldham's cemeteries.

The move is part of a regional directive from the Health and Safety Executive, who has written to all local authorities in Greater Manchester calling on them to ensure that memorials are secure.

It follows recent tragic accidents in cemeteries across the country including the deaths of children and adults caused by toppling headstones and Oldham Council is acting swiftly to ensure that there are no repeats of these incidents in the Borough's cemeteries.

Work by staff from the Council's Environmental Services Department to check the Borough's older stone monuments and those measuring over 1.2 metres is continuing and they will now begin work to inspect smaller memorials.

Assistant Director Environmental Services Kathryn Jackson said: "The Council has no option but to follow the guidelines laid down by the Health and Safety Executive and we will be carrying out safety checks on all memorials in Oldham.

"Although the responsibility for maintaining memorials rests with the grave owners, the Council, like all other burial authorities, does have a statutory duty to ensure that the memorials within its cemeteries do not represent a safety risk.

"Unfortunately there have been tragic accidents to children, adults and cemetery staff across the country and by acting swiftly Oldham Council is hoping to make sure that these unfortunate incidents are not repeated here in the Borough.

"The Council is aware that this is a sensitive issue for many families and I would assure relatives that staff will carry out all checks in a sensitive and compassionate manner and staff in the cemeteries department will be happy to offer any help and advice at this difficult time."

The inspections will begin on Monday 2 June and every memorial will be checked by a manual push test and any memorial stones found to be unstable will be carefully laid to the ground to prevent potential accidents.

The Council is in the process of writing to around 2,000 people, who they have on record as having erected a gravestone in the past five years, to inform them of the tests.

Warning notices about the move have also been placed in all the Borough cemeteries and every memorial lowered to the ground will be tagged explaining why action has been taken.

If a headstone has been lowered in this way, and the family wish to re-erect it, they will have to appoint an approved monumental mason to do the work. For reasons of safety only approved monumental masons may carry out work on memorials in cemeteries.
 

BOUNDARY CHANGES IN FAILSWORTH

After some enquiries into the proposed boundary changes in Failsworth I have decided to give all of you an overview of what the changes will mean to our town.

The major change will be that geographically Failsworth East will become bigger in size, at the cost to Hollinwood which will lose all of the land this side of the M60 motorway, including the Roxy Cinema, Kaskenmoor School, and Hillingdon Close, which will all become part of Failsworth East.

The main aim of this is to provide equal numbers of electorates in each ward, that of Failsworth East, West and Hollinwood, whilst maintaining a clear boundary.

There will also be some boundary movement from West to East around Lord Lane.

The recommendations from the boundary committee are as follows;

Failsworth East and Failsworth West wards

120 Failsworth East and Failsworth West wards lie to the south-west of the borough. Under the existing electoral arrangements, Failsworth East ward has a councillor:elector ratio 3% above the borough average (2% above by 2006). Failsworth West ward has a councillor:elector ratio 7% below the borough average (9% below by 2006).

121 At Stage One, Oldham Borough Council proposed one modification to the existing Failsworth East ward and no change to the existing Failsworth West ward. As described in a preceding section, its proposed Failsworth East ward would include the Pastures estate (part of polling district 124) from the existing Hollinwood ward. The boundary between these two wards would be moved to the M60 as ‘the motorway does effectively divide the community’. However, the Borough Council added that ‘the M60 is a relatively new topographical feature’, and considered that it did not accurately divide the Failsworth and Hollinwood communities to the north of this point. It considered that Roman Road linked Kaskenmoor School and Hillingdon Close to the rest of Hollinwood ward.

122 Under Oldham Borough Council’s proposals, Failsworth East ward would have a councillor:elector ratio 5% above the borough average (4% above by 2006). Failsworth West ward would have a councillor:elector ratio 7% below the borough average (9% below by 2006).

123 The Labour Group also proposed the inclusion of the Pastures estate in an amended Failsworth East ward. However, it also proposed the transfer from Failsworth East ward to Failsworth West ward of part of polling district 113, an area of the Lords Lane estate centred on Alder Road. Its proposed boundary would run to the east of Warwick Road and to the north of Durham Crescent, where rejoins the existing boundary.

124 Under the Labour Group’s proposals, Failsworth West ward would have a councillor:elector ratio 1% above the borough average (1% below by 2006). Failsworth East ward would have a councillor:elector ratio of 4% below the borough average, both initially and by 2006.

125 David Heyes MP provided argumentation supporting the Labour Group’s proposed Failsworth East and Failsworth West wards. He stated that the streets comprising the part of polling district 113 to be transferred ‘are all within the Lord Lane Estate’ and that the properties in these streets ‘are similar in style, character and vintage to the rest of the estate’ which already lies within Failsworth West ward. David Heyes MP argued that this would form a ‘coherent whole as a local community and is clearly delineated along both sides of Alder Road’ something which ‘can be clearly seen on the map and on the ground.’ He also considered that these proposals provide for better electoral equality than the Borough Council’s proposals. As discussed previously, David Heyes MP supported the Borough Council and the Labour group’s proposed Hollinwood ward.

126 Having carefully considered all representations received during Stage One, we propose to adopt the Labour Group’s proposed Failsworth East and Failsworth West wards, subject to a number of amendments. We note the support and argumentation for the Labour Group’s proposals provided by David Heyes MP and, having visited the area, concur that they would best reflect community identities and interests in the area while providing for improved levels of electoral equality in Failsworth West ward. However, we are also proposing to transfer part of Cemetery Road and all of Broome Grove from Failsworth West to Failsworth East ward, in order to unite Cemetery Road in a single ward. As previously discussed, we propose further minor amendments between the wards of Failsworth East and Hollinwood in order to make greater use of the M60 as a clearly identifiable boundary and to include all of Woodhouse Green in Failsworth East ward. These changes would facilitate a slight improvement in electoral equality in Failsworth East ward while in our view providing for more clearly defined and effective ward boundaries in the affected areas.

127 Under our draft recommendations, Failsworth West would have a councillor:elector ratio equal to the borough average (1% below by 2006). Failsworth East would have a councillor:elector ratio 2% below the borough average, both initially and by 2006. Our proposed wards are illustrated on Map 2, Map A1 and the large maps.

You can view the maps by clicking on the links below;

Map 1 Existing wards in Oldham

Map 2 Our draft recommendations for Oldham

Large map 1, large map 2, large map 3, large map 4, large map 5, illustrate the existing and proposed warding arrangements for Oldham.
 

New Content Update

Click below to see the newest addition to the site, includes crime figures, advice, and information on the anti-social behaviour orders currently in force in Failsworth.