Council Leader Attacks Opportunist Labour Candidate!

Council Leader Alan Taylor

Council Leader Alan Taylor has responded to comments by Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate attacking Rochdale Council for failing to deal with regeneration issues in the Falinge area. This followed widespread national newspaper reports on the number of people out of work and on benefits in the Falinge area.

Councillor Taylor said: "I was a Councillor for the area for over 10 years, and for nearly another 20 years I had a greengrocers shop on Spotland Road. I find it insulting for an outsider to be lecturing us on what should be done. These comments have more to do with the impending local elections and Labour’s attempt to blame the Council for everything under the sun!

"The fact is that we have had a Labour government for the last 11 years and a Labour MP for 8 of those years. We should be asking what they have done to provide jobs and get people off benefits. The sad answer is until recently absolutely nothing! Most people I speak to in Falinge want to work but cannot get jobs. I hope that when the Secretary of State for Work asnd Pensions visits Rochdale he will apologise for his governments lack of support for Falinge.

"As for issues about health and obesity these are principally the responsibility of the PCT. Again under Labour we saw the Rochdale and Bury Health Authority and North West Regional Health Authority abolished by Labour to be replaced by the Rochdale PCT, the Heywood and Middleton PCT and the Greater Manchester SHA. Two years later Labour scrapped them again and replaced them with a joint Rochdale, Heywood and Middleton PCT and North West Strategic Health Authority. Is it any wonder that progress on Public Health has been so slow with all these reorganisations? The fact is that public health improvements across the country have risen more slowly under this government than under any other government since the war.

"The Labour candidate is completely out of his depth and it shows!"