Annual Report 2023-24
From strengthening collaborative working with local partners to help reduce anti-social behaviour and supporting community and voluntary groups, to enhancing the appearance of neighbourhoods with a variety of initiatives, our team has continued to achieve the best for our neighbourhoods.
Our performance snapshot this year…
Community funding
FCHO Community Development grants awarded to community groups across Oldham
Community partners
Community partners supported to apply for external funding
Community funding
External grant funding secured for community projects
Voluntary and community groups
Voluntary and community groups supported
Thriving communities
Rich programme of activities established at six community centres
Waste management
Tonnes of waste removed from FCHO neighbourhoods
Community engagement
Engaged with schools and community on recycling and litter reduction
Tackling antisocial behaviour
Antisocial behaviour (ASB) cases investigated
Tackling antisocial behaviour
Of ASB cases responded to within target timeframes
Partnership working
Strengthened collaborative working to tackle ASB with local agencies including Greater Manchester Police and Oldham Council
Facilities
Opened Neighbourhood Place depot providing centrally located facilities from which we can continue delivering great neighbourhood services
Boosting biodiversity
53 New trees planted
1, 505 Square metres of wildflower meadows maintained
10,322 Square metres of natural meadows maintained
1,230 Square metres of native bulbs planted
Spotlight on Great Neighbourhoods: Tree planting with City of Trees
This year we have planted more than 50 native trees in green spaces across five FCHO neighbourhoods as part of our work to help make your neighbourhoods great places to live now and in the future and help the environment.
We know that improving green spaces is important to our customers and we have worked with City of Trees, the community forest charity for the Greater Manchester area, to identify locations where we can increase the number of trees and variety of species in our communities.
Across Alt, Chadderton, Failsworth, Heyside and Delph we have planted a range of tree types including flowering cherry, golden maple, whitebeam and Himalayan birch that will bring beautiful colour and interest year round.
We have also installed a watering system with each tree to help keep it healthy and strong, especially during the drier summer months.
We are fortunate to have a rich tree stock across FCHO neighbourhoods and trees bring lots of benefits to our borough and beyond - enhancing the appearance of neighbourhoods; improving air quality; as well as supporting wellbeing, helping people connect with nature and providing important habitats for wildlife.
The new additions mean our tree stock will remain heathy and resilient for generations to come and it helps us go even further with our commitment to the environment in our Sustainability Strategy and Big Plan.
Looking ahead to next year, we have submitted a funding request for 76 further trees to the value of £45,000, to plant across five additional areas to help make our neighbourhoods even greener.
We are on a journey to being a net zero organisation by 2030 and as well as boosting biodiversity we are working on increasing the energy efficiency of our homes to help customers save energy and money; building good quality, energy efficient and low carbon new homes; finding greener ways of working across all our operations and reducing the amount of waste we produce and increasing how much we recycle.
As Oldham’s biggest provider of social housing and we have a unique opportunity to help the borough be the greenest in Greater Manchester and we look forward to the benefits our new trees will deliver to our customers, the borough and the planet.
