Letter from Parliament - Jim Dobbin MP

Jim Dobbin MP

At the Communities and Local Government Select Committee last week it was disclosed that the Local Authorities are sitting on £38 billion of reserves.

This probably confirms my suggestion in my last article that RMBC has around £20 million to play with in the new financial year.

The Prime Minister, who was quite excellent at Prime Minister’s Question Time this week and gave an economics lecture to both David Cameron and Nick Clegg describing one of them as 'out of their depth', has been urging Local Authorities to spend their reserves supporting local communities during this global downturn.

Opposition politicians prefer not to mention the global aspects and tend to ignore the fact that America, Germany, Japan, Ireland and most other countries are already in recession. They offer no support to the Government and tend to carp irresponsibly.

President Obama of course is following Gordon Brown by providing a $600 billion dollar stimulation to kick-start the U.S. economy. The rest of the world needs America to succeed. We need the return of confidence in the markets.

If necessary Gordon Brown should nationalise the banks, at least for a temporary period.

Cancer patients in Heywood, Middleton, Castleton, and Norden and Bamford are to be given free prescriptions from 1 April and can apply for an exemption certificate this week. The new scheme announced by the Prime Minister in September last year extends exemption from NHS charges for everyone undergoing treatment for cancer. Patients can collect an application form from their GP or hospital doctor.

The Government have announced another 35,000 apprenticeships for next year while David Cameron has threatened to slash skills, community and science budgets by £610 million and the non-schools budget for Children Schools and Families by £300 million. This could mean a reduction of 222,000 apprenticeship places next year and would have a drastic effect on businesses and individuals in my constituency.

I understand the market stall holders were left stranded on Saturday Morning in Middleton. I hope that during the period of development of the Town Centre a new site is found that will sustain their continuing presence as stall holders who provide a service for the local community. Surely this should all have been in place by this time.

I hope Rochdale Council are focused enough to stop short-changing the Middleton people.

Magnificent as the Middleton Arena is, with 3,000 people using it in some form every day, I hear from some disabled constituents that there is no acceptable disabled access to the pools. This is a major blunder and must be rectified. Since December 2006 there has been a legal duty on all public sector organisations to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will be most displeased at this outcome.

A deputation of North West Labour MPs will be seeking a meeting to lobby for the continued Government support for improved transport investment in Greater Manchester following the congestion charge failure. The referendum was doomed to failure from the start.

I attended the Lancashire, Cheshire and North Wales section of the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain earlier this month, and was surprised but delighted to be made an honorary member of the Guild for my support of some of their issues.

There most certainly is no business like show business. Bamford Chapel invited Pat and myself to their rendition of Annie. It was a very professional and enjoyable musical and packed with very young local talent. Congratulations to Clair & Steven Yoodling for their excellent production.

Pat and myself joined the Mayor, Mayoress and other local people at the “Sports for All” evening to present certificates, shields and cups in celebration of sporting achievement by young people from all communities across the Borough.

The highlight of the event was the contribution by the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Michael Fahy in recognition of Chief Superintendent Peter Mason’s hard work creating good community relations across the different community groups. Peter’s award for his contribution was well deserved. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Peter for his help and support to my constituency office during his time as Commander in Rochdale.

I congratulate Hanief Mohammed and his team for all their excellent work and for all they do to support community cohesion throughout the borough. It was a great evening and highlighted the local talent across the sports agenda. A promising outlook for the 2012 Olympic games.

I am in the process of reorganising some of my surgery times. Can I announce a change to my Middleton Surgery? I should be having a New Surgery at Desmesne Community Centre on the second Friday of each month at 11am-12 midday. My Middleton surgery, which has been on the second Friday of each month at the Civic Centre will now move to the Arena and take place on the second Saturday of each month from 9am-11am. The first of these new surgeries will be at Desmesne Centre on Friday 13 February at 11am, and in the Arena Saturday 14 February from 9am-11am.