Tameside Leader fails to deliver on pledges!

Old Ashton Baths - December 2016

In the Spring 2016 issue of Tameside Council's free rag, 'The Tameside Citizen', Kieran Quinn, the Executive Leader of Tameside Council, outlined 16 pledges that he claimed would make a difference for Tameside communities. One of his pledges was that Tameside Council would rollout free WiFi across the town centres of Tameside. But with roughly three days to go before we go into the New Year 2017, it looks like 'The Leader' will fail on this pledge and has failed to come up with the goods! But what should we expect from any politician, if not false promises.

We were told in the summer issue of the 'Citizen', No76:

"By the autumn all nine of the borough's town centres will be covered by the SWIFT network - Smart Wireless Internet for Tameside. Access to the free town centre Wi-Fi will be fast and simple. Once logged in, people will be automatically connected as they move from town to town go to Tameside College or visit Tameside Hospital. Ashton and Dukinfield will benefit from dark fibre broadband, installed for the digital hub at Ashton Old Baths, which offers the highest speeds and reliability in the UK."

Talk about being hoist by your own petard, where is the dark fibre broadband? The people of Tameside are still waiting for this pledge to come to fruition. You'll find more fibre in your breakfast cereal than in Tameside. As for the Ashton Old Baths, the last time I past, the windows had been put in and the building is now occupied by pigeons.