Neil Wilby Media

As a journalist colleague sagely observed earlier this week, reflecting on his many years and millions of newspaper and on-line words relentlessly exposing the monumental shortcomings of Kirklees Council, there comes a saturation point where readers simply become inured to the criminality, law breaking, misfeasance, opacity, lying, cheating and plain stupidity of too many politicians and senior public officers.

Local authority in England is, too often, tainted and inadequate from top down: For many years, the satirical magazine, Private Eye, has run a section headed ‘Rotten Boroughs’. They are never short of material.

Senior paid officers appear not to care about anything other than their huge salaries and that leads to almost everyone else not caring too: Which manifests itself in lack of pride and drive within their organisations. Bad ethos, bad atmosphere and bad attitudes. Phones not picked up, emails not answered, problems and questions left hanging. To the outsider looking in, it’s already spiralled out of control. Not helped in any way by the hordes hooked on working from home, which should be outlawed in any public-facing service (read more here).

As the two journalists went their separate ways, on the concourse of Leeds City station, a forlorn figure close by was seen, propitiously, holding a sign not seen quite as often these days as in the nuclear arms race past: ‘The end is nigh’ (for privacy and data rights reasons the image is AI generated, not the real person).

In a maelstrom of delayed and cancelled trains, and an onward appointment to meet, there wasn’t time to ask if she had any specific information concerning the likely or imminent demise of either Kirklees (one of a growing number of Labour-run councils desperately trying to stave off effective bankruptcy and picking up the pieces from a Leader rsigning to avoid disgrace) or Oldham Council (forced to change their Leader annually since 2021 and with debts approaching £700 million) in their race to the bottom. Or, indeed, the life and career prospects of the author of this article, Neil Wilby. 

But the residual question from the earlier meeting of journalist minds remains: Have we now both arrived at that same destination in reporting on the tragi-comedy/soap opera/crime thriller (add/delete as required) that is Kirklees and Oldham Councils?

With regard to the latter, an article could be written by Neil Wilby Media almost every single working day on a local authority described regularly, on-line, as ‘the most corrupt in the country’,  a ‘bandit council’, or a ‘cover-up council’. The first turn of phrase is, of course, merely arguable, and difficult to measure, but there is more than ample solid data available to underpin the second and third (read more here).

One network broadcaster, GB News, describes the Borough, and those running it, as ‘Odious Oldham’. Without the London-based channel being too adjacent to the den of skulduggery and two-faced gittery that is the Civic Centre. Populated, as it is, by the plodders, time-servers, lifers and the dull or incompetent (in some cases, both) whom no-one can quite understand how these apparatchiks became department heads or executive management. Almost all surviving under a long-term Labour administration that provides approximately zero political oversight. 

Whereas, conversely and perversely, almost every officer and councillor within thinks they are doing a great job – and deeply resent any criticism or holding to account. Particularly, the present and self-adoring Leader of Oldham Council, with her ever-ready and seemingly boundless supply of shiny baubles to keep the reluctant or recalcitrant on-side and an innovative media strategy to head off or stonewall awkward questions (read more here).

Cllr Arooj Shah, for it is she, even managed a minor miracle when embarking on a limited cull of senior officers during her first term as Leader in 2021/22 and, incredibly, ended up with an even worse cabal now running her Council.

There is significant optimism that her second term, 2023/24, will be her last. Marked by a bold attempt at the world record for the number of selfies and photo shoots for a Council Leader in a single municipal year. She is well into three figures, already.

Against that background, the primary questions now for Neil Wilby Media are ones of maintaining the attention of existing readers and followers – and capturing that of a new and widening audience. Subsidiary issues are resources and proportionality. 

There are, presently, five Oldham Council news articles written or part-written, all exclusive to Neil Wilby Media, and they will appear during the course of the next two weeks or so.

What happens after that, with the Christmas and New Year break approaching, is very much open to conjecture. Provisionally, it feels like the reporting of the run up to, and the aftermath from, the local elections in May 2024, together with any criminal, civil or regulatory proceedings that arise, will be an appropriate point to bow out.

Follow Neil Wilby on Twitter (here) and Neil Wilby Media on Facebook (here) for signposts to any updates.

Page last updated: Sunday 3rd Deecember, 2023 at 1025 hours

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