Neil Wilby Media

A bandit council has plumbed new depths in its attempts to duck any form of journalistic scrutiny and, of course, accountability to the taxpayers that fund both its sixty councillors and a senior paid officer cabal with their astronomical price tags.

Failing Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, known locally, regionally and nationally for its ineptitude, inefficiency, instinctive deceit, industrial scale law-breaking and persistent covering-up of wrongdoing, has stonewalled Neil Wilby Media when asked to explain why some of its worst excesses have never seen the light of day, except on this website.

This email was sent to the Council’s press office very early on Wednesday 27th December, 2023:

“May I request a statement from Cllr Jabbar with regard to the below article:

https://neilwilby.com/2023/12/25/bandit-council-defies-cabinet-office-in-latest-cover-up/

“It is anticipated that the statement will cover the following:

“1. Why Oldham Council places itself above the Cabinet Office, Parliament and the King.

“2. What political oversight is provided in respect of two Departments (Information Management and Legal Services) that breaks the law at least once every working day (see below article):

https://neilwilby.com/2023/11/08/bandit-council-defies-parliament-almost-every-working-day/

“3. Why this grotesque level of law-breaking has never been brought before either the OMBC Cabinet or Full Council.

“4. Since the article at para 2 above was published on 8th November, 2023

(i) How many OMBC officers are facing disciplinary action as a result of the disclosures within it?

(ii) How many elected Members are facing Standards complaints ditto.

(iii) What steps have been taken to remedy the situation?

“A response by 4pm on Friday 29th December, 2023 would be welcome. The follow-up article is scheduled to go out on 31st December, 2023.

“The Head of Legal Services is also offered right of reply and is copied into this email.”

In publishing terms, a deadline three full working days hence would be regarded as generous, especially as the press request is concisely framed and should require little effort to respond.

It may surprise readers to know, therefore, that, given the grave public interest concerns within it, the email was not even given the courtesy of acknowledgement by the Council’s press office. No ‘decline to comment’. Nothing. Except yet another Oldham Council cover-up and a continuation of the long-running campaign to vex, annoy and harass a journalist holding them to account (read more here).

That surprise, however, was not shared by Neil Wilby, the author of the email and this article, whom, with ample documentary evidence, regularly describes that press office, both elsewhere on this website and on social media, as one of the worst in the country in his very considerable experience.

An uncomfortably large number of requests go unacknowledged or unanswered, with the remarkably low ethical and professional bar actually being set, all too regularly, by their most senior press officer, Jeni Harvey. Deploying an overarching media strategy (read here) that uncomfortably mirrors that of South Yorkshire Police, where she worked for a spell under disgraced chief constable, David Crompton. With whom Neil Wilby crossed swords many times during his calamitous spell in the top job in Sheffield and, before that, at West Yorkshire Police (read more here). 

Moreover, the next time Cllr Jabbar responds to a request for a statement from Neil Wilby Media will be the first. Still describing himself as Deputy Leader on Twitter (or ‘X’ as it is now known), despite being deposed in May, 2023, he is one of a group of time-servers on the Council, and in the Cabinet, that has overseen this local authority descend into utter chaos: Full Council meetings reduced to ugly farces, its reputation shredded and fleecing the hard-pressed taxpayers with some of the highest charges in the country. Brought about, to a significant extent, by the absence of political oversight highlighted in this article.

Cllr Jabbar is the portfolio holder for both the departments at the centre of this controversy, Information Management and Legal Services. He represents the Coldhurst ward on the Council which is, essentially, run from Oldham Central Masjid and Islamic Centre.

The time for him and his ilk to clear off, and make way for some new blood that actually cares about what happens in Oldham, is long past. 

Another long-server, the Head of Legal Services, Paul Entwistle, who also has the title of Borough Solicitor, is another to have kept an unblemished record in declining to respond to press requests or rights of reply. Thankfully, he is soon to be on his way out of the Civic Centre door (read more here). 

Hopefully, he is not the only miscreant officer to be helped on their way by public interest reporting.

Cllr Jabbar and Mrs Harvey were both been offered right of reply via the Council’s press office. The email carrying that invitation did not even receive the professional courtesy of an acknowledgement.

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

Page last updated: Tuesday 2nd January, 2024 at 1725 hours

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