Council Candidate Interview: Sean Fielding (Labour, Saddleworth North)

Labour's Sean Fielding, standing in Saddleworth North at this election, pictured in Dobcross today.

Labour’s candidate for the Saddleworth North ward at next month’s local election has criticised Oldham Council for an “inverse snobbery” towards Saddleworth.

Sean Fielding used an interview with Saddleworth News today to say that our area was getting less attention and investment from the council, because of a perception at the Civic Centre that “everybody in Saddleworth is very wealthy and there’s no need to invest money round here because everybody will get along just fine – but it’s just simply not the case.”

He warned: “If the council continues to believe that Saddleworth is a very wealthy area and doesn’t require any investment, then when the cuts fall, which they already have begun to, then they are going to fall hardest in Saddleworth, because people consider this area to be ok.”

Mr Fielding continued: “What Saddleworth needs is somebody on the local council who will speak up, and try and break this myth that everybody up here is very rich. And say ‘actually we need to look after this area and spend some money here, just as much as we do in other areas’ and that’s something I think Saddleworth’s missed out on.”

On the budget recently passed by Oldham Council’s Liberal Democrat/Conservative administration, Mr Fielding commented: “I think some of the things that they put forward are incredibly dangerous.”

The budget included £41m of cuts because of a reduction in central government funding, £38m of which were accepted by the Labour group. However, Labour opposed plans to outsoure aspects of elderly care such as home visits to the private sector.

Mr Fielding continued: “They want to continue to pay incredibly high salaries to top executives at the council and have extra members of staff, and not thin out the top tiers of management as Labour have proposed. And the most dangerous is the outsourcing of (some) health and social care to private companies.”

He added: “When you do that you’re actually removing the accountability. If somebody comes to me if I’m elected as your local councillor, and says ‘I’m not satisfied with the way social services are dealing with my sick or elderly relative’ than I am simply unable to do anything because the accountability is completely removed.”

He concluded: “We just have to look at other options other than privatisation, because it’s not the best option. Not always in terms of value for money, and not always in terms of the quality of service that you receive.”

Mr Fielding is a second year civil engineering student at the University of Manchester, and also works part-time in a supermarket.

He was out campaigning in Dobcross today, and afterwards he stopped in at my house to do the interview. You can listen to our conversation in full here.

There are three other candidates in Saddleworth North, which covers Dobcross, Delph, Diggle, Denshaw, Scouthead and Austerlands. An interview with Independent Ken Hulme is here. The other contenders are Liberal Democrat Derek Heffernan, and Phil Sewell of the Conservatives.

All four candidates will be taking part in a hustings debate, moderated by me, at The Swan in Dobcross next Thursday at 7:30pm. All members of the public are welcome to attend.

I intend to interview as many candidates as possible between now and polling day on 5 May, although in some cases I’m publishing written statements by candidates for the sake of convenience.

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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