Council Leader hits back at Opposition ‘smears’

Following a story first broken by Neil Wilby Media earlier today (read in full here), Cllr Amanda Chadderton, Leader of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, has hit back at critics of her Labour Party colleague, Cllr Zahid Chauhan MBE, who alleged that he had breached the Council’s Standards by not declaring a conflict of interest over a contract to provide COVID-19 swabbing.

Cllr Chadderton says:

“This is a complete non-story, Zahid declared his conflict of interest and was not involved in any decision making relating to payments made to Bardoc Ltd.

“Zahid took legal advice on his declarations and was informed that his declarations were correct. The Lib Dems know this as they have been informed by the Chief Executive already.

“At the height of the pandemic Bardoc was providing vital community testing services to the public as we dealt with Omnicron spikes and Zahid himself led the way in ensuring communities often left behind by health services received appropriate attention. Including making sure vaccines were available to homeless people.

“It is also relevant to point out that Bardoc is a not for profit organisation and operates as a social enterprise.

“This appears to be part of a concerted smear campaign against a well respected local GP who happens to be involved in local politics. I’m surprised the Lib Dems have opted to use the local Conservative and Independents playbook and start conspiracy theories. We have seen how other local politicians have been targeted in the same way, it debases the political discourse in Oldham and the town deserves better than this”.

The Liberal Democrat Leader, Cllr Howard Sykes MBE, has been approached for a response to Cllr Chadderton’s statement.

Following a request for a statement to their press office, a spokesperson for Oldham Council added:

“Bardoc was contracted by Oldham Council to provide vital community testing to support us during the Covid 19 pandemic. That contract was approved in March 2021 for twelve months and extended for a further twelve months in February 2022.

“The Council is satisfied that both at the point that decisions were made around the original contract and at the point the contract was extended Dr Chauhan declared his interest as an employee of Bardoc and removed himself from the decision-making process.”

Page last updated Wednesday 16th November, 2022 at 1440hrs

Thank you for reading and a polite request: If you wish to make a contribution to the running costs of this website it would be very much appreciated. Donations can made securely, via PayPal at this link.

Corrections: Please let me know if there is a mistake in this article. I will endeavour to correct it as soon as possible.

Picture credits: Oldham Council

Right of reply: If you are mentioned in this article and disagree with it, please let me have your comments. Provided your response is not defamatory it will be added to the article.

© Neil Wilby 2015-2022. Unauthorised use, or reproduction, of the material contained in this article, without permission from the author, is strictly prohibited. Extracts from, and links to, the article (or blog) may be used, provided that credit is given to Neil Wilby Media, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.