Sean Fielding’s Oldham Labour Council who just cut funding to MAHDLO and AGEUK paid Anna da Silva £66,400 in 2020 to project manage the Northern Roots project which hasn’t even secured funding yet and they have just agreed to continue paying her in 2021. As with the ludicrous cost escalation of the underperforming cinema development from £10 million to over £40 million they just don’t care all Labour Oldham see is future awards and positive press in a multimillion scheme that will have zero beneficial impact for the majority of Oldham’s quarter of a million residents. Northern Roots a planned £25 million urban farm and eco park will sit in the middle of some of Oldham’s least sustainable wards addressing none of the problems the area faces. Northern Roots sits adjacent to Oldham’s largest park which has received more funding and grants than every other Oldham park combined in the last decade. The areas socially driven problems include high levels of unemployment, culturally driven worklessness, housing shortages, overcrowding, high fertility rates, poverty, ongoing record mass immigration numbers, large scale fly tipping and antisocial behaviour problems. To the best of my knowledge you can’t fix these issues with bee keeping, financially unviable small scale organic veg growing and a petting zoo.
