Watkins Weighs In On Uppermill Parking Row
Elwyn Watkins: "interesting questions"
Elwyn Watkins has entered the row about proposed time limits for car parks in Uppermill. The Liberal Democrat, who is due to stand in the expected Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, said he would be asking Oldham Council for more details about the matter.
The council has proposed imposing restrictions on several car parks in the village, in order to free up spaces for visitors and shoppers. It’s hoped the idea might help local traders compete with the new Tesco at Greenfield, which opens on Monday.
The plans have been in the works for more than a year, and were formally announced back in May. But the issue has recently flared up after local business owner Nick Watts heard about the proposals for the first time from this website, and began to collect signatures for a petition urging the council to reconsider.
Mr Watts, who runs internet, IT and photography firm Urban Haze from his Uppermill home, is concerned about both the potential impact on local residents and workers who use the car parks, and the apparent lack of a widespread consultation by the council. The final decision about whether to impose the restrictions is expected to be taken by a council panel later this month.
In response to a query from Mr Watts, Mr Watkins said: “I think you raise some very interesting questions which is why I shall ask the council for some more details about their decision. I shall also ask what local residents can do to influence the decision making process, and propose suitable alternatives at this stage.”
He added: “I shall let you know what they tell me. If there are other questions you would like me to raise with the council, feel free to let me know.”
Conservative Kashif Ali, who would face Mr Watkins in the event of a by-election, had earlier responded suggesting a public meeting ought to be held before the council takes any final decision.
You can read a detailed article about the issue from Saddleworth News here.
Phil Woolas
Meanwhile, there’s still no word on when we’ll hear whether former Labour MP for Saddleworth Phil Woolas has been successful in his attempt to overturn the decision to throw him out of parliament for lying about Mr Watkins during the election campaign.
He’s sought a judicial review, and legal arguments were heard at the High Court in central London a fortnight ago. But the BBC’s Arif Ansari has reported today that he understands a decision is “unlikely” this week.
If, as expected, Mr Woolas fails in his legal efforts, there’ll be a by-election here sometime early in the new year. Arif has written a blog about the ‘phoney war’ which has been taking place in the meantime, and you can read that here. You can also follow him on Twitter here.
The full background to the battle for Oldham East and Saddleworth is available in the Saddleworth News archive here.
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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For someone involved in the internet and IT Nick Watts doesn’t seem very well connected to the outside world. The parking arrangement proposed have been under discussion for about 12 months and covered in other Oldham press publications long before now. They are not peculiar to Uppermill but will be affecting district centre car parks all around the borough.
Thanks to Mr Cullen for his comment.
He is entitled to his opinion as much as anyone else in the community.
It’s good to hear that somebody else is aware of the restrictions outside my efforts, although not really so surprising that he has heard of them – as he is after all the Chair of the Civic Council.
I would like to point out that if this had been effectively communicated by Oldham MBC and the Parish Council then that really doesn’t explain why they were only aware of 2 objections in those 12 months – when I have been able to raise over 250 objections in a matter of days.
I look forward to a reasonable response from Cllr Cullen, and hope that he is willing to listen to the community rather than personally attack anyone who points out that there may be a problem.
Well Bill you won’t find any of this on the Parish Council web site – or much else in fact.
As Deputy Chair of the Parish Council, and a Cllr representing Springhead, I think you would be more advised asking what has gone wrong with the ‘public consultation’ on this issue than being rude to Nick and other Uppermill residents.
Perhaps the Parish Council should organise a public meeting on this issue and ask OMBC to halt any further action on parking in Uppermill until local residents have been properly consulted ?
I find the response to the parking restrictions from Mr Cullen rather rude !!! How can an elderly person get onto the internet !!!??? Why weren’t leaflets put through the door of Uppermill residents ??? As Mr Ali suggests a public meeting with the local residents is need. I hope that the attitude in the response that he gave to Nick Watts, doesn’t reflect his attitude to his and our community.
To be fair, as mentioned above, the plan to introduce waiting restrictions in the various Oldham districts has been on the cards for a while. For example, this Oldham Chronicle article from May highlights this very topic: www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/8/news-headlines/40953/new-parking-rules-for-district-centres
I think for Mr Watkins and Mr Ali to be requesting public meetings is unnecessary and hints of electioneering. There is already a forum for this called the PACT meetings. However, as Saddleworthnews reported (www.saddleworthnews.com/?p=350) only one member of the public turned up to the February meeting, and that was Richard himself. Over here in Royton this has been a hot topic in the last few PACT meetings and also the District Partnership meetings. Whether the meetings actually affect the outcome is a different matter. However if you don’t use them, you lose them!