SPENDING THE GRANT

  I totally agree with Chronicle Comment (18 June) about the New Deal for the Communities steering group.

  Who are these people accountable to regarding where the £53 million is to be spent? As you stated, so-called experts' salaries and no doubt meeting expenses are being paid.

  Let's get it out in the open—where is the money being spent?

  Hathershaw and Ashton Road are a disgrace—Ashton Road is run down, dirty, and I am ashamed to say I live there.

  Let's start by knocking the lot down and rebuilding it all.

  People travelling to Oldham up Ashton Road will see a nice new community centre which will stick out like a sore thumb surrounded by run-down shops and boarded-up houses. Not a very good impression of Oldham, is it?

  I read with interest that grants totalling £4,234 were distributed to various groups. One of £875 to Holy Rosary School to transport young people to the art gallery. Come on, are they travelling by limousine?

  Let's get some of the £53 million spent on cleaning up the buildings on Ashton Road. I would move away tomorrow if I could sell my house but nobody will buy it. I wonder why?

Ashamed

NEW DEAL

  Who is deciding who gets how much out of New Deal for Communities money?

  A local school got £850 to go to Oldham Art Gallery for their end-of-year trip and a £500 donation from Oldham Art Gallery at a total cost of £1,350. Isn't the Gallery free?

  And according to the local NDC newsletter a voluntary group at Hathershaw Community Centre only gets £650, half of the cost for their trip to Camelot.

  Is this because the NDC board includes members who work for a school or because the board does not know what it is doing?

  Hathershaw Playgroup has appealed against the grant decision.

  Good Luck to them.

Bewildered

TREAT ALL THE SAME

  So, we will have zero tolerance on Fitton Hill with a round-the-clock crackdown on crime and anti-social behaviour.

  What about the same for Glodwick and Westwood areas where it seems that you can throw stones and bricks at cars but are unable to go there if you are of the wrong race for the fear of getting mugged, abused and spat on, or is it as we already suspect that the police treat these as virtual no-go areas?

  If we are going to have zero tolerance let's have it in every part of the town and not just selected areas.

2nd Class Citizen

SHOBNA NOT ONLY ONE

  Any kind of racial abuse is dreadful and totally abhorrent to law-abiding people of all colours. But racial abuse works both ways.

  Many white people of all ages have experienced abuse, but because of Shobna Gulati's high profile her incident (26 May) has been discussed on TV, made headlines in several newspapers and is being investigated by the police. Shobna says she has lead a sheltered life. My answer to that is "welcome to the world".

  In the past two weeks I have had two racially-motivated incidents against me, both of them involving young Asian men.

  The first was on Union Street. The car in front of me stopped at the traffic lights while they were on green. The driver then proceeded to get out of his car and let his passengers out.

  The whole junction was blocked. I sounded my horn and gestured to the green traffic lights. The man's response was to scream racial abuse at me, he then pulled his zip down and exposed himself.

  The second incident was last week. I was driving up Park Road when a gang of about eight Asian youths lined up on the kerb and spat on my car as I passed.

  This kind of thing is common in Oldham—small incidents carried out by a minority of Asian youths. They have a serious attitude problem, have no respect for anything or anyone and wander round the town in gangs. It's they who are racists and I for one am not afraid to say so.

  As for Shobna's comments about flying flags. May I say as an English person who has to stand by and watch helplessly as my Englishness is taken away from me, I am only too pleased to see the ordinary man in the street showing his patriotism.

  Since when has flying a flag been offensive? Dare I say some patriotism from the other side would not go amiss. People born in England are English.

  Shobna says she wants to be remembered as someone who challenged the status quo. Fine words, but she needs to see both sides of the picture and not just the view from her side of the fence.

  She should start by watching the video footage of the riots. I challenge her, or anyone else, to show evidence of a white person throwing a petrol bomb at the police.

  The riots were not race riots but a section of the community who, for whatever reason, decided to attack the police. Can anybody please tell me why they did this?

  As I understand it, the police were called in to defend the residents of Glodwick from Far-right groups. So why did they attack the police?

  Maybe Shobna could find out and then we can clear the air once and for all and get down to some serious racial harmony, because until someone has the guts to publicly say it as it is things will only get worse, no matter how much money is spent on trying to harmonise the town.

Flag Flyer

POLICING IS PRIORITY

  When New Deal for Communities (NDC) was first introduced, the priority agreed by all steering groups was the lack of law and order on Hathershaw and Fitton Hill.

  In the three years that NDC funding has been available the police presence has never reached the promised level of four officers and the existing local area policemen.

  It is only now that this manning level has been reached.

  This small force is not 24-hour policing but rather works from intelligence gathered.

  However, many residents have stated that they have personally called the police about crime being committed on the estate but they seem to be making very little inroads to prevent what is a growing problem and is making the lives of decent people intolerable.

  Many people will not report crime for fear of reprisal and many have stopped reporting crime as they feel that little is being done.

  Recently the Post Office on Fitton Hill was robbed. Several suspects were arrested but released on bail and allowed to return to the estate where they continue to terrorise residents.

  Many people on the estate now feel that the police should be applying zero tolerance until the problem with crime is resolved as normal policing methods seem to have little effect.

Ex-Members of Fitton Hill Tenants and Residents Association

HEART HELP

  I read with interest the report by Usma Raja (26 May) about Asian women flocking to the gym.

  A quote from Kevin Kipling, Food First project worker, stated that the death rate from coronary heart disease is three times the national average in the Hollinwood ward.

  The classes are for Asian women only in Freehold and Werneth.

  Isn't this like sending a fire engine to Fitton Hill when the house on fire is in Lees?

  Would someone please explain why I, as an indigenous female with a family history of coronary heart disease, who is suffering from high blood pressure and who lives in Hollinwood, cannot attend these classes.

  Am I being discriminated against? Surely not!

Equality