The Price of a Parking Ticket
At 6pm on Wednesday 16th February 2022, Oldham Council's Planning Committee met at the Council Chamber inside the Civic Centre. From the outset it is important that I confirm the time and location of the meeting. You'll appreciate the significance why later. No stranger to controversy, particularly following the departure of the previous Council Head of Planning, STEVE IRVINE, who was suspended for Gross Misconduct and then allowed to leave without the Council issuing any explanation, the Committee is in particular despised by the predominantly WHITE communities that live in the semi rural and rural outer areas of Oldham. Used as a cash cow to prop up the finances of a Council repeatedly warned by its own auditors of the risk of bankruptcy, these communities grievances have been consistently ignored whilst their townships and villages have been ravaged by inappropriate development that has destroyed once treasured green spaces.
For those unaware, Oldham Council's Planning Committee is made up of 14 Councillors. The link to all 14 members can be found here. Broken down, the Committee, chaired by the veteran Labour Party Councillor PETER DEAN, is composed of;
- 9 Labour Party Councillors
- 2 Liberal Democrats
- 2 Conservatives
- 1 Failsworth Independents
As with all the other committees in Oldham, the balance of power rests with the Labour Party. They are in control and what they say goes. Furthermore, of the 9 Labour Party representatives on the Planning Committee, 5 are Asian from the Cartel controlled inner wards of the town. These are;
Ruji Sultan (Coldhurst)
Yasmin Toor (Medlock Vale)
Nyla Ibrahim (St Mary's)
Fida Hussain (Werneth)
Javid Iqbal (Werneth)
A sixth member is BARBARA BROWNRIDGE. Though White, she represents the now Cartel controlled ward of Chadderton North. Both her fellow ward councillors are Bangladeshi men and active membership of the local branch (who select the Labour Party candidates) are now also predominantly Bangladeshi. Not only is Cllr BROWNRIDGE reliant on their support to keep her seat, as both NAZRUL HOQUE and MOHON ALI recently demonstrated by refusing to attend the recent Remembrance Sunday service at Chadderton Town Hall, BARBARA BROWNRIDGE dare not speak out in criticism. As with Cllr JENNY HARRISON in Alexandra ward, Cllr BARBARA BROWNRIDGE is nothing more than just a token White face sitting uncomfortably at Cartel functions where she is the only woman present.
The seventh Labour Party representative is the newly elected Hollinwood councillor, KYLE PHYTHIAN. Son of Royton councillor CLINT PHYTHIAN, the more significant relationship is not the one with his father. Young Kyle works directly for JIM McMAHON MP. Yes, the very same man that used the funeral of Lee Rigby to help cover up news of grooming gangs and is heavily dependent on the Cartel controlled block Muslim vote from the inner urban Oldham wards to stay in power.
A closer examination of this Planning Committee therefore shows that it is more than just Labour Party controlled. Seven of the fourteen members are not just representatives of the town's urban wards, these councillors are all also dependent on the Cartel controlled Muslim block vote for support.
In a later article, I will share the significance of why I believe the Labour Party have loaded the Planning Committee this way. For now, even if one was to consider the Cartel association an irrelevance, surely the over representation of inner urban ward Councillors is of relevance?
Having looked at the profiles of the Labour councillors, I find it alarming that not a single one has any lived experience of the impact of their decision making on the outer and rural areas of the borough. If it matters that a councillor lives in, or at the very least has an understanding of the ward that they represent (a theme, when appropriate, used by all political parties to promote their candidates and attack their opponents), surely this reasoning follows through here and it is a matter of concern that not a single one of these inner urban ward councillors on the Planning Committee neither live in nor represent areas where building on the greenbelt is an issue?
It is therefore left to the five minority party councillors, who represent these areas, to defend the interests of people that live in the wards where the greenbelt and OPAL protected spaces are consistently under attack. These five councillors are;
- Liberal Democrats Sam Al-Hamdani (Saddleworth West & Lees) & Hazel Gloster (Shaw)
- Conservatives Luke Lancaster (Saddleworth North) & Max Woodvine (Saddleworth South);
- Failsworth Independent Brian Hobin (Failsworth East).
Even if these five politicians were to combine their efforts and unite as an opposition block vote, they remain heavily outnumbered by the nine Labour Party politicians on the Planning Committee and will lose. Nonetheless, even knowing this, they have an important role to play. It is imperative that they speak out on behalf of those communities that are directly affected by the destruction of the town's greenbelt and treasured OPOL spaces. More so, as representatives of communities where greenbelt and OPOL is at risk, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives have both won seats by standing on a platform of protecting the greenbelt.
Scene setting complete? Anything you fundamentally disagree with? Excellent. Let us move on.
Denbigh Drive High Crompton
At the Oldham Council Planning Meeting on the 16th February 2022, the developer Miller Homes was granted permission to build 42 ‘family’ houses on land behind Denbigh Drive in High Crompton. This was despite more than 150 people registering their objections to building on protected green land.
As a committee at some point we’ve got to stand up and fight for the residents
Despite Cllr Brian Hobin's pleas, fighting for an area he has no need to do so, Oldham Council's Planning Officer MATHEW TAYLOR not only recommended approval, he had the audacity to claim 'that the harm would not (be) significant..'
Predictably, the Council sponsored local media have attempted to confuse what took place and you have to carefully follow CHARLOTTE GREEN's article to make any sense of what is going on. And yes that's write, this is the same Ms GREEN that penned the article where former leader of Oldham Council SEAN FIELDING attacked victims of CSE and their families of making things up at the same time they were receiving letters asking they come forward to give evidence!
Here are some observations that PETER RICHARDS, the new Head of Planning at Oldham Council, might find uncomfortable reading.
- the Denbigh Drive site is protected. Though potentially available as a site for future development as part of ANDY BURNHAM's new masterplan to snatch protected land in Oldham for executive homes that in no way reflect local need (which AROOJ SHAH's Labour Party signed up to in case you forget), BURNHAM's Masterplan - Places for Everyone is still in its design state.
- PETER RICHARDS and his team are therefore forcing through a development on protected green land, designated OPAL, because they WANT to. They are refusing to wait for the masterplan.
- PETER RICHARDS claims 'there is a clear and convincing justification for the scheme in order to supply a development that will meet a housing need'. With the estimated starting price of these homes well beyond the reach of most Oldhamers, one would be right to question just whose needs these houses are being built for?
- Oldham Council are apparently receiving £100,000 in return from the developer. Your guess is as good as mine how many samosas £100,000 will buy.
Of course these developments are never approved simply because a pair of well paid and even more well moisturised Council Officers support the application. This is not how democracy works. Or at least, not how democracy is meant to work. We elect councillors as representatives of the people. They must approve these developments. Perhaps why the Planning Committee is loaded the way it is with Labour Party councillors who all voted the development through. But this is not the controversy. The result was as predictable as the Grooming Gang report being yet again delayed despite ANDY BURNHAM's personal assurances it would be published in January. The controversy emerged once I looked at the vote. Both Saddleworth Conservative Councillors had left the meeting and so did not vote!
In a bizarre and at best ridiculous set of circumstances, it appears that both LUKE LANCASTER and MAX WOODVINE decided they needed to leave the meeting so they could top up the parking for their cars.
Remember at the start, how I was clear on the time of the meeting? A quick check of parking at the Civic Centre car park confirms it is free after 6pm. Clearly both councillors arrived well before 6pm so they could fully prepare for this important meeting and would have bought a ticket for the period prior to the free period kicking in. Therefore, once the time trips over to 6pm, there would have been no need to leave the meeting to go and pay for anything. And let's be clear here, even if I've got it wrong and both councillors had run out of time on their parking, my 7 year old daughter has shared with me what she thinks are options that were available to both university graduate Conservative councillors;
- Send someone else to top up your parking
- One of you go and top up both cars and that way at least one of you could stay and vote
- Simply appeal the decision once the tickets were issued. After all, you are representatives of the Council
Or how about this novel idea lads?
ACCEPT THAT THE COST OF A PARKING TICKET IS A PRICE WORTH PAYING TO FIGHT AGAINST THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR PROTECTED GREEN SPACES.
Save Shaw's Greenbelt
If only the ridiculousness stopped here. Yes there is more. Enter the Facebook group Save Shaw's Greenbelt. Like many of these 'Community Activist' groups, scratch the surface and you find that the key people involved have political connections and these entities are used as a front to promote/defend the interests of one political group. Just as the former Chair of the Grotton Residents Association piggy backed off the Knowles Lanes campaign and announced her candidacy as a Lib Dem for Saddleworth West & Lees, what is taking place in Shaw is not too dissimilar. Save Shaw's Greenbelt is chaired by a woman named LISA SMIRK. Maybe someone ask her about her membership of the Conservative Party. Ordinarily, this should not matter. But this is no ordinary town.
When a concerned resident contacted LISA SMIRK, rightly outraged by what he had seen take place at the Council's Planning meeting, MS SMIRK claimed the group were apolitical and therefore refused to speak out against both Saddleworth Conservative councillors actions. A quick look on the Facebook page confirms that not only is the group very much political, as demonstrated by their objection to the politician ANDY BURNHAM, I'm not sure Ms SMIRK understands the term apolitical. What the term actually means is that the group will equally support and condemn the actions of all politicians, irrespective of party allegiances. So I ask you, why has Ms SMIRK not made a point of sharing with her 1,800 members that both Conservative councillors left the meeting to top up their parking tickets and were subsequently unable to vote?
In actual fact, it gets worse for Ms SMIRK, I have a copy of an email exchange where she essentially defends her Conservative colleagues. Apparently their votes would have made no difference. So if that was the case, and she knew this beforehand, why send representation to the meeting? Surely she knew how the Labour Party councillors would vote beforehand? Enter ALAN RAIT.
I genuinely feel sorry for people like Mr RAIT. Remnants of a past generation, decent people like him engage with the Council in good faith and attend Planning Committee meetings hoping that they will have a fair hearing. If only. I doubt Mr RAIT will be the last to discover democracy in Oldham is a sham and it was a 'done deal' before he even stood up to speak. If I was to hazard a guess, not only did Mr RAIT attend the committee meeting having meticulously prepared beforehand, I'd wager he was also impeccably attired and showed the Committee a level of respect that they did not deserve.
As I recently shared with a former supporter who fell out with me because of the Council treating him with content regarding the equally corrupt Chadderton Partnership, there is only one way that anyone, irrespective of where they live or which community they come from, will get a fair hearing in this town. And that is by starting with voting out AROOJ SHAH's convicted heroin dealer and Cartel infiltrated Labour Party run Oldham Council. Disappointingly, as I am finding out, this will only make a difference if we replace AROOJ SHAH and her ilk with politicians that are prepared to fight for the people of the town.
Unfortunately, my message to ALAN RAIT and the 1,800 members of Save Shaw's Greenbelt is that at best you are naive in thinking this Council can be reasoned with. At worst, you have been deceived by your Chair LISA SMIRK. She should have told you what actually happened at the vote and what her fellow Conservatives did. And before someone attacks me and accuses me of now being a Liberal Democrat, I actually am apolitical. As politicians of all political persuasions in Oldham have found out, I am quite prepared to hold them all to account. My message to both Max and Luke, honestly lads, I expected better from both of you. The price of a parking ticket. Really? Is that the value Oldham Conservatives place on the people of High Crompton?
Do Not Fear Them. Do Not Fear Any Of Them.
For the last 3 years, I have exposed Council corruption and the cover up of the grooming and gang rape of children of Oldham. Despite being branded a racist, I have provided a voice to the betrayed, demonised and oppressed working class communities of my home town. Using my skills and expertise to help hold powerful politicians and public officials to account for their actions, I have remained steadfast in resolve to fight to take back control of our town from Asian Cartels that exchange a block Muslim vote with Labour Party politicians in exchange for unlawful discount sale of public assets and turning a blind eye to their criminality.
The consequence of my work has resulted in the endorsement of my murder by the leader of Oldham Council, Cllr AROOJ SHAH. The Oldham MPs JIM McMAHON & DEBBIE ABRAHAMS have attempted to frame me for crimes I did not commit and even police officers from a proven corrupt and paedophile protecting in accelerated Special Measures Greater Manchester Police have arrested me in a desperate attempt to silence me.
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