ROCHDALE: THE LAST RITES*

 Is this the end for Rochdale Market?
by Trevor Hoyle

MY ten pen’orth, Brian, for what it’s worth, is that we’re decades too late to do anything about reviving Rochdale’s market. I have fond memories from the 50s of both outdoor and indoor markets — the latter especially where I used to buy ninepenny SF paperbacks from the book stall. A very warm and welcoming place, especially on a winter’s day.  Somebody told me that Todmorden’s market is very much how ours used to be, and that it’s a pleasure to visit. We tore it down and ripped out the heart of the town.

For some reason Bury has kept its market going over the years and even has coach parties coming from places like Stoke and  towns in Yorkshire to spend a day there. Any hopes that Rochdale can emulate that is pure fairyland.  When the council boasted that the Metro would bring in floods of eager visitors, my immediate thought was that the Metro would make it easier for Rochdale folk to escape to Manchester and Oldham. 

A few wind- and rainswept stalls on the Butts was never going to succeed, any fool could see that. A town centre that can’t sustain a McDonalds is on a hiding to nothing.  When I say I don’t know what the answer is, I’m really saying there is no answer.  We’re building, for god’s sake, another shopping centre when we have two that are half-empty to begin with — so then we’ll have THREE half-empty shopping centres (more like threequarters empty) which the rate-payers will be paying for for the next forty years. It’s madness. 

Over ten years ago (when I was involved with saving Touchstones from being massively underfunded by Link4Life) I put forward a strategy for the town based on its heritage of the Co-op, cotton and Gracie Fields. The idea was to turn our magnificent town hall into a cultural heritage centre with exhibits telling the story of cotton and the industrial revolution. Included would be a Gracie Fields Experience showing off all  the artefacts held in the museum archives of Gracie’s stage costumes, films, original recordings and her life story (like the one already in Touchstones but on a much grander scale). Also there would be a smaller John Bright display showing the furniture and books we have in the archive.

Alongside this you’d have the Pioneers store on Toad Lane — but greatly enlarged to include several shops and stalls done up as they were in the 1800s with shopkeepers dressed in costume.  The idea would be to focus on the cultural and historical romance of Rochdale’s past and let the commercial side take care of itself. If people started coming to experience it — via advertising and word-of-mouth — this would quickly feed through to shops and cafes opening up to cater for the visitors. The point here is not to build the shopping centre first — there are shopping centres everywhere — but to launch a genuine attraction that people want to visit and then tell their friends about.

Someone asked me if enough people would be interested in such a venture. I pointed out that the ‘grey’ pound of pensioners and retired folk amounts to billions in this country, and just such a historical heritage of cotton mills and Gracie Fields would appeal to that generation.  But it would have to be on a grand scale, worth the visit, designed and staged by a professional company, and not just a few tatty exhibits inside dusty glass cases. 

Anyway, it’s probably too late now to try this idea, we should have done it 10 or 15 years ago when I first suggested it.        

* Last rites - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Last_rites

The last rites, in Roman Catholicism, are the last prayers and ministrations given to an individual of the faith, when possible, shortly before death. The last rites go by various names. They may be administered to those awaiting execution, mortally injured, or terminally ill.

‎Roman Catholic Church · ‎Orthodox and Eastern ...

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Rochdale Council under New Cabinet Regime

Hi All,

 

A report setting out the timetable, procedure and principles for setting of a 2 year Council budget for 2015/16 and 2016/17 will be considered at the meeting of the Cabinet on 14^thJuly – the report does not specify any figures in respect of the amount of ‘savings’ which will be needed and it says are still under consideration but it does say that the % reduction in Revenue Support Grant from Govt is 18.5% in 2015/16, so that is obviously significant and figures of £50 million+ have been banded about in media by Councillors. The £500k L4L saving which I referred to in my previous email came from a source within the L4L (Link 4 Life) Company Management Team and there is no doubt that preliminary informal discussions have already taken place between the Trust and the Council. You can see the full report on the RMBC website under Council/meetings/agendas/cabinet. However the timetable is as follows:-

Timetable:

 

3.3.2  'The Council’s budget must be approved by full Council before 11th March each year. This is a statutory requirement. The process begins in June with approval being sought for the assumptions and principles on which the budget is based. Proposals for savings and budget pressures are presented compared to estimates of the level of resources resulting in an identification of any budget gap. Throughout the year we consult on the budget and update projections where necessary for the Government Funding settlement and other known changes, including local decisions. The updated budget and feedback from consultations are reported back to Cabinet in January with recommendations for Budget Fixing Council. who will in turn set the budget.

 

Services are notified of their resource allocations following Budget Fixing Council in February/March. The full budget timetable is detailed at Appendix 1.'

The highlighted extract above is the period when details of proposed ‘savings’ will be published for consultation. I assume this will follow the same process as previous rounds, i.e. details posted on the council website for public comment. As you will recall, it was made fiendishly difficult to pin down exactly what was being proposed by Link4Life and how this would impact on services last time around and it was obvious that ‘deals had been done’ with council before the proposals were published and as Carl says, we ended up unsuccessfully trying to ‘firefight’ the unfair impact of cuts to Arts, Heritage and Cultural services which were a ‘fait accompli’.

I suggest that once the above report has been approved by Cabinet, we write to the Council Leader and the L4L Chair and Chief Executive setting out our concerns and request for Link4Life to hold open public consultations with service users on the savings it needs to find and how it proposes to go about this, to ensure transparency and fairness. We need to get some ground rules set for Link4Life before they stitch up a deal with the Council which means we end up in the same position as last time. We need to convince the new L4L regime that we want to work constructively with them to minimise the impact of Council cuts on the Trust’s services but that this can only happen if they are open and honest with us.....

Any comments welcome.

 

Regards,

Name redacted is a

Member of Touchstone Challenge

Credit Card Kings Abdicate!

REPORTS of the departures of two Link4Life charity bosses surfaced last weekend.  The careers of Craig McAteer, former Managing Director of the charity Link4Life, and his deputy, Peter Kilkenny, had been thown into turmoil earlier this year with first the revelations in the media of some seemingly unothodox use of their company credit cards, and a later investigation by the Rochdale council and a probe by the police.

Now both the police and the Charity Commission are looking into what went on in the Charity.  We now know that Mr. McAteer retired on the 31st, March and Mr. Kilkenny departed from the company on the 28th, February.  Link4Life manages leisure, the arts and heritage services in Rochdale on behalf of the council, and the company finally admitted that the two bosses had left last week.  There have been rumours that they had gone, but only after repeated requests from the Rochdale Observer did Link4Life confirm that they had left.

Mr. McAteer had run up a bill of £10,455 on personal items, including a £2,000 luxury trip, while Mr. Kilkenny spent £1,480, including a deposit of a flat.  Meanwhile, the two bosses, while enjoying pay rises for themselves, seemingly cheerfully pushed through redundancies and cuts in the arts and heritage sector in Rochdale. 

Rochdale Council has said that it wants to rebuild Link4Life's board of management and strengthen governance arrangements, but earlier this year the Café in the Touchstones Museum suffered from a decision to review its status by Rochdale MBC in its budget proposals.  Thus, very likely, reducing the footfall in the town centre.
_________________________________________________________

The next issueof the printed issue of NORTHERN VOICES No.14, will soon be available for sale with a with a feature by the cultural campaigner Debbie Firth on Rochdale town centre, it can be obtained as follows:
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included). Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' sent to c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.



Tel.: 0161 793 5122.



email: northernvoices@hotmail.com

Police Now Focus on Credit Card Kids

CREDIT card use by the bosses of the charity Link4Life that runs the Touchstones Museum on the Town Centre Esplanade, and Rochdale Leisure Centre, are set to be investigated by the police. Three bosses of the charity have been shown to have used their company credit cards for personal purchases and thus transgressing the rules of the Link4Life charity which receives the support of council taxpayers.

Chief Superintendent Annette Anderson who has begun inquires into Link4Life told the journalist Chris Jones in a story in tomorrow's Rochdale Observer that 'we are aware of concerns raised by Simon Danczuk MP into the use of company credit cards at Link4Life.' She added: 'We will be carrying out further enquiries with Link4Life to establish whether or not any criminal offences have been committed.'

This probe was triggered following an independent audit found Link4Life's managing director, Craig McAteer, his deputy, Peter Kilkenny, and the business manager, David Weldon, had all broken the company rules on use of the group's credit cards. They had been issued with company credit cards to pay for lawful business costs. It was shown this week that Mr. McAteer had used his card to pay for £10,455 for personal items, including a £2,071 holiday trip. Of the other two, Peter Kilkenny paid £1,480 for 'non-business' items, and David Weldon had used his card to pay for flights costing £991. All three defended their use of the cards: Mr. McAteer asked the auditors to consider that any financial benefit was countered by other business expenses; Mr. Kilkenny said the difference between business and personal was not always clear and that he always paid the money back promptly; Mr. Weldon said that he did not have a personal credit card at the time of his purchase, and that he paid it back promptly.  Though all three paid the money back the auditors found that they had already broken the company rules by using the cards for personal items in the first place.

The independent investigation and audit had come about as a result of a request by the Rochdale Council, which itself was provoked by a whistle-blower coming forward with information about the use of company credit cards earlier last Summer. Members of the Touchstones Challenge protest group who were present to make their views felt before last Wednesday's Cabinet meeting at Rochdale Town Hall began, had asked for the issue of the credit card use by the Link4Life bosses be referred to the police and the Charity Commission. Judging from some of the questions from the Touchstones Challenge group, they would welcome a broader inquiry into the management of Link4Life over the last few years, including 'the treatment of staff' and the overall management, particularly of heritage and the arts in Rochdale.

Rochdale Cabinet & claims of dodgy credit

LAST night in Rochdale Town Hall, Trevor Hoyle, a supporter of the protest group Touchstones Challenge, asked 'What were the Board of Trustees (Governors) doing ... were they fulfilling their roles as a charity?' He was speaking of the business oversight of the charity Link4Life, in an exchange of views and questions with the public shortly before an emergency Cabinet meeting of Rochdale Council set to discuss the developments following the revelations that the bosses of Link4Life, Craig McAteer, the managing director and his deputy, Peter Kilkenny, had used the company credit card for 'personal' items.

The Rochdale Council leader, Colin Lambert, had pointed out that Link4Life is an independent body separate from the Council and with its own Board of Governors; though there are Councillors on the Board of Governors they don't represent the Council. Link4Life provides Leisure, Sport centres and museum services in the Rochdale area on behalf of the council. The Chief Executive told the meeting that with regard to the nature of the contract between Link4Life and the Council, there had been no 'systemic service delivery' failure but that 'conduct is an issue'.

Mr. Hoyle argued that though 'Link4Life is separate from Rochdale MBC, the council-tax payers are largely financing Link4Life!' Councillor Lambert assured him that 'the Council is trying to get the best deal for the tax-payer' and that the Council have sought an independent investigation. It seems the Council will be requesting that it be able to review the audited accounts of Link4Life; that it will be revisiting the partnership agreement with Link4Life and that it will be trying to get an agreement by this coming weekend.

Link4Life: The Credit Card Kids!

TOMORROW there will be an emergency Council cabinet meeting at Rochdale Town Hall to discuss a probe into the use of credit cards by the Link4Life bosses that run leisure centres, museums and art galleries in the Rochdale area for the council.  Last year there were suggestions that some of the top administrators in the charity Link4Life may have been using the company credit cards for 'personal' items.  It has now been found that Craig McAteer, the Link4Life managing director, had spent £2,071 on a holiday in May 2011, and it is claimed, he charged £11,598 of 'personal' items to the charity trust over a 30-month period.   Mr. McAteer has since paid all this money back, but in some cases it took up to 14 months for the Link4Life charity, partly funded by tax-payers, to get the money back. 

Other Link4Life bosses such as deputy manager Peter Kilkenny obtained £1,480 of 'personal' spending, including £1,030 on a bond for a flat, and finance officer David Weldon spent £991 on flights.  Both are believed to have quickly paid these sums back.   Mr McAteer has responded to say that he has other business costs, such as mileage costs and the use of his personal phone for work that he pays out of his own pocket.  Delays in repaying 'personal' items was a consequence of his 'very busy' schedule.  Mr. Kilkenny claimed that his flat bond was an agreed expense for relocation, and the difference between 'personal' and business use wasn't always clear at the moment of purchase.    Mr. Weldon claimed he didn't have a personal credit card when he purchased the flights, and that he paid the money back rapidly.  

The auditors have found that 'Craig McAteer, Peter Kilkenny and David Weldon all failed to observe rules about the use of credit cards which is a disciplinary matter according to Link4Life's procedures and may be subject to a range of sanctions set out in the company's disciplinary policy.'  

Members of Touchstones Challenge protest group that has in the past voiced concerns about Link4Life's management of the local Rochdale museums and heritage are expected to seek to attend tomorrow's urgent meeting of the Rochdale Council cabinet looking into this matter.  Debbie Firth, the Secretary of Touchstones Challenge, has said:  'In the agenda which you can find on the (Rochdale MBC) link it mentions consideration of excluding public and the press but I have been told that the public can attend so I will be turning up to see if I can get in.' 

Link4Life Bosses under scrutiny!

Leisure bosses rapped for credit card use

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/link4life-leisure-bosses-been-reprimanded-1322581

An investigation found senior bosses at a charity which runs sports and arts services in Rochdale ‘inappropriately used’ company credit cards.

The leader of Rochdale Council, Colin Lambert, confirmed to the Rochdale Observer last Saturday, that Link4Life’s managing director Craig McAteer, his deputy managing director, Peter Kilkenny, and finance and business support manager David Weldon, were accused of serious misconduct following an independent probe.  The investigator concluded some of the breaches were ‘potentially disciplinary offences and many of the others arise from a failure of systems or judgement’. 

According to the Rochdale Observer, all three bosses have been reprimanded and apologised to the trust’s board.   But the council has now written to Link4Life demanding more serious sanctions are taken.  Councillor Colin Lambert, said:  'These are very serious allegations and I intend to call for an urgent meeting with the board to discuss them.' 

Link4Life said it was ‘not appropriate to make any comment’.

New Year 2013: A Decade of Northern Voices

Sir Cyril Smith, David Hoffman, Sophie Lancaster, the Bookfair Attacks, the Free Press & the Campaign Against the Blacklist

THIS has been probably been the most successful in the ten-year history of Northern Voices.  It has been a year in which Northern Voices made a serious breakthrough by being at the forefront and making inroads into some main stream media stories such as the Cyril Smith revelations last November.  In November 2012, the Northern Voices' Blog for the first time had a monthly page-viewing public that went well into five figures. Partly the reason for this was our exposure of the issues surrounding Sir Cyril Smith on the 13th, November, at 2.30 pm on the day in which the Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, gave his speech in the House of Commons at around 4 pm, in which we knew he would would accuse Sir Cyril of child sex abuse. Paul Waugh, a journalist from Rochdale, as agreed had run the story at 10.30 am on his own site at www.politicshome.com  . The Cyril Smith post of the 19th, September 2010, now has the largest number of page-viewings, and it was this post that triggered the events that ultimately led to the events in November 2012. Naturally Northern Voices was involved in some important spade work in this regard in so far as we helped to find two vital witnesses, who were abused as young lads in the 1960s, who were now for the first time willing to go on the record. On Monday, last week, one of these witnesses identified by Northern Voices had his first interview with the main solicitor dealing with the Cyril Smith abuse case.

Throughout the Autumn of 2012, after the exposure of Jimmy Savile in the main stream media, the Northern Voices' Blog linked the cases of Jimmy Savile and Cyril Smith in several postings. All of these posts scored well in terms of page-views. And yet, when the Cyril Smith case is examined in depth historically there are so many loose ends that lead in political and sociological directions to issues of power; such as the relationship between institutions and elites that may be involved either directly or indirectly: our printed publication Northern Voices No.8 ran a story in 2007 entitled 'Was Cyril Smith Set Up?: Rochdale MP in Seventies Sex Scandal'. In Southern Europe political corruption is often more blatant and less furtive than it appears to be in England, but some aspects of the Cyril Smith case seem to suggest curious glimpses of political networking that operated beneath the surface of respectable political live.

In 2012, our N.V. page-views as whole almost tripled. The attack by the free-lance photographer, David Hoffman, on Freedom Press, in which he alleged the publisher had breach his copyright led to several posts that scored highly on the N.V. Blog. Our approach was to defend Freedom from the Hoffman claim for damages, because it seemed to us to threaten the freedom of minority publications to publish material and David Hoffman seemed to making a living out of demanding fees from publications that may have inadvertently used his photos.

The year had begun with a debate with Dave Douglass on the N.V. Blog about Libya and NATO involvement, which Barry Woodling had originally introduced by at the Northern Anarchist Network Conference in Newcastle in November 2011. Barry followed this up with an interview in NV13 with Azeldin-El-Sharif, the Chair of the British Libyan Solidarity Campaign. The NV13 issue included a piece in the Tameside Eye column about Kieran Quinn and the Labour controlled Tameside Council flagrant awarding of contracts to the company that blacklists building workers – Carillion. Since Hull MBC has now banned companies guilty of blacklisting from putting in tenders, MPs are being urged by Unite to sign the Early Day Motion on Blacklisting, and the likelihood that a motion will be on the agenda at the coming North West TUC Conference in Manchester in March, Northern Voices' feels that its decade-long campaign with the Manchester electricians has been entirely justified. Northern Voices No.13 reported on Tameside Trade Union Council's success in getting Tameside MBC to award a Blue Plaque to the local Spanish Civil War volunteer who died fighting Fascism in Spain in March 1938.  The interview with Sophie Lancaster's mother, Sylvia, as a leading article in N.V.13, gained the journal much support especially at the showing of the play 'Black Roses' at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, when we had to have a special reprint of the publication.  Sophie Lancaster was a 'Goth Girl' from Bacup in Lancashire, who was murdered in 2007 for dressing differently.

The attacks on Northern Voices' supporters at bookfairs in October in London and December in Manchester by members of a minority political body, the Anarchist Federation, has only served to stimulate interest in the N.V. publication and its Blog.  The journal is certainly better known now nationally than at any other time in its ten-years of life, and this is largely owing to the efforts of Sally Hymen/ Miller and her friend the Anarchist Federation groupie, Ron Marsden, who now does voluntary work for Alex McFadden at the Salford Unemployed Centre.  Northern Voices was also banned at Touchstones' Museum bookshop in Rochdale, because of an attack in the last issue by Debbie Firth, of the protest group Touchstones' Challenge, on the Link4Life company that runs the Museum.

Revealing the Roch; Rediscovering Rochdale Bridges

THIS Activity Plan proposal below is interesting in so far as it is revealing more about the English psychology of the proponents.  The interest here is not in the beauty of the art or the architectural features of the medieval bridges but rather in the 'learning activity' and the 'partnership services' and the 'meeting the neighbours' and the breaking down of 'false divisions within the town's communities'.  Anything but the art and beauty of the buildings and riverside.  That may be because English people and politicians feel uncomfortable about aesthetic things and prefer to waffle on about politically correct slogans. 

Frederic Raphael, writing on the sculptor, Henry Moore, in the magazine 'Modern Painters' wrote:  'Art has become (or remains) separate from politics in England not because it is too difficult for politicians but because they do not have money for it and because whatever is not economic is not real to them...'  The English politicians only grasp the price of things, and thus we should expect that civil servants in Rochdale can only talk twaddle when go on about the medieval bridges of Rochdale, they have become cut off from the roots of our great architectural tradition and only now understand the simplistic ugliness that now adorns so many of the modern buildings in Rochdale town centre.  I urge readers to read the text below for what it reveals about the mentality of the typical English civil servant and politician.  God help us!

Activity Plan Proposal, stage 1: 
A Summary: 
Rochdale Bridge and the Butts Bridge are a crucial part of the town’s important cultural heritage and the river part of its natural heritage. They are valuable resources for learning and enjoyment and as such should be a shared resource, but at present are known and experienced by very few people. The success of the project will be shown by the extent to which it engages the diverse communities of Rochdale and its ability to fulfil the potential of the Bridges as a source of identity and symbol of unity for them.
By revealing Rochdale Bridge, the capital work in itself is a learning activity because thousands of people will discover the existence of this hidden heritage asset. However RMBC want to go beyond this broad engagement and complement the capital work with a programme of activities aimed at achieving high levels of learning and participation. The focus will be on engaging the surrounding communities in Inner Rochdale. The programme will link into existing initiatives to ensure a lasting legacy.

B Research/Consultation undertaken: 
Rochdale Council and its partners have substantial experience of working with the communities in Inner Rochdale and have built strong relationships and trust with local groups. Rather than ‘reinvent the wheel,’ the project seeks to build on this good work through by working across Council and partner services and utilising existing networks and frameworks where suitable. This section summarises the outcomes of consultation and research which has influenced the outline activity programme. 

B1 Township – the local RMBC township office works within local communities. “Meeting the neighbours” is an overarching concept used by the Township under which community projects have been implemented. It seeks to bridge false divisions within the town centre communities through events to encourage neighbours to meet and participate in activities together. An example of a project was a series of sessions held across communities to learn a dance. The dancers from each community were then brought together to perform at the Memorial Gardens in the town centre. A review of the project has shown a need to involve more inter-generational activities and people with a disability. There are clear opportunities around the symbolism of Rochdale Bridge at the centre of the communities for this project to operate under this tried and tested framework.

B2 Touchstones – Touchstones, managed by Link4Life, lead the provision of cultural heritage activities within Rochdale Town Centre and have proven expertise in this area. Their products are well received and trusted with schools and local groups- their schools programme, for example, is regularly fully booked. Meetings with the Education Co-ordinator and the Art Gallery Access Officer have explored what makes successful projects and how we can tie into their strategies for mutual benefit and to ensure the lifespan of the resources created as part of the project continue after the project’s completion.

B3 Rochdale Cultural Heritage Group (RoCH) – RoCH is an umbrella group representing the different cultural and heritage groups within Rochdale. They have been crucial in gauging public support, advising officers on the activities and how the capital work can reflect public aspirations.

B4 Additional research and consultation - It should be emphasised that this project has emerged from informal and formal consultation over many years and work within Inner Rochdale communities. To be discussed more within application form. Additional research and consultation includes;

▪ Rochdale THI (presentation to Whitworth community centre, support letters)

▪ MSc Dissertation on the extent to which heritage-led regeneration proposals in Rochdale engage and reflect the local Pakistani community

▪ MRUK report
▪ ……

2.5 Other projects/Best practice – We have researched and contacted a number of other HLF-funded projects that have similarities to our proposed project: The Lune Viaduct, The River Ribble, British Steel Archive Project. This will be expanded upon in the application form.

C Audience:

Due to its concealment, there is no audience currently engaging with the Rochdale and Butts Bridges and it would be premature to focus engagement too closely on a specific audience. The Bridges are in the centre of Rochdale; an area which is within the 1% most deprived areas in the country and has ethnically diverse, yet segregated communities.
The MRUK report, produced for RMBC, gives insight into the views of the people of Rochdale borough. It found that “One of the most striking attitudes that arose from all respondent audiences was the importance of maintaining a link with the industrial origins and heritage of the area. This was seen to be an important aspect of the identity of the people and the community in which they live. Those respondents living within the Borough displayed quite negative perceptions, which can be descried as being of low expectation, low self esteem, with little sense of local pride and a lost identity. 

D Concept: 
Rochdale Bridge contains a unique and dynamic record of human activity, shaped by generations of Rochdale people responding to the surroundings they inherited. The activity plan will record and celebrate the project, which is this generation’s contribution to that history. Under the framework of ‘Meeting the Neighbours’ the project will engage with these different communities through a series of workshops on the bridge, its history and its conservation that will be tailored to each group. The workshops will culminate in outputs created collaboratively between the different groups thus bringing them together in discovery, recording and celebration of the Bridges as a source of identity and symbol of unity.

The workshops/learning sessions are divided into ‘discovering’, ‘recording’ and ‘celebrating’. During the development stage the Project Officer would work with the community groups to arrange a package of workshops suitable for their audience. This system of workshops allows activities to be repeated with different groups, and adapted to their needs; making them effective and efficient. Similar frameworks used by Touchstones, Township and the Middleton Young Roots project have proved successful. This project would be more ambitious; reaching more groups, with a wide variety of workshops and continuation of some workshops following completion of the project. Participants will be invited to join RoCH and have long-term involvement in decisions about the cultural heritage.

To Do:

Identify groups

Put costs against sessions etc – realistic within the budget?

Diary of a Chambermaid: Grooming Geriatrics

Is Colin Lambert Taking His Eye Off The Ball Again?

WHEN the report by the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board was published last month into the exploitation of children in Rochdale, a local MP Jim Dobbin said that owing to the shock of the Peter Connolly case, a toddler who died after suffering terrible abuse in London, social services in Rochdale 'took their eye off the ball' by concentrating on small children and neglecting the plight of vulnerable teenagers.  Mr Dobbin said:  'After the Baby P scandal social services across the country, including Rochdale, became too focused on younger children and younger families.'  At the time, Rochdale Council's leader, Colin Lambert, who works closely with Jim Dobbin in Heywood, Rochdale, seemed to echo these sentiments.  It sounded nice then as a comment to make to the media, but if we now start to focus on vulnerable teenagers might not adult care suffer?

Yesterday, it was announced in the Rochdale Observer that 'high-level talks have already begun between council leaders and Link4Life to thrash out how the new organisation [to outsource adult social care services] would work'.  Chris Jones in the Rochdale Observer (Wednesday 10th, Oct.) writes:  'Town hall chiefs want to out-source adult social care services as they bid to slash £45m from their budget over the next two years' and that 'their preferred partner is Link4Life - the organisation which currently runs Rochdale Leisure Centre and Touchstones Museum, but which has no background in adult care.'  Link4Life has already had a colourful and controversial history in the management of some of its operations in the town, particularly with regard to arts and heritage.

Sheila Downey, Rochdale council's director of adult care services, told the Rochdale Observer:  'This could be in partnership with an already existing social enterprise and we are working with Link4Life about a possible partnership.'  Ms. Downey added:  'If the council does decide to enter into a partnership with Link4Life there would be a distinct social care arm of the organisation, and staff already working in adult social care would continue to provide services.' 

Saving are expected to be in the area of about £500,000, out of the £45m the Council hopes to save by April 2015.

But what of the risks involved?  As I write, Councillor Lambert is being threatened by Meadows Care, the biggest private care firm in Rochdale, which has instructed barristers and is considering issuing a writ against Councillor Lambert.  Colin Lambert has criticised independent private children's homes after the conviction of nine men for abusing young girls earlier in the year.  Meadows Care were not involved in the scandal and it has since lost several placements, it claims, as a result of Councillor Lambert's comments.  This legal threat comes as it was announced that Steve Garner, Rochdale's head of children's services, has resigned.

Now imagine, if you will, a situation in an Edwardian terrace-house context in the North of England rather similar to that portrayed by Octave Mirbeau in his book The Diary of a Chambermaid, only placed among the modern English working-class rather than in French high society.   In the French novel the Chambermaid, Mademoiselle Célestine works for a man who fetishizes her boots, and she later discovers the old man dead, with one of her boots stuffed in his mouth. Now in the North of England one mustn't expect such a sophisticated drama but consider the possibility of an elderly man who encourages young lasses from the local school to enjoy the comforts of his home while they tart themselves up in readiness for the youth club; perhaps the man is merely a voyeur who likes to be close to and to watch the young lasses dress and make themselves up. A decade may pass and the school girls grow up and are gradually replaced by other younger generations until the man himself becomes very old, weak and vulnerable. Yes, perhaps one of these girls is different from the others, senses some weakness in the old man and is able to turn the situation around; as Mademoiselle Célestine did in Octave Mirbeau's novel by becoming a bourgeois cafe hostess, who mistreats her servants in turn. Perhaps one of the girls will start to dominate the old man and gain control of his possessions so it becomes like a kind of geriatric grooming: are the politicians and civil servants, who run our towns so lacking in imagination that they cannot grasp that the tables can be turned so that we could end up with old vulnerable people being manipulated. In The Diary of a Chambermaid, Mademoiselle Célestine draws the conclusion which the reader is also invited to draw: 'However much riffraff are vile, they are never as vile as decent people'.

Councillor Lambert and other council bosses may well be playing with fire as they ponder the possibility of out-sourcing adult care to Link4Life.

Robin Hood: Bandits in Andalucia

WHEN reading The Guardian story below on the anarchist trade union militant Juan Gordillo, English readers ought to be aware of something of the history and tradition of this kind of thing in southern Spain.  Every time I go to Ronda in the province of Malaga, I visit a bar in the old part of town near the Roman Bridge and gaze at the black and white photos of around the room in which alongside local shots of  Francesco Rosi's 1984 film version of the Carmen opera with the tenor, Plácido Domingo, and Julia Migenes, are photos of a genuine bandit being arrested by the Guardia Civil in the local sierra. 
This bandit tradition continued in this part of Spain until at least 1951.  Julian A.Pitt-Rivers in his book 'The People of the Sierra' (1954) explains:  'Ronda is like a provincial capital to the pueblos of the sierra.  Like Jerez, it possesses a resident aristocracy.  The pueblos to the south, in the valley of the Rio Genal, are small, less than one thousand inhabitants in number, and situated in wild country.  The agricultural land of these pueblos and much of the low-lying forest is divided into small properties.  Large pastoral properties are owned by the state and by the aristocracy of Ronda who also own much of the better land round Ronda itself.'  Mr Pitt-Rivers then quotes from an article in Estampa, published in 1934, commenting on banditry in this region:  '(A Civil Guard speaking to the journalist says -)  "Just as in some regions there are pueblos which strive to produce the most and best bullfighters, so here they want to have bandits [and] all the folk of the sierra protect Flores (a bandit).  In Igualeja the pueblo is on Flores' side.  They are all spies who watch our every act.  Only by betrayal could we come to grips with him, and no one dares betray him for he would soon be avenged".'    

Pitt-Rivers describes the sociology of the bandit and his relationship with the pueblo thus:  '(A bandit must retain his confidential contact with the pueblo and in doing so) His opposition to the Civil Guard assures him the sympathy of a large part of the pueblo.  Theoretically, at any rate, a romantic and honourable figure, he is outside the law but he is not immoral.'  It is this ability of the Andalucian bandit to remain a member of the moral community, at least in relation to certain sections of it, that allows him to exist outside the law.  The danger is that when the shepherds and goat-herder's start to inform of him to the Guardia Civil and his friends in the pueblo fail him, then according to Mr. Pitt-Rivers, 'he has reached the end of his tether'. 

In the early 1950s, this is what led to the successful suspression of banditry in the sierra de Ronda.  Julian Pitt-Rivers writes: 
'The Civil Guard, unable to trap the elusive and well-armed "Reds", concentrated their efforts against their contacts in the pueblos.  Finding their supplies endangered, the bandits took to plundering the shepherds and the latter reacted by betraying them to their pursuers.' 

Recent local events have given this story is interesting and ironic topical twist, because at present the printed version of Northern Voices is under a similar heavy attack from two sides:  from the establishment organisation Link4Life that is an arms-length body led by gaffers that runs museums, art galleries and sports outfits, and from what, using George Orwell's terminology, may be described as a smelly little orthodoxy on the ultra-left of the political spectrum.  The Link4Life bosses withdrew one of our sales outlets because of an article in Northern Voices No.13 by Debbie Firth, a Touchstones Challenge campaigner in Rochdale defending the arts and heritage of the borough; at the same time a shadowy group on the wilder fringes of the of the crackpot left have been busy touring some of our outlets trying to discourage them from distributing Northern Voices.  All of this is interesting and deserves deeper research as an anthropological strange development both at a local level inside the relationship of Link4Life to the Rochdale Council, and inside the small-group dynamics of the more foolish factions of politics on the left in England.

Local Novelist Queries Link4Life Bosses' Pay

Letter to Rochdale Observer from Trevor Hoyle:

PRIOR to the opening of the £11 million leisure centre, the council's finance chief, Farooq Ahmed, tells us that the high salaries for Link4Life executives are deserved if the organisations they manage are performing (Rochdale Observer June 30).

But if the 70% increase over 4 years for managing director Craig McAteer is 'deserved', where does this leave the rest of the Link4Life staff whose salaries have been frozen, had their hours and wages reduced, or worse still, been made redundant?  One rule for the executives, it seems, who are 'deserving', another for the foot soldiers who actually run these organisations.  No pay rises for them (if they are lucky enough to still have jobs).

And I still can't get my head round the fact that while Link4Life is supposedly a charitable, non-profit making trust, funded largely by Rochdale rate-payers, why the board of Trustees and councillors alike see nothing wrong in permitting these inflated salaries.  Where is their sense of responsibility?  Have they been asleep?  Is it they just don't care, or are they powerless?  I'd really like to know, if someone can be bothered to tell me.

Yes of course I welcome the new leisure centre.  I'd also welcome a fraction of the £34 million Link4Life is spending on sport and leisure capital projects going towards new arts and heritage facilities.  There was a brilliant suggestion recently in the (Rochdale) Observer from Mrs. Enid Jones (Letters June 23) that instead of knocking down, the old Art Deco swimming baths could be used as rehearsal rooms for local groups and a theatre/ performance space.

As well as being near the centre of town, with parking, and providing a resource we badly need, it would preserve an iconic building which holds fond memories for three generations of Rochdalians.

What about it, Link4Life management, board of Trustees and councillors?  Any takers?

Trevor Hoyle,
Newhey.

Link4Life Bosses: pay rises?

                  Willy Eckerslike Seeks Solace In Sophistry!____

Willy Eckerslike cartoon above is from the printed version of

Northern Voices 13.

Link4Life bosses, Managing Director Craig McAteer and his deputy Peter Kilkenny, saw their pay rise by 70% in 4 years according to Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk.  Mr. Danczuk told Parliament that he had been sent an anonymous letter detailing the pay increases.  He said it claimed the MD, Craig McAteer was paid £69,000 in 2006 and this had now risen to £120,000, meanwhile his deputy, Peter Kilkenny had started on £73,000 and this had gone up to £90,000 in 3 years.  Previously this year, Link4Life had admitted McAteer and Kilkenny had had pay rises but no precise figures were forthcoming.  Last week, the Rochdale Observer asked Link4Life for a comment but they hadn't replied before the paper went to press.

The Summer issue of Northern Voices carries an article by Touchstones Challenge campaigner, Debbie Firth, questioning the management of the arts and heritage in Rochdale by Link4Life.  She was particularly concerned about the cuts in funding to the arts.  We asked her to comment on these recent revelations and Debbie said:  'I am very concerned that a "not for profit" organisation can justify paying it's director a 70 % salary increase over 3 years whilst making front line staff redundant. How can this be justified?'

As for the allegations divulged by Simon Danczuk in Parliament to the Communities & Local Government Select Committee last week, Debbie Firth said:  'I am glad that Rochdale's MP Simon Danczuck is taking this issue seriously and asking for transparency' but she added  'Yet again, Link 4 Life have not publicly disclosed these figures ,and the trustees themselves have declined to share this information with the people of Rochdale.' 

Ms. Firth then issued a challenge:  'If Link 4 Life directors and their trustees believe that such salary increases are fair at a time when Arts and heritage services are being cut, then surely they would be more than happy to disclose the figures themselves.'
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The printed version of NORTHERN VOICES 13, with all sorts of stuff others won't touch and may be obtained as follows:
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included)
Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' at
c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.
Tel.: 0161 793 5122.
email: northernvoices@hotmail.com

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Link4Life in Rochdale: A Child of the Enlightenment?

DOUBTS about Link4Life's committment to the spirit of Voltaire and the Enlightenment in the arts, will continue following the decision of Link4Life boss, Peter Kilkenny, to refuse to stock the current issue of Northern Voices in the shop at Touchstones in Rochdale Town Centre.  Touchstones bookshop had sold copies of the previous issue of Northern Voices with our review of the Liam Spencer exhibition in last year, but this year they returned Northern Voices 13 having read the mildly critical article by Debbie Firth of the Touchstones Challenge campaign group, dealing with what she thought was a Link4Life managerial bias against the arts in Rochdale.

This is disappointing as Northern Voices 13 carried an interview with Sylvia Lancaster, the mother of Sophie Lancaster, the murdered 'Goth girl' and new romantic, from up Bacup.  It also included a review/ excerpts from Catherine Smyth's book 'Weirdo, Mosher, Freak: the murder of sophie lancaster', which is on sale in Touchstones Bookshop.  In the 1970s, the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP), according one of its former editors, John Walker, had some difficulties getting the reference library to stock that paper in what is now Touchstones but was then the Rochdale Central Library.  The difficulties were overcome at that time, because the local librarian stood up to the politicians who wanted to exclude that controversial local publication. 

In Rochdale town centre, copies of Northern Voices 13 with Debbie Firth's article in, is available at Gallery Number Ten at 10, Bailie Street, and at Martin's News in the Rochdale Bus station.
_______________________________________________________

The printed version of NORTHERN VOICES 13, with all sorts of stuff others won't touch and may be obtained as follows:

Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included)

Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' at

c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.

Tel.: 0161 793 5122.

email: northernvoices@hotmail.com
_______________________________________________________

NORTHERN VOICES No.13: Out Now!!!

NORTHERN VOICES 13, - the printed / physical version of N.V. - deals with some of the issues that the others on the so-called British left won't touch. Starting with an interview with Sylvia Lancaster, mum of the murdered 'Goth Girl' / 'New Romantic' Sophie Lancaster, who was kicked to death up Bacup, in Lancashire, in August 2007. How do you feel about a new 'Hate Crime' on the statute book? Previously, Northern Voices has given you 'The Gangs of Manchester' dating back to an early 20th Century, but that was about lad's gangs: does the merciless killing of our sublime Sophie represent a step into a darker age? To be up-to-date and understand the way Northern Voices thinks and is different from other publications you should read the real and physical N.V..

Other stories include an apparent attack on the arts in Rochdale by the Link4Life organisation; 'The Strange Burnley story of Philip Morrell: the man who resisted Britain's participation in World War One' by Rev. Father Petty; an interview with a Libyan freedom fighter in Manchester by Barry Woodling; Tameside Eye & Salford Spy; Bribery & Corruption Column covering blacklisting; work-for-dole; allegations of bribery on Bury Council, 'environmental vandalism' at Chat Moss in Salford and  Les May on what he is now describing as 'Backdoor Privatisation' in Rochdale.

Do you think theatres and drama are Crap? Well, if you do or you don't, there's a review of Six O' the Best Northern Theatres by Chris Draper and with 'Miss Julie'* staring one of our northern actresses Maxine Peake, and starting at Manchester's Royal Exchange on the 12th, April, you can decide if it's worth a visit to Theatre -in-the-Round, based on what Chris has to say about the state of our local theatres up North. In our coloured centre-spread there is an image of an anarchist scarf that James Keogh, a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War 1936-39 and who last November was awarded a Blue Plaque by Tameside MBC, sent to his mum in Ashton-under-Lyne. Did James buy it on the Ramblas in Barcelona after he arrived in Spain in 1937? Then if you fancy a bit of culture you can have a look at our view of the Ford Madox Brown Exhibition, and the tricky business that led to his painting of the murals in Manchester Town Hall: our centre spread includes 'Bradshaw's Defence of Manchester A.D. 1642'.

Then there's history with 'Peterloo & the politics of Failure' by Dick Dutch and more of Chris Draper on the Sheffield outrages and sucking-up to the bosses by British trade union gaffers.

* 'MISS JULIE' by August Strindberg at the Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester:
a new version by David Eldridge, from a literal translation by Charlotte Barslund
'I can't run away, I can't stay. I can't live, I can't die. Help me'
MAXINE PEAKE plays Miss Julie. Known for her television appearances in SILK, the BAFTA nominated HANCOCK & JOAN and SHAMELESS, she is reunited with director Sarah Frankcom, whose recent successes at the Exchange include the award-winning PUNK ROCK and A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE.
'Sweden, 1894. Midsummer night’s celebrations are in full swing but the Count’s daughter, the beautiful and imperious Miss Julie, feels trapped and alone. Downstairs in the servants’ kitchen, handsome and rebellious footman Jean is feeling restless. When they meet a passion is ignited that soon spirals out of control. Strindberg’s masterpiece caused a scandal when first produced – and has been hugely popular ever since – for its searingly honest portrait of the class system and human sexuality.'
_______________________________________________________
The printed version of NORTHERN VOICES 13, with all sorts of stuff others won't touch and may be obtained as follows:
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included)
Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' at
c/o 52, Todmorden Road,
Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.
Tel.: 0161 793 5122.
email: northernvoices@hotmail.com
_______________________________________________________

Pay Rises for Link4Life Bosses Who Sacked Staff

Rochdale's Touchstone Challenge Protest Group leader: 'Absolutely Furious!'

CRAIG McAteer, Link4Life managing director, and his deputy, Peter Kilkenny, have had a pay rise of around £20,000 apiece: we can't be precise because we're not dealing with straight-forward folk. Chris Jones, in an exclusive story for the Rochdale Observer (28/01/2012) writes: 'Linki4Life's official financial records for the year ending March 2011 show Mr McAteer's wage jumped from the £100,000 to £110,000 bracket to the £130,000 to £140,000 pay band.' Mr Kilkenny's pay may well have risen from about '£80,000 to £90,000' to the region of '£110,000 to £120,000' according to the Observer.

Link4Life now claim that the records were 'submitted to Companies House incorrectly and include additional employer costs from pension contributions as well as their monthly wage.' But the Rochdale Observer claims: 'even when these figures are taken out' the figures show 'Mr McAteer's wages still rise from the £100,000 to £110,000 band to the higher £110,000 to £120,000 band.' The reason for all this guess-work is that both Mr McAteer and Mr Kilkenny are refusing to come clean about exactly how much they are on. These benefits for the bosses of Link4Life follow on from a series of sackings by them of staff, and cuts in cultural services at Touchstones Museum and Art Gallery. Debbie Firth, the co-ordinator of Touchstone Challenge - a group promoting the arts in Rochdale - told Northern Voices: 'I was absolutely furious when I read that Link4Life Managing Director (Craig McAteer) and his deputy (Peter Kilkenny) have between them received up to £30,000 in pay rises at a time when they are cutting jobs and services within arts and heritage in Rochdale.' When Debbie Firth, a young local mother, first helped set up the Touchstone Challenge group in May last year, she shortly after received an email from a firm of Leeds' solicitors, acting on behalf of the Link4Life bosses, warning her that the group was threatening the business prospects of Link4Life.

Commenting on the present situation, Milnrow Councillor Andy Kelly, who ferreted-out the wage figures for the Observer story, said: 'I am sure that the vast majority of people in this borough think this to be simply ridiculous (and) I have written to the local government minister Eric Pickles asking him to request the district auditor undertake a review of the situation.'

Another founder member of the Touchstone Challenge group, Trevor Hoyle, wrote in the Rochdale Observer last Saturday, complaining of the 'cavalier attitude' of Mr McAteer and Mr Kilkenny. Mr Hoyle wrote: 'It comes as no surprise to those of us who have kept a close eye on the management style of Link4Life that the two top directors have pocketed up to a £20,000 pay rise last year, while sacking staff and imposing a wage freeze on those earning less in a year than their annual pay rise'.

While these Link4Life bosses keep their traps shut about their own pay conditions, they are, in fact, employed by a charitable trust appointed by the local Council, and their salaries plus any pay rises are, according to Mr Hoyle, 'in large part paid for by the rate-payers of Rochdale'. These Link4Life bosses shelter behind a lack of public scrutiny and it is for people like Brian Ashworth, chairman of the Link4Life trustees, to enlighten the public instead of rushing to present the case for the defence.

Northern Voices 13 (48 pages plus cover); with a story from Touchstone Challenge leader, Debbie Firth, will be on sale at the end of this month: Postal subscription for Northern Voices is £5 for the next two issues (post & packing included). Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' to C/o. 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH. Tel; 0161 793 5122. Email: northernvoices@hotmail.com