Councillor Neil Butterworth tells Rochdale Boroughwide Housing to clean up its act

Councillor Neil Butterworth at Oak Street

Councillor Neil Butterworth has told Rochdale Boroughwide Housing to clean up its act after listening to complaints from local residents.

They had contacted him after being stonewalled by officers on who was responsible for clearing the mess in the Oak Street area.

Councillor Butterworth said: “I think they’d had enough of being given the run around and wanted to see some action. As a senior councillor on the ruling Labour group, I knew I would be able to, not only find out what was going on, but more importantly who was responsible and when they were going to take action.”

The Milnrow and Newhey councillor first contacted the council’s own Clean and Green team, only to be told their hands were tied because the land in question was owned by RBH.

Councillor Butterworth added: “I am still waiting for RBH to get back to me.”

“Local residents contact me all the time about issues like this. When the land is council-owned I can simply contact the Clean and Green team to get it sorted; it becomes more problematic when an outside agency’s involved.”

“That said, it won’t stop me fighting for our local community until the problem has been resolved to their satisfaction.” 

A spokesman for RBH said: "On Tuesday 19th September, we were informed by Rochdale Council that land owned by RBH at Oak Street in Newhey was in need of tidying.

"This job was allocated to our caretaking and grounds maintenance team, and on Wednesday 20th September our team removed the litter and cut the grass. We were pleased to be able to resolve the issue within 24 hours. We will always seek to respond to concerns expressed by residents as quickly as possible.

"We are also aware of some missing paving flags on an RBH-owned path near to Newhey Primary School. This work has already been allocated to a local contractor and will be completed in the near future.

"Residents can report any issues to RBH using our freephone number 0800 027 7769."

RBH has been invited to comment.