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MANY THANKS for November’s article about music nights at Greenfield Conservative Club, which I read while waiting for one of last week’s two live bands to start at The Railway.
I agree the venue is underused and welcome the addition of live music at the Con.
However, anyone who thinks that ‘live music might not usually be associated with Greenfield’ has probably passed through the village with their hands over their ears saying ‘la la la I’m not listening’.
From The Railway at one end of the village (two live bands a week, plus two open mic nights), past Boarshurst Band Club to music at The Clarence, Greenfield is better served for music than many London suburbs – and that’s without taking into account the annual Sadd Fest at the Rugby Club, and any bands on at Christ Church Hall, Friezland, or the Cricket Club.
Greenfield and the surrounding area is, in fact, full of more musical talent (and better served for venues) than most places of a similar size.
So please, by all means promote the Con as somewhere to go, but don’t forget the existing venues.
PS: Blanty at The Railway was excellent.
Terry, Greenfield (by email)
RECENTLY WE have seen the launch of the “Devo Manc”, whereby Greater Manchester gets control of £2billion for skills, transport, housing and social care. In return we have to elect a Greater Manchester Mayor.
This also comes in the wake of the announcement of HS3 – this is merely a concept not a plan. It lacks a route, timescales and funding.
The only possible indication of a route was the vague reference to reopening tunnels, which could only mean at Diggle on the Huddersfield line.
This is far in the future – what we need now are better rolling stock, more seats and a strategy for taking freight off the roads. We also need the renationalisation of the railways as proposed in Green Party MP Caroline Lucas’ recent private members bill.
Devo Manc is an opportunity that must be grasped by the city region. The housing policy must focus on affordable homes not just in purchase or renting, but in terms of heating and lighting and houses must utilise the latest developments in providing sustainable living.
Transport must be viewed on an integrated basis. We need to continue to extend the Metrolink beyond the planned Trafford Park extension.
The devolution of budgets also allows the opportunity to get greater control of the bus system and drive up ridership and to increase investment in cycling provision.
The other major plank is the £500 million for skills. This gives Greater Manchester the opportunity to boost well paid quality apprenticeships, improve careers guidance in schools and develop a further education system that meets the skill needs of the future.
This is an opportunity that should not be wasted.
We also need the mayoral elections to be the same date as all other elections in May. The entry into the election should be low in terms of deposit to allow a wide range of candidates, not just the usual suspects.
Roger Pakeman, Treasurer of the Oldham & Saddleworth Green Party (by email)
IT IS noticeable that over the last two or three years there has been an increasing number of applications for and erections of wind turbines in Oldham, though in reality this means mainly in Saddleworth.
Surrounding Saddleworth are Calderdale, Rochdale and Kirklees where the trend is even more marked; in the latter it is hard to be out of view of these things – some of them huge with an increasingly adverse visual impact on the environment.
Many Denshaw residents and travellers on the A672 will have seen the latest eyesore just outside Saddleworth, courtesy of Rochdale Council, and which was opposed by Oldham.
It is worth noting there can be severe noise problems; high frequency from the smaller c.60 ft ones, and low frequency from the larger ones.
People are becoming more aware that these machines are intermittent and mechanically unreliable and produce only seven to 30 per cent of the output claimed in planning applications.
What other business could survive with performance figures like that unless it was subsidized by the public purse?!
As a former CEO of energy firm E.oN said some years ago, no-one would build wind farms without the subsidies.
Thus we have schemes like Feed-in Tariffs which add £100-£200 plus to everyone`s electricity bills while our own Department of Energy and Climate Change reported that eight million people in 2.7 million households suffer Fuel Poverty.
This raises the question – why should every household pay to make the rich even richer?
The question of CO2 emission and climate change is often advanced to try and justify turbines yet there is a singular lack of figures to show how much will be saved and never a reference to the vast CO2 production in manufacturing, transporting, installing, maintaining and de-commissioning them.
It is inescapable that the major world economies of China, India, Brazil, Russia, and USA proceed increasing CO2 production and deride our second-rate economy and its consistent failure to have a secure and sustainable energy policy, which must involve gas, nuclear, oil and coal with some reliable renewable such as tidal.
Incidentally, the proponents of wind power also try to justify off-shore schemes. No visual impact? Have you seen these things?
What they fail to tell us is all wind turbines produce DC electricity which has to be converted to AC. This means more building and transmission lines BUT also vast offshore schemes will have perhaps miles of additional inland cabling necessitating digging through farmland to get to a large conversion station in lovely countryside.
The fact remains that all these schemes are money-grabbing projects for the greedy and hypocritical concealed behind a “green façade”.
David Makin, chair of the Saddleworth Moors Action Group (by email)
