WHO will get your vote when Saddleworth and Oldham go to the polls on Thursday, May 2?
In the local elections, voters will cast their choice of who they want to elect to represent them on Saddleworth Parish Council and Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council.
In the borough elections, one seat will be contested in each of the 20 wards in Oldham, including three wards in Saddleworth: Saddleworth North, Saddleworth South, and Saddleworth West and Lees.
Each ward is represented by three borough councillors, with one up for election each year.
Residents who are registered to vote can have their say in all the elections based on where they live. You will receive a poll card telling you where to vote.
The counts for all elections will take place from 10pm onwards on May 2 in the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Civic Centre.
Saddleworth North candidates
John Eccles – Liberal Democrat
Protecting our open countryside, education and NHS services – these are local issues that really concern me.
We cannot allow Saddleworth to be considered as an unimportant border area that can be neglected.
I’ve lived here with my family for over 30 years, used local schools and NHS services and taken an active part in village life.
Now semi-retired, having had a varied career as an industrial gas engineer, film director and college lecturer I want to use my energies to do something positive for this special district called Saddleworth.
We will always be threatened by developers who charge inflated prices for large new houses ‘in a rural setting’.
Once an estate is built it is no longer rural, becoming ‘commuterland’ forever.
We must make sure every scrap of derelict industrial land is cleared and reused first.
The green belt must stay green and every planning application needs careful scrutiny.
Every new housing proposal must include some rented accommodation for local people so our children might have the opportunity to set up home here.
Alone in the Borough we do not have a Health Centre with full primary care facilities and local doctors surgeries in Uppermill and Greenfield are clearly under strain. Yet the new surgery in Delph is grossly underused. Why?
Our primary schools are full and the new Saddleworth School is sorely needed.
This is why I am standing for Oldham Council. I missed being elected by just 51 votes last time.
If you elect me on May 2 I will do my very best to make a difference.
Chris Green – UKIP
In the local election of councillors for Oldham, to be held May 2, the local branch of UK Independent Party (UKIP) is fielding candidates in all three Saddleworth wards, as well as 11 others across the borough.
Saddleworth North candidate is Chris Green MBE who lives and works in the ward so is well aware of the local issues.
Chris has worked abroad for several years in oil construction and became President of the Royal Society of St George, Chairman of the British Business Forum along with sitting on the Business Committee of two ambassadors.
Chris believes UKIP is the only party that can severely make an impact, worrying the major parliamentary parties at these local elections forcing them to listen what the electorate voted for.
George Hulme – Labour
I am proud to be the Labour candidate for Saddleworth North. Thanks to your previous support at the last election, Saddleworth North is now a three-way fight and that means every vote counts.
I have lived in Delph for most of my life and have been involved with Delph Youth Brass Band, playing many times at Whit Friday, Delph Cub Scouts and Delph Library.
I attended Delph Primary School, Saddleworth School, Oldham Sixth Form College and graduated from Aberystwyth University.
I work in the office of Debbie Abrahams MP as a caseworker, helping the residents of Saddleworth North daily. My dad, Ken Hulme, represented the area for many years as a Parish Councillor.
Working in Debbie’s office I have seen the damage that Tory cuts, enabled by the Lib Dems, have caused to people and services across Saddleworth North.
Three extra pieces of land, 13 football pitches in size, have been added to the green belt in Saddleworth North.
Where we have brownfield sites, I will fight to make sure more affordable housing is built so the young people of Saddleworth have somewhere to live.
I want to ensure the residents of Saddleworth North have their voices heard in Oldham. I believe the best person to help have them heard by a Labour Council is a Labour councillor.
Please vote for me on Thursday, May 2. I was only 113 votes away last year and every vote counts.
Luke Lancaster – Conservative
I’m proud of having been brought up in Saddleworth and consider myself very fortunate to be a part of such a fantastic community.
I am a former head boy of Oldham Hulme Grammar School and an avid Oldham Athletic fan.
I am delighted to have been afforded the opportunity to serve our community in the capacity of Parish Councillor for Delph and Denshaw.
However, my campaign is not over and I am working hard to earn the trust of Saddleworth North residents ahead of the Borough elections.
Having had hundreds of conversations on the doorstep, it’s clear many people are disappointed with the return they get from Oldham Council.
I want to ensure that those concerns are heard and I am in a great position to do that as part of a strong, hard-working Conservative team.
My priorities, if elected, are:
- Fight for the protection of our precious green spaces and for a brownfield first approach to new housing developments
- Combat fly-tipping by campaigning for a return to weekly bin collections and for an extra £1million to be spent on street cleaning.
- Reduce the cost of politics by putting the case for reducing the number of councillors to 40, saving £1miillion over an electoral cycle.
- Defending Saddleworth’s interests by fighting for the reinstatement of the vital £40,000 funding which has been cut by Oldham Council
- Getting to grips with the crumbling roads in Saddleworth and repairing failing surfaces and potholes.
A vote for me on May 2 will mean an even stronger voice for Saddleworth in Oldham by joining my hard-working colleagues on the Conservative team who fight so hard for Saddleworth.
Carl Roberts – Saddleworth First!
I’m working hard for the villages of: Austerlands, Delph, Denshaw, Diggle, Dobcross and Scouthead.
And I am campaigning for:
- Better local facilities
- No more houses in Saddleworth
- Reversing cuts to the Saddleworth rate support grant by Labour controlled OMBC. This has led to high rises in the Saddleworth precept over the past three years. From April, the increase is 4.8 percent. Cuts by the Conservatives to Oldham’s grant do not help. OMBC is hiking this coming year’s council grant by 5.3 percent.
- Improved local transport links
- Increased police funding to enable them to support our villages better. The harsh cuts imposed to police budgets by the Conservatives have been devastating
- To save our important buildings such as St Chads Church
- DBS checks for Parish Councillors.
I live in Austerlands where I spent my childhood with my grandmother. My mum, seven brothers and sister were born in Scouthead. My sister and family live in Springhead.
I am proud of and support our unique Saddleworth traditions: village cricket clubs, band clubs, Whit Friday band contests and celebrations, Saddleworth Day festival, Yanks, Saddleworth Music Society, Saddleworth Male Voice choir, Saddleworth Ladies choir, our local residents and neighbourhood associations, our Saddleworth history, our invaluable tourist information service.
Phil Sewell – Independent
I have lived in Saddleworth for over 50 years. Attended Saddleworth School, married to Lindsay, who is also from Saddleworth. We have three daughters, who all live in Saddleworth.
My mother worked at Neptune Measurements in Dobcross until it closed. My father ran a driving school in Saddleworth for over 30 years.
I have worked in private industry all my working life and I feel this experience can be applied sensibly to deliver objectives in the public sector.
I am a member of the Diggle Whit Friday Contest Committee and we organise a number of community events throughout the year, including the world-famous duck race.
I hope the above demonstrates where my loyalties are and that my motives are the interests and wellbeing of Saddleworth and its residents.
If you look at my posts on Facebook ‘Phil Sewell Voicing the Views of Saddleworth North, you will see some of my opinions.’
An independent can represent the electorate honestly without the burden of party politics.
We need to create and apply an affordable homes policy, and look after communities’ needs, not the developers’.
Traffic calming in all our villages, 20mph limit and speed indicators to prompt drivers to take care.
We need to more ambitious. Why not have another train stop in Diggle with parking? There used to be one. As we are encouraged to use the car less, make it easier to do and people will do it.
OMBC has no money of its own, the only money it has is ours. We need more transparency and more knowledge of the decision-making about allocation of funds.
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