Council Candidate Interview: Ken Hulme (Independent, Saddleworth North)
Ken Hulme, Independent candidate for Saddleworth North on the borough council and Delph on the parish council, pictured in Uppermill yesterday.
Ken Hulme has urged voters in Saddleworth North to send him to Oldham Council, so he can strike “deals for Saddleworth.” The independent candidate, who is also standing for the Delph ward on Saddleworth Parish Council, also used an interview with Saddleworth News to promise he’d work with politicians of all sides if elected.
He rejected the idea that, as a long-standing critic of some council decisions, he runs the risk of being ignored at the Civic Centre. Cllr Hulme pointed the possibility of another finely-balanced council, and said: “If I’m on that council and I’ve got klout, there will be a 20mph limit in Delph, we will want action taken in Diggle, we will want a whole series of things where action is actually taken and not just talked about.”
He continued: “The deal for me will be doing things for the area I represent, it won’t be about nice little sweeteners or money for me… I’m there to derail, not to join the gravy train.”
Cllr Hulme said he would have voted against the budget recently passed by the Liberal Democrat/Conservative administration, which included £41m of cuts, and raised concerns about the plan to outsource aspects of elderly care to the private sector.
He commented: “It’s an issue that’s come home to me because I’ve met people in Delph, and they are really concerned that older people with dementia or any other condition, have got used to their carers, they’ve got used to people within Oldham Council. And to bring in agency workers from outside that people don’t know… I want a council which provides quality services within a decent framework, and I am not happy with the private sector when they do that work.”
Turning to the Parish Council, Cllr Hulme described the group of independent candidates as “the magnificent seven,” and said: “It is genuine independents. It certainly is not the Ken Hulme party. You’ve got seven completely individual characters, coming at things from different angles, all with one thing. They are committed to Saddleworth, they want to preserve the best of it, but they also want to get some life and energy and movement into the body politic.”
He said a group of independents would “transform” the Parish Council: “First of all the average age would come down from 75 to about 45. There would be young women with children of school age on there, I’m at the moment 61 and I’m effectively the youngest member of the Parish Council. The whole of the council would have a different perspective, it’ll be new blood.”
Cllr Hulme added: “This sort of clubby atmosphere, that little deals are done by quite tired and inactive people behind closed doors, and then just sort of foisted on people, that’ll go. Whether it be youth, allotments, all sorts of things, they are people with passion, energy and commitment… the political elite in this area has become complacent, they’ve taken it for granted, they think they own the place, and a good challenge would do a lot of good.”
You can listen to the interview in full by downloading it from here. We were talking in a coffee shop in Uppermill, so there’s a bit of background noise.
Also standing in Saddleworth North, which covers Delph, Dobcross, Diggle, Denshaw, Scouthead and Austerlands, are Labour’s Sean Fielding, Liberal Democrat Derek Heffernan and Conservative Phil Sewell.
Five candidates are standing for three seats in the Delph ward, which also covers Denshaw. The field includes Lib Dems Louie Hamblett, Sharon McGladdery and Alan Roughley, as well as Independent Nicola Kirkham. I intend to interview as many of the borough and parish candidates as possible between now and polling day on 5 May.
For full Saddleworth News coverage of the parish election go here, and articles about the Oldham Council election are here.
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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Sorry Ken I don’t believe that you are a true independent I find it easier to believe that pigs fly and that’s why the price of bacon is going up
Hi Steve,
As somebody like Ken, who’s standing as an independent candidate myself I’d be interested to hear what you think being a true independent means and where you believe Ken (and perhaps myself) don’t live up to that.
I believe it’s important that we’re in a position to have an open-minded dialogue with people and give them an opportunity to express any concerns that they have about us and tell us what they expect of us, so that we can learn where any feelings like this came from and do our best to correct any mistakes we may have made, as well as understand other peoples’ points of view.
Hi Steve, like Nick and Ken, I am also standing as an Independent and would like to reassure you that although political opinions vary amongst the independent candidates, we have one common purpose. That is to promote the best interests of Saddleworth. Something that we feel has not been done previously due to representatives having to adhere to a party line. We are interested in open and honest debate and you are welcome to engage in that debate any time, whatever your opinion. We hope to present a new transparency in local politics and as such welcome any questions or concerns as this represents true democracy, which we espouse. By doing this we hope to encourage more interested members of the community to come forward as Independents in the future and let Saddleworth benefit from the abundance of skills, knowledge and experience available in the area. Please feel free to contact myself or any other of the Independent candidates if you want to know more.
”Deals for Saddleworth” Come on Ken – we all know you are the Red Delpher – does the red indicate your Communist/Labour affiliations of old?
Can Ken Hulme assure the Saddleworth voters that he will not side with the Oldham Labour Councillors and ultimately achieve a worse deal for Saddleworth?
@saddbarsteward, I doubt you will get any such assurances:
‘Independent’ is an adjective and a noun, but not a political identity. Ken will agree with one party more than the others, it would be interesting to know which party/parties he thinks he could work with.
Thanks Steve, Simon & Saddbarsteward
In response to your comments :
If – and it’s a big if I get elected to Oldham Council I am not for sale when it comes down to any ‘deals’ to be done.
I am not seeking to climb aboard the Civic Centre £1 million a year gravy train – I want to derail it.
Currently the so called ‘Special Responsibility Allowances’ worth hundreds of thousands of pounds per year ,are used as ‘sweeteners’ to persuade Councillors to change sides or enter in coalitions. Look at the current arrangements. The Conservatives joined up with the Lib Dems to run Oldham Council – the deal was ALL about jobs NOTHING about policy !
The Conservative Councillors all got Cabinet position or committee chairs or similar giving them thousands of pounds in ‘Special Responsibility Allowances’
I have pledged not to accept ANY special responsibility allowances – I think most of them are bogus and unearned. I’m not in that market. I want to see Councillors allowances and expenses halved – at the very least ! That would save £500,000 for front line services.
If anyone wants my support I want to see action on the issues that matter to the people that elected me – whether it be traffic in Delph & Dobcross , resurfacing roads in Diggle, allotments in Austerlands or better bus links for Denshaw.
That will be my price for my support.
If elected I will work with ALL parties, our MP, MEP’s – whoever – to get a better deal for Saddleworth.
I enjoy being Independent and outside the tribal sectarian party politics that are holding Saddleworth (and Oldham) back.
I really will put Saddleworth First !
If you want to ask more questions – come to the Swan, Dobcross on Thursday Night at 7.30 pm where I will be joining the other candidates in a Saddleworth North hustings – chaired by the esteemed editor of Saddleworth News.
Or visit the Voice of Saddleworth website
www.VoiceOfSaddleworth.com
Has Ken forgotten that the people of Delph and Denshaw elected him as a LABOUR candidate four years ago?
Has he forgotten that he was a LABOUR councillor on a London Council before he came up here?
Is his wife not secretary of the Saddleworth LABOUR party?
Did he not leaflet for Debbie Abrahams, The LABOUR Candidate in the recent By- election?
Did he not cheer when it was announced that Phil Woolas had won the general election?
Do leopards change their spots?
Come on Ken just because you couldn’t get elected as a Labour candidate don’t try and fool people into thinking that you are ‘independent’ to get in through the back door!!
I think the Saddleworth Labour Party will be surprised to hear my wife is their Secretary (of course she isn’t)
or that I cheered when Phil Woolas was elected – I wasn’t in the hall when the announcement was made (I was chatting to journalists and drinking coffee in the press gallery at the time) – another made up story.
For the record I was a Labour Member of Camden Council in the 1980’s – over 20 years ago !
and for the record, yes its no secret, I decided to support Debbie Abraham in the recent by-election – she was in my opinion by far the better candidate. If Elwyn Watkins had been the Labour Party candidate I still wouldn’t have voted for him ! And if it had been a choice between Elwyn & Kashif Ali I would have supported Kashif. It wasn’t the party that was the main issue for me it was the calibre of the candidates.
And yes between 1997 and 2010 the Labour Party membership fell from over 400,000 to 177,000 – with over half the membership , including myself, leaving! It’s said the biggest political group in Saddleworth is former Labour party members.
All a bit rich considering I’ve lost count of the times the local Lib Dems asked me to join them. Some leading Lib Dems even suggested I might be adopted as their parliamentary candidate – now that would have been the easy way to climb onto the Civic Centre Gravy train if that was my ambition. But of course I want to derail it !
I do hope the Lib Dems will actually start debating policies for a change ! Lets see at the hustings on Thursday night at the Swan in Dobcross.
He must be independent – no political party would let their candidate be photographed wearing a hat like that!
SHAME on you Brian Lord, bringing Cllr Hulme’s wife into this.
I’m hugely disappointed with your behaviour here, and what I’ve witnessed at the Parish Council meetings.
You may disagree with Cllr Hulme on some things, but you have absolutely no right to bring any member of his family into this – that is a very cheap shot indeed and disgraceful behaviour that we should not expect from a Parish Councillor, never mind somebody standing in an election.
In fact, I’ve personally witnessed your continuous personal attacks on Cllr Hulme during the Parish Council meetings and they only demonstrate your inability to approach Parish matters in an open minded way.
Your actions in no way benefit the community and simply suggest that you and some of the other Parish councillors are nothing more than a bunch of bickering school children – time for a change we think!
If the crux of Mr Lord’s or any other candidate’s campaign is to attack their competitor as an individual (or attack their families) on a personal level, then it really seem quite obvious that they are absolutely desperate and the only thing they have to bring to the Parish Council or community is disruption.
I urge the voters to ask the question about the candidates that they’re electing as to whether they’d like to have somebody who choses to personally attack anyone who stands in their way – or whether they’d prefer a change and vote for an honest, open minded candidate that has the genuine interests of the Saddleworth community in mind.
Well said Nick! I also have witnessed what I can only describe as bully tactics by numerous members of the current parish council towards people who raise questions or express disagreement. These were disgracefully personal comments bit I am not surprised in the slightest! Bringing Ken’s wife into the debate is unbelievable. Apart from the appalling and unfounded invasion of privacy of a member of the public I find it wholeheartedly offensive that there is a frankly bigoted insinuation that her political opinions and beliefs are Ken’s and not her own! Smacks of institutionalised sexism! It is entirely irrelevant! This is the 21st century and tribal politics and have no place in it.
Reader, I married him.
I am not, however, the Secretary of Saddleworth Labour Party. However, even if I were, what has this got to do with the price of fish? Ken and I agree and disagree on many things. One of the things we disagree on is his decision to leave the Labour Party and become an Independent.
I am really surprised that in this day and age, there are still people who cannot see people in a partnership (whether married or not) as individuals in their own right. This attitude seems to me to be neither liberal nor democratic.