Documents released by the Department for Communities and Local Government on forecast local authority capital expenditure and financing show that in 2015-16 Oldham, under the leadership of Labour rising star and horticultural hypocrite Jim McMahon, is the only local authority in Greater Manchester which plans to both sell off and make profit from the sale of open space fixed assets, the forecast capital receipt is £1,124,000. Oldham’s only capital expenditure on open spaces in 2015-16 is said to be £228,000 on vehicles. The Council is also the only local authority in Greater Manchester to sell off tangible recreation & sport fixed assets (land, machinery buildings) adding insult to injury after being double crowned in 2014 as the borough with the fattest adults in Greater Manchester and one of the UK’s top ten areas for adult physical inactivity. Oldham’s capital spend on”culture & heritage” construction in 2015-16 at £25.1 million is some 64% higher than the combined spend of the other nine Greater Manchester authorities including the City of Manchester, yet any future business rates collected from these schemes, funded almost exclusively by Oldham public finances, will be administered by the GMCA and distributed between all ten Greater Manchester authorities.
