Rochdale, Pennines, Heywood and

Middleton
Labour Manifesto
2019
 Contents

Foreword from the Leader Page 3

People Page 6
Place Page 7
Prosperity Page 9
Young People Page 11
Trade Union Construction Charter Page 13

Rochdale Borough Labour Party

John Beasley House
89-91 Oldham Road
OL16 5QR
RochdaleLCF@gmail.com
A message
from the
Leader of
the Labour
Group
This tyrannical Tory government tells us, on a daily basis, that they have
successfully steered the country out of the recession we’ve suffered from
for over 10 years. Does it feel that way to you?

Of course it doesn’t! That’s because Conservative government

ministers don’t live in the real world. The world the rest of us live in,
outside the rich, Tory-supporting southern counties, is one where
foodbanks are a necessity; where local councils are creaking under
the pressure of slashed government support and our NHS is in a
mess. The real world is a far cry from the image the Tories like to
depict of modern Britain.

This government is so out of touch with what’s going on in Rochdale

that I am genuinely worried for the Borough’s future if we are forced
to endure much more of May’s madness. If it continues we will have
faced cuts of close to £200million in the next few years.

Despite this outrageous injustice, Rochdale Labour continues to

battle hard on your behalf to provide a Rochdale where our PEOPLE
get the cradle to grave care they deserve; our PLACE is clean and
green and our PROSPERITY is improved for everyone’s benefit.

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Your local Labour Party has made significant headway in these areas,
but there’s still much more to do. This Manifesto contains details of
what Rochdale Labour have delivered, and what we aim to deliver in
future.

We need to build more homes to rent and buy; keep our communities
safe with more police officers; give our children’s schools the funding
they so desperately need and restore our National Health Service to
the world’s envy it once was.

We said we would develop a night time economy to reinvigorate the

Borough’s night life, which has led to a 30% increase in trade for those
taking part. The Labour council has also supported local businesses
with a wide range of financial support.

Rochdale Labour also pledged to improve our children’s education,

which has led to a 4% increase in the percentage of pupils gaining five
or more passes. This Labour council has also increased the number of
apprentices and the grants they’re given to succeed.

We are also continuing to fight to eradicate rough sleeping across the

Borough and beyond, and we will continue the fight on rubbish. We
intend to continue with our programme of road repairs, thanks to the
£12m we’ve exclusively earmarked for the work.

That’s why your vote on 2 May is so important. We need to show these

Tories once and for all; enough is enough, we want a country that’s for
the many not just the few.

Kind regards,

Allen Brett
Leader of Rochdale Council

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For All
People
We recognise that the Borough is growing and that the projected population
is increasing. We will commit to the localization of health and social care
services wherever possible. One of our key commitments will be to invest
£1.4m in our Bereavement Services across the Borough.

Children
20.1% of our population are under the age of 15yrs and we know that the
first 1000 days of a child’s life is a crucial time for those children to grow into
healthy, happy adults. Our aspiration is that we will:
• achieve the national average for our Borough's children to be ‘school
ready’ by 2020; and
• continue to build on our ‘Fit, Read and Feed’ scheme and a ‘Mile A
Day’. This will help to reduce obesity and give more children who need
it access to learning, fun forms of exercise and healthy food during the
school holidays.
Adults
Gambling leads to debt, and both can cause, and be caused by, mental
health problems. Smoking is still one of the most common addictions in
Britain today, we will:
• promote and develop credit unions as an affordable alternative to
payday lenders and commercial banks
• significantly scale up our efforts to help people to stop smoking by
offering e-cigarettes as part of our stop smoking service provision
Older People
We want everyone in our Borough to live happy healthy lives for as long as
possible. Over 35,000 people are aged over 65yrs.

We will continue to build on our aspiration to ensure that Health and Social
Care Services are accessible to all and we will actively involve our residents
in designing those services, so they are appropriate to meet their current
and future needs.

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 Place
Environment
It is often the case that there is nothing more important to our residents than the
environment that they live in and because of this it is one of our biggest priorities,
too. Our commitments are to:
• Establish a local energy company.
• Increase the number of charging points for electric vehicles across the
Borough.
• Increase the number of green council vehicles.
• Invest £3m to reduce the number of HGVs going through our residential
streets.
• Increase income through Highways advertising.
• Invest £1m to extend Clean and Green Teams and to continue with ‘In Bloom’
initiatives.
• Invest in our environment by introducing bee friendly wild flowers on grass
verges across the Borough.
• Get tough on enforcing penalties for those who choose to litter and fly tip in
our Borough.
Arts and Heritage
Rochdale is blessed by the many heritage assets it has across its Borough
including the Town Hall and Edgar Wood’s magnificent buildings that are dotted
around Middleton. Because, like you, we treasure these assets so much our
priorities will be:
• To create a heritage strategy that will identify buildings of significance to the
Borough and identify a strategic route forward for how to maximise the use of
these assets.
• Hold a festival for the murals that will be painted across Rochdale Town
Centre as part of the wider regeneration plan.
• Produce a strategic plan for a vibrant Cultural Quarter to celebrate the diverse
cultures we have in our Borough.
• We will seek to look at all areas of the Borough and ensure that arts and
culture are accessible to all our residents.
• The arrival of Dippy from the National History Museum gives an opportunity
for community groups to engage in arts and culture. We will ensure the
Borough is properly prepared for this tremendous opportunity.

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Regeneration
Prosperity
The economic regeneration of our Borough is essential if we are to eradicate low
paid work and boost the incomes of our Borough’s residents. The Labour
Council will:
• Produce a master plan for each of our town centres that will provide the
foundation for growth across the Borough. These will centre around
transport infrastructure and provide a clear plan for cycling and walking
provision.
• Continue to support the build of new industrial units to house smaller
businesses. Numerous small businesses have already benefited from this
Labour pledge.
• Produce a Rochdale Station Master Plan which will detail the future land
use around the station and will earmark land for new housing
developments, improved cycling facilities, public art and a new public
square.
• As promised we have set up an evening economy board that comprises of
bar owners and restauranteurs. This venture will continue to receive council
support.
• We will continue to get Rochdale ‘Riverside Ready’ by tackling unused land
around the new shopping and leisure development.
• Work to increase Rochdale’s co-operative economy.
• We will create a digital strategy to ensure our homes and businesses are fit
for the future.

Planning and Housing

Housing is a hot topic and social housing is in short supply as demand continues
to sky rocket in our Borough. We promise to:
• Continue developing new sites for social housing in the Borough.
• Set up a working group to identify current shortages in housing provision.
This will include maximising our current social housing stock by increasing
capacity in existing homes and planning for further building.
• Ensure that Registered Social Landlords fulfil their obligations to their
tenants, and that they engage with them in fulfilling joint responsibilities.

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Young People
Young people in Rochdale have elected their own representatives
across the Borough. We believe the young people of our Borough have
the following priorities:
• Mental health services should be improved with young people’s
help and should be available in schools.
• We commit to fighting for resources to tackle and see knife crime
fall.
• Every person should have a place to live and the opportunity to live
comfortably. To achieve this, the Council will continue to support
the GM Mayor’s campaign to end rough sleeping.
• To help prepare young people for life, schools should cover topics
like finance, sex and relationship education, and politics.
• Continue to increase the number of young people who can access
apprenticeships as part of their education and learning plans, whilst
also increasing the number of people in Rochdale who can improve
their skills and access to work through apprenticeships.
• The Youth Cabinet wants to expand to ensure there are at least two
representatives from each school in the borough. The Rochdale
Labour Party will work with each school to form a Youth Council in
the Borough to ensure all young people’s voices are heard.
• The Youth Cabinet wants to hold information sessions for the
Borough’s pupils to get young people talking about politics. The
Rochdale Labour Party will support their endeavour and ensure as
far as practicable that the Youth Cabinet gains access to schools
and is central to shaping the way in which politics is taught.
• The Rochdale Labour Party will make every effort to end period
poverty for our young women and girls by working to ensure that
sanitary products are available in all schools and colleges.

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 TRADE UNION PLEDGE
The Labour Party was established by trade unions to ensure that working people
are properly represented in Parliament. To this day, we still maintain this strong
and important link with our trade unions to ensure that government policy, national
and local, is aligned with the needs of workers in our modern economy.

Unite the Union has asked the Rochdale Borough Labour Party to support their
Construction Charter and we therefore pledge that the following will be a
requirement of all contractors and their supply chain engaged by this authority:

1. All parties recognise that the highest level of compliance with current HMRC
regulations must be achieved where public funds are utilised. It is therefore a
contractual requirement that all operatives are directly employed on a PAYE
basis under a contract of employment. Furthermore the use of intermediary
pay roll companies will be prohibited on all contracts. 


2. Health and Safety of workers on all of our construction projects is paramount.

It is therefore a requirement that all contractors rigorously implement and
adhere to our minimum standards for health and safety, as set out in our
procurement documents. In addition we require all contractors to provide
quality welfare facilities fit for purpose in accordance with the Construction
Design and Management Regulation of 2015. 


3. It is a recognised fact that the presence of trade union safety representatives

significantly improves safety in the workplace. Contractors and their supply
chain are required to work collaboratively with the appropriate trade unions to
identify and implement reasonable real-world initiatives.

4. The Authority, requires all projects to be completed to the highest standard,

so as to meet the aspirations of the residents of this Authority. In order to
achieve this it is recognised that it is necessary that all workers are competent
and have the appropriate level of skill to carry out the work they are employed
to do. To assist in the achievement of this goal the Authority’s contractors and
their supply chain will ensure they retain documented evidence that all
workers are competent to carry out the work they have been employed to do.
They will ensure that such evidence is retained in a way as to allow the
Authority or its nominee’s to audit the documentation. Possession of the
recognised industry skills / grade card such as JIB or CSCS will be
considered acceptable evidence.
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5. The Authority is mindful of the industry skills shortage and the need to
address this through appropriate apprenticeships, including adult training in
up skilling. The Authority’s contractors and supply chain will in consultation
with the Authority and other interested parties develop and implement a
programme that addresses the skills shortage and provides training
opportunities to local residents. 


6. The Authority recognises the right of all construction workers to be employed

under and to be protected by the appropriate national industry collective
agreement. The Authority requires full compliance with all appropriate national
agreements applicable to the construction industry. 


7. All contractors and their supply chain will accept the right of any trade union
that is a signatory to an appropriate national agreement, to appoint shop
stewards, workplace health & safety representatives and Union Learning
Reps. All trade union accredited representatives will be granted appropriate
time and facilities to carry out their responsibilities. 


8. The Authority, its contractors and their supply chain are committed to a fair
and transparent recruitment policy. All contractors and their supply chain will
actively ensure that the engagement of labour is based on the individual’s
ability to meet the needs of the project and the specific tasks for which they
are recruited to undertake. 


9. The Authority, its contractors and their supply chain agree it’s not acceptable
for anyone to use or make reference to any form of blacklist. 


10. The Authority recognises the benefit trade unions bring to the workplace and
the rights of workers to hear from a trade union representative. The
Authority’s contractors and their supply chain are required to allow access to
nominated trade union officers from trade unions that are signatories to the
appropriate national agreements. Access shall mean access to welfare
facilities during working times to allow them to consult with their members and
potential members. 


11. The Authority supports the Get Britain Building campaign, which is aimed at
supporting and sustaining the British construction industry. Consequently, all
relevant construction contracts will be required to comply with our Authority’s
Sustainable Buying Standard for Highways and Construction Materials, which
requires structural steel and other relevant materials to be covered by BES
6001 Responsible Sourcing of Construction Product certification, or
equivalent. 

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By the Rochdale Borough Labour Party Campaign Forum

All photographs in this document have been taken by John Blundell.

Printed by Instant Print and promoted by Allen Brett on behalf of the Rochdale Labour Party both of 89-91 Oldham Road, Rochdale.