The Boundary Commission of England (BCoE) have put forward alternative proposals to the make-up of Oldham East & Saddleworth and Oldham West & Royton constituency boundaries. They claim that their proposal has “merit”, though not how they have determined this or what the "merit" is.

If accepted, Royton North and Royton South – currently part of Oldham West – would come under the Oldham East constituency which would in turn lose the Muslim dominated Alexandra and St Mary’s wards to Oldham West to a newly named Oldham constituency.

The BCoE’s report states: “This (change) would provide a more compact urban constituency to the west, which would contain a greater proportion of Oldham town centre, and a constituency to the east that would have a more suburban and moorland character. While our initial proposal is to retain the existing two constituencies unchanged, we would particularly welcome representations on this alternative.”

What the BCoE omit from their statement is that this new 'urban' constituency, currently represented by JIM McMAHON MP, will contain all the Muslim dominated wards of Oldham (Alexandra, Coldhurst, Medlock Vale, North Chadderton, St Mary's and Werneth) into one constituency.

In a racially divided town, where working class White communities are already marginalised and disenfranchised from the political process, such a change would be disastrous for democracy. This proposed change risks community cohesion, undermines democracy and would potentially further divide communities.

We, the undersigned people of Oldham, demand that the BCoE issue a statement confirming that this proposal will not go forward and their proposals to effectively create a Muslim constituency in Oldham will not proceed.