Oldham tough love signals cultural change

When a householder in one of Oldham's poorer areas rang the council to demand it clean up the mess from his upturned wheelie bin, Jim McMahon snapped.

The newly-appointed Labour leader of the local authority was struggling to find £25m in savings from his budget. The caller's casual assumption that the council would step in to tidy up brought home what Mr McMahon felt was a need to change the relationship between citizens and the local council.

"We told him: it is your waste - you clean it up. Then we removed street cleaning from the area for three weeks so people could understand the scale of the problem." It was, he says, "the jolt people needed" to start looking after their own environment. The area's reputation is improving and pressure on the council's cleaning costs has eased.

While some local authorities increasingly see their role as commissioners rather than providers of services, Oldham is part of a "co-operative councils" movement seeking a distinctively Labour response to the spending cuts. The idea is that residents become active participants in, rather than passive recipients of, public services.

Sarah Furbey, a volunteer who is now a paid community worker, says the message is getting across. She recalls that when residents wanted a children's play area they automatically looked to the council. "Now they just know the money's not there any more so if they want something they'll have to get it themselves," she says.

As the "tough love" meted out to the wheelie bin miscreant demonstrated, the council is trying to put across to residents that they must work with officials to merit scarce funds.

"Alley-gating" - closing off back alleys with iron gates to create private Space for residents - is now undertaken only if more than 90 per cent sign an agreement to keep the gates shut at all times.

However, the really hard work to Alter expectations is yet to come. John Norris, who as one of six Oldham "district co-ordinators" commands his own £105m budget, said: "The conversation that's got to be had now is: in reality, there are some things we won't be able to provide."

Mr McMahon is under no illusion about how long it will take to wean people from the idea of the council as provider. "The message we keep sending is - the days of dependency are over - but we are talking about an almost generational cultural change."

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