Neil Wilby Media

The Finance Lead for Labour-run Oldham Metropolitan Council has come under fire following the last Full Council meeting held earlier this month.

Cllr Abdul Jabbar (pictured above, standing), who represent the Coldhurst ward, was asked by the Mayor, chairing the meeting, to respond to a question from a member of the public about the extent of Council’s borrowing and the annual interest bill.

He now stands accused of misleading those present in the civic chamber and viewers of the Council’s live feed of the meeting.

The local Conservatives, who sit as the official Opposition on the Council, have launched a stinging attack over Cllr Jabbar’s answer to what they say was a straightforward question.

In a statement posted on their social media page, beneath a satirical image headed ‘Financial Mis-Management for Dummies’ they contend:

– Either Councillor Abdul Jabbar was misinformed or he decided he didn’t want to tell you the truth.

– The Finance Lead claimed Oldham had a total debt of over £160 million and a debt interest repayment of over £6 million.

– Except this isn’t the case is it? The actual figure, when you include total liabilities, is actually over £204 million, bringing it to a grand total of over £365 million.

– The total interest being a further £19 million plus the £6 million admitted by Cllr Jabbar coming to a grand total of £26 million in interest payments.

– The Council isn’t able to say what pays for what due to the age of some of this debt and worse it is a mixture of government credits propping up the Council and your council tax.

By way of balance, a former senior Labour councillor offered this view:

“Whilst not a Local Government finance expert, there are probably different figures you can quote which can each be justified e.g. borrowing for capital projects only etc. and these are differentiated based on how they would be paid back.

“Local authority borrowing is also VERY cheap as it has access to the Public Works Loan Board and can borrow over a very long term. Oldham will have 50 year loans taken out when interest was something like 2%, or less, so it’s not as big of a deal as is being made out by the Tories, even though they are big numbers.

‘There was a press report recently about councils with high levels of borrowing and the nearest one to Oldham geographically that was name-checked was Warrington. They hadn’t had their accounts audited for years.

“In contrast, Oldham always published its accounts very early and they were always audited and found to be ok. There has been a decline in Local Authorities publishing accounts on time in the last two years, however. Not sure if Oldham is one of those. The proportion that now don’t is very high”.

Cllr Jabbar has been offered right to reply to the criticisms made of him and Cllr Lewis Quigg, Conservative representative for Royton North has been asked to comment on the points put across by the former Labour councillor.

Cllrs Jabbar and Quigg have provided a number of entertaining cameos in the civic chamber, over the past two years or so, during clashes over the Council’s finances. This latest on-line spat appears to be a continuation of that double act.

Oldham Labour has earned notoriety during that same period as running a ‘cover-up’ or ‘bandit’ Council on account of its opacity and persistent law-breaking (read more here). Their number of seats has dwindled from 45 to 32 since May, 2021. They are widely expected, under the present inept leadership, to lose control of the Council at next May’s local elections.

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Page last updated: Monday 13th September, 2023 at 20h45

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Picture credit: Oldham Conservatives

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