The Citizen 41 - Page 5
Audenshaw Denton Droylsden Dukinfield Hyde Longdendale Mossley Stalybridge
Panels hold council to accountTaking a detailed look at the policies of Tameside Council and how those policies are put into practice is a key role for non executive councillors. Members of the four Scrutiny Panels review council policies, help develop policies, scrutinise external organisations - in particular local NHS Trusts - and hold the Executive to account. Scrutiny panels meet in public at least once a month, usually at the council offices in Ashton. They comprise non executive councillors, some co-opted members and people with relevant experience or knowledge. Scrutiny panels each decide their own annual work programme, devised following extensive consultation and include suggestions from members of the public. In carrying out scrutiny exercises, members of scrutiny panels go out and informally visit people who carry out services or can provide information, as well as interviewing people in formal meetings. They also carry out extensive research and innovative consultation exercises that help inform their reports which they present to full council.
The Panel aims to improve people's health by looking at the quality, performance and outcome of NHS services in the borough.
Discover Tameside's HeritageCinemas If you want to go to the pictures in Tameside nowadays, your only option is Cineworld, the new multiplex at Ashton Moss. It is a relaxed place showing a wide selection of films, and families can be seen stocking up with food and wearing whatever makes them feel most comfortable. Sixty years ago, when the Hollywood dream factory was at is height, Tameside boasted 27 cinemas and you had to keep a careful eye on the newspapers to know what was showing and where. And a trip to the pictures was a night out. It meant wearing your best clothes and being greeted by staff in natty uniforms. Most of these old cinemas have disappeared, but some remain, having been adapted to other uses. David Owen's excellent book "A History of the Theatres and Cinemas of Tameside" (Neil Richardson 1985) shows that the first place in Tameside to show films was probably the People's Hall, a theatre on Prestwich Street, Denton, which put on its first movie in September, 1908, and closed in 1958. The Star, on Church Street, Ashton, followed suit at roughly the same time, then called the Picturedrome. But the building was already almost 100 years old and had originally been the place of worship for the Christian Israelites, the sect founded by the self-styled prophet John Wroe who declared Ashton to be the New Jerusalem. However, it appears the first purpose-built cinema in Tameside may well have been the Electric Palace which opened at the corner of Crescent Road and Hope Street, Dukinfield, on November 14, 1910. The ceremony was performed by the Mayor of Dukinfield, Alderman John Dyson Hibbert, and the cinema was part of the circuit of Electric Palaces owned by Hamilton Jackson. A little later, the cinema became simply the Palace, and in 1918 changed its name to the Palladium, by which it was known until it closed after the war, although it was also known as the bughut, for obvious reasons, and as the ranch because of the number of Westerns it showed. The Palladium appears to have been a rather basic building, with people sitting on benches rather than in plush seats. However, before the war, it drew in plenty of children by charging them a penny but including a comic and a piece of fruit or some sweets in the admission price. After closure, the Palladium became an engineering works owned by Scase and Atkinson and was demolished in the early 1970s. Owen cites the Pavilion, on Old Street, as Ashton's first purpose-build cinema, and gives its date of opening as 1912. However, the Williams Brothers in "Flickering Memories" (Tameside Leisure Services 1995) state that the Picture Pavilion opened on December 21, 1908. Three former cinemas can be found close to one another in the centre of Ashton. Tameside Hippodrome, still known to many as the Empire, stands on Oldham Road and continues as a theatre. However, just around the corner, on Old Street, the Pavilion has become a furniture store having been a bingo hall and social club since it closed on October 8, 1966, by showing "Cul-de-Sac" starring Donald Pleasance and "Intimacy" with Jack Ging. The Pavilion was privately owned, rather than being part of a national chain, which meant that it was unable to show the most popular films. However, it made history in November, 1954, by being the first Ashton cinema to use Cinemascope, puting on "The Robe" starring Richard Burton, Jean Simmons and Victor Mature. Further along Old Street, opposite the Ladysmith Shopping Centre, is an amusement arcade which began life as the Majestic picture house in 1920. It became the Gaumont in 1946, and the Odeon in 1962. Twenty years later, when it was sold by the Rank Organisation, it was bought by John Downs and renamed the Metro, but closed for good around five years ago. Out at Guide Bridge, on Stockport Road, the former Odeon has been converted into St Paul's Catholic Centre. When it was built, in 1936, it was the first Odeon in south-east Lancashire and was opened by the MP for Ashton, Mr F.B. Simpson, and the Ashton Cotton Queen, Blanche Jackson. It stayed in business for 25 years. And in Audenshaw, the Stamford is now home to a tile company. Opened before the war, it closed down in 1957 after showing "Serenade" starring Mario Lanza. Refurbishment, a few years before, had failed to bring in the necessary patrons as television began to take a hold. Hyde still boasts a number of former cinemas, although two of these are theatres - the Festival Theatre on Corporation Street, which was known as the Alexandra when it showed films, and the adjacent Theatre Royal. The Astoria Bingo Hall, near the bus station, opened as the Star in 1911 and became the Scala in 1920. By 1950 it was the New Scala and it became the Astoria in 1951. It closed in 1954, becoming a ballroom and a teenagers' club before being taken over as a bingo hall. The Hippodrome cinema, converted from a theatre of the same name, stood in Clarendon Street, having been built on the site of Longmeadow Mill. It closed in 1960 and was converted into a mini-shopping centre called the Supermarket, which included a mix of businesses such as Hubble's Music Shop. It is now Quality Save. The Palace, Market Street, Stalybridge, has recently been converted into a nightclub called Rififi. It opened in 1917 as the Empire Picture Palace. And on Corporation Street, Stalybridge, you can still find the frontage of the old Hippodrome Theatre, although the auditorium disappeared around 50 years ago. The Hippodrome is where Jack Judge first performed "Tipperary" in January, 1912, having taken a bet that he could not write and perform a song within 24 hours. He was staying at the Newmarket Hotel which stood opposite and closed in 1932. Tameside's cinemas were not always the quiet places you might imagine with usherettes quickly squashing potential misbehaviour by pointing their torches. Some continued to show films long after they had become dilapidated and there was one occasion in the Star, Ashton, where a Dukinfield woman was asked to leave because she refused to take down her umbrella. She claimed she needed it to shelter from water dripping through the roof. And at the Queens, Manchester Road, Hyde, in the early 1950s, someone fired an airgun at the screen as William Boyd was riding into action as the cowboy Hopalong Cassidy. The police were quickly called, the patrons were searched, and it did not take too long to find the one person in the building who had a weapon. However, the most notorious incident occurred in the mid-1950s when the film "Rock Around the Clock" was showing at the Princess on King Street, Dukinfield - now the Pyramid Snooker Club. Legend has it that there was a riot, but it seems that there was simply over-exuberance on the part of the hundreds of teenagers who were watching, although people do remember several gangs turning up to watch Bill Haley and the Comets. After the film there was jiving on the plateau in front of the town hall and the town was in uproar. The hooligans were condemned from a number of pulpits and the management of the Princess was forced to take off the film and replace it with "All Askance" starring Mickey Rooney. The Princess closed on February 27, 1960. |
Supporting vulnerable people in their homeHomeless people, those with alcohol and drug issues, people with mental health support needs, those with learning disabilities and women at risk of domestic violence are all receiving extra housing related services through the Supporting People programme. Supporting People gives local people the opportunity to improve their quality of life by providing supported housing services that promote independence. The programme can help to equip people with the skills and confidence to live independently in the community. The programme also provides a wide range of services for older people with support needs. This could include support and advice from a scheme manager in sheltered accommodation; sheltered housing linked to an alarm and response service; extra care housing and support at home including access to the Community Response Service. The Tameside Supporting People team is producing a short film. This has involved many service users, sharing their experiences of how the housing related support they have received has helped to positively change their lives. The film will help raise the profile of all the services that are available to local people and also it will be included as part of a tendering pack for new services which will be commissioned in the future, which will address any current, identified unmet needs. For more information ring 0161 342 3267 or Freephone: 08000 407013. You will also find lots of useful information on the website: www.tameside.gov.uk/housing/support. Horses for waste cause
The wagon, which was built in the early 1900s and powered by two shire horses was bought by Dukinfield Corporation and used to collect ash waste in the town. It was used to travel up and down the town's streets collecting the waste ash from the fires residents set to burn their household waste, in the days before the local authority collected all the waste instead as they do now. After numerous owners it was found and bought by the Tameside Council and restored to its former glory by specialist local tradesmen and is now set to revisit the streets of its spiritual Dukinfield home to promote recycling. And in another twist the man who was lined up to carry out the paint restoration on the newly refurbished vehicle, Jack Barber, is the grandson of the man originally commissioned to do the job. The cart has been used to promote the borough's recycling achievements at conferences up and down the country and will be used to promote recycling throughout the borough as well as making appearances in all this summer's carnivals and shows. Executive member for the environment, Cllr Catherine Piddington said: "As an authority we are always keen to come up with new ways to promote the recycling message to our residents. As soon as we heard about this cart's existence we knew it would be a great way of making that message more interesting. "It just goes to show how things change and how practises that may have been acceptable back then are certainly not today. Can you imagine what the area's air quality must have been like if everyone was allowed to simple burn all their household waste, food and all, in their back garden. The smell alone must have been horrendous. "Thankfully that's not the case now and today we will be using the wagon to emphasis the importance of recycling and why we all need to continually add to the borough's impressive and rising recycling targets." It's a Green Stick Up Green bosses are resorting to stick-ups in their campaign to get the recycling message across to the borough's residents.For they could soon be covering the inside of all domestic waste bins with colour coordinated sticky labels aimed at highlighting the ever increasing costs of disposing of our rubbish. The stickers will be placed on the underside of the bin lid so they can be seen when the lid is lifted and each will highlight the cost of disposing of the rubbish or of the potential saving from recycling. The blue bin sticker will inform people that every tonne of paper put in the bin will generate £35 worth of income, money which can be used elsewhere in the council. The brown bin sticker reminds people that recycling garden waste in there is £60 cheaper than putting it in the black bin. The green bin has a similar message about saving money recycling glass, while the black bin warns people that for every tonne of waste put in there will cost £80 to dispose off - putting up council tax. Executive member for the environment, Cllr Catherine Piddington said: "People need to realise that it costs £80 per tonne to dispose of their rubbish. That's why the message is so blunt. "I will never understand why we have residents out there who have the full range of recycling bins outside their home but still throw a lot of their recyclables in the black bin. What makes it even more annoying is that we have others residents out there who are desperately waiting for the opportunity to get involved in the schemes." Head of environmental operations, Robin Monk said: "The simple fact is that before long we will be paying over£100 per tonne to dispose of rubbish. It is simple maths to realise the extent of the bill to Tameside residents if we just tipped our 100,00 tonnes of waste each year. Fortunately we are now recycling over 25 per cent of our waste but we need to do a lot more." Committee sets the standardsThe Council's Standards Committee fulfils an important role at Tameside. Its members work hard to ensure that councillors and employees observe high standards of ethics. All Councillors sign up to a Code of Conduct when they are elected. The Standards Committee is responsible for advising the Council on what the code of conduct should say as well as carrying out some hearings when a councillor is accused of breaking the code. The law is changing - in future the Standards Committee's role will become even more important. From next year it will deal with all but the most serious cases and will have a greater say in how complaints are investigated. “The Government have made it clear that Standards Committees have a stronger future and this would be an interesting time to join the committee” says Borough Solicitor, Sandra Stewart. To ensure that the Standards Committee is non political and independent of councillors and employees, the council appoints independent members to the committee. One of the independent members is appointed as committee chair. The two councillors on the committee are council leader Cllr Roy Oldham and leader of the majority opposition party, Cllr John Bell. The committee's work is interesting and varied - as well as making decisions on individual cases it can advise the council on anything where there is an issue about standards of behaviour to be considered. The Council currently has vacancies for independent members. All Independent Members are entitled to an annual allowance of £500. The Council has no fixed idea about who should be appointed. Skills are more important than a particular background - candidates will need to demonstrate an ability to analyse complex factual situations as well as to be an independent voice on the committee. To maintain the independence of the role, some people with a close relationship to the council or its employees or who have a role in local government elsewhere are not allowed to apply. If you are interested in applying please see the advertisement below for more information. Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council If you believe in public service and high ethical standards, you may be the person we are looking for to act as an Independent Person on our Standards Committee. The Committee was set up oversee conduct at the Council and to ensure high standards are met by councillors and employees. The Committee meets about five times a year and a small allowance is paid to independent members. You need:
Unfortunately we can't consider applications from:
For an informal discussion about the work of the committee, Sandra Stewart, Borough Solicitor. The closing date for the receipt of applications is 1st August 2007 |
The Personal and Health Services Scrutiny Panel has responsibility for considering all elements of housing policy, adult social services and the local NHS Trusts.
The Services for Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel has responsibility for considering all policies and provision for children and young people aged 0-19. The Children Act 2004 aims to increase co-ordination from all organisations dealing with children and young people - including education and social healthcare. The Panel has an important part to play in ensuring that the different agencies are working more closely together to avoid duplication, fill gaps, share information and provide services more focused on the needs of children, young people and their families.
The Technical, Economic and Environmental Services Scrutiny Panel has responsibility for considering all elements of council policies in relation to the provision of engineering and transport services, environmental health and the environment in which we live, and the economy and prosperity of Tameside. The panel considers economic development and regeneration policies, and the council's policies for the management of its assets. It also considers council policies for environmental health refuse collection, recycling, pest control and food hygiene as well as building, roads, footpaths, grounds maintenance of the cemeteries and crematorium, Section 106 planning agreements and renewal areas.
The Resources and Sustainable Communities Scrutiny Panel has responsibility for considering matters relating to corporate policies, strategies and governance, resource planning, election development and human resources. It also deals with community based policies, including the Strategic Partnership, District Assemblies and sport, recreational culture policies, including sport and leisure provision made by or on behalf of the council. It is also concerned with information technology, crime and disorder, equalities, and procurement and marketing strategies.
Green chiefs have enlisted the help of a century-old refuse horse drawn wagon to highlight the borough's recycling message.