Neil Wilby Media

A controversial council leader, described as ‘the worst in living memory’ by a senior Labour Party contemporary, is facing yet another challenge to her disastrous tenure in charge of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council.

An Opposition Motion put down by Conservative councillor, Lewis Quigg, himself a highly controversial political figure (read more here), and seconded by his Group Leader, the much more popular and benign Cllr Graham Sheldon, sets out in considerable detail, and not a little writing skill, just a selection of Cllr Arooj Shah‘s failures as Leader. It is well worth reading:

“In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Marcellus states that “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” and sadly following the closure of the Oldham’s Coliseum Theatre by this Council, these words echo across the empty stage and stalls as a warning to this Borough’s Leader. For instead of Denmark, the people of this town believe “Something is rotten in Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council”.

“Driven by the next press release or online video, Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (OMBC) and this Labour administration continues in its quest for the ‘Game Changing’ Holy Grail that will fix the town’s decline. The numerous town centre focused projects that go over budget; such as the thirty two million pound overspend on the Cinema, the failed Hotel Future and Conference Centre that was never built, two Coliseum theatre plans that were scrapped and that led to the closure of the 140 year old Coliseum theatre, Marks and Spencer’s, a ‘Budget’ Hotel at Princes’ Gate scrapped, and the Council even failing to deliver a Lidl. Countless opportunities missed, thousands of promised jobs failing to materialise and a Borough back to square one and in a worse position.

“Undeterred the Council even went and bought a shopping centre in the middle of pandemic, spending millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money, which has now resulted in conflicting messaging coming from this administration that the Council is on the brink, with headlines stating, “Our councils haven’t declared bankruptcy yet… but that doesn’t mean the situation isn’t dire”, can only leave residents in this Borough feeling fearful.

“The failure of OMBC to deliver the best possible services that many residents rely on and pay for, is one of the key reasons why this administration is failing this Borough. The administration is failing to get the basics right. Most egregious was the improvement notice issued by the Department for Education following on from an inspection which found OMBC was failing our towns Special Educational Needs and Disabilities [SEND] children (read more here).

“To assets being sold off, seeing little or no return on their true value to the people of this Borough. It is important to state that it is not the hard-working frontline staff that are to blame. They have been dealt a bad hand. It is the lack of leadership and responsibility at the top.

“There is an iron law at the top of OMBC; which is that the Council is run in the interests of those who run it, instead of those who pay for it.

“The bunker mentality that exists within the administration and leadership of OMBC is damaging this Borough. The failure by the administration to attract the right investment and failure to deliver on existing projects is damaging the prospects of our Borough. The failure to attract the right talent starts and ends with those at the top, with the buck stopping firmly at the Leader of OMBC’s door.

“After doing the hokey-cokey of staying and then going, the now part time Chief Executive [Harry Catherall] has the unenviable task trying to resolve the administrations mess. After spending unknown amounts on consultants to try and find the right candidate for the post of Chief Executive, OMBC shamefully couldn’t find a new full time Chief Executive. It is no wonder there is a torrent of senior officers leaving the Council before the last person to leave the Civic Centre turns out the lights.

“In 2012 Oldham Council was runner up in the prestigious most improved council award and in 2014 Oldham was ‘highly commended’ at the LGA Council of the Year Awards. Since that high water mark things have gone very wrong. It is clear radical measures need to be taken to restore the confidence of our residents, our business community, and OMBC workforce. Now more than ever we need to restore trust in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham.

“If Oldham is to have any chance of rebuilding residents trust, incentivising people to stay or move into the area with their families, then there needs to be massive change at OMBC. The Council needs to offer hope for the future. Sadly, this administration under the Leadership of Arooj Shah is not capable of delivering this.”

The motion concludes with the conventional call to action:

“This Council therefore resolves to:

• To write to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to request a full audit of the Council’s governance and finances.

“This Council also resolves that it:

Has NO confidence in the Labour Council Leader Arooj Shah and Labour administration to run OMBC.”

Although dressed up, in parts at least, with Cllr Quigg’s routinely flowery rhetoric, he does make, or allude to, some very strong points which resonate with many articles already published elsewhere on this Neil Wilby Media website. Notably:

 – Arooj Shah’s self-obsession, and consequent misuse of scarce and precious council resources in setting what is strongly believed to be a new world record for published photographs and videos of a council leader in a single year, is counter-productive and, with her display of a vast range of designer clothes (and expensive shoes) damaging to a Borough identified as one of the most deprived in the country: Around a third of the children go hungry and fuel poverty is rampant. 

 – The council’s grotesque financial mismanagement, over the past two decades at least, has been well-rehearsed elsewhere. The increasingly likely consequences of which are the potential Oldham Council bankruptcy to which the motion alludes (read more here).

 – Cllr Shah, and her Cabinet, has either completely misjudged the mood of the town’s residents, and the wider theatre and contemporary arts community, over the decision to close the Coliseum on what increasingly look like spurious grounds, or are simply prepared to ride roughshod over their well-grounded concerns. The resilience and resourcefulness of the campaigners, not least local activist, Jane Barker, whose use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to attempt to get at least part of the truth behind what is now a familiar ‘cover-up’ has been exemplary, but met with obstruction, obfuscation (see here) and the familiar Oldham Council FOIA lawbreaking (read more here). 

 – Cllr Quigg also highlights the ducking of any form of responsibility by the Labour administration. It is always the fault of someone else, never them – and, in Cllr Shah, they have a renowned expert leading them in how to dodge out of sight at that first sign of controversy or trouble.

 – Also given full measure by the Tories is the Machiavellian and labyrinthine dealings with senior paid officers. Akin to a Black Mirror episode where they appear hypnotised, or their thoughts and senses so paralysed that they will deny what they see and hear or ignore plain facts and hard evidence. Not to mention naked self-interest and their seeming sense of invincibility.

There are also substantial omissions, probably not through lack of knowledge or enthusiasm but very likely mindful of the time allocated under the council’s constitution to hear such motions, some of which are summarised here:

 – Cllr Shah holds the unusual distinction of being twice rejected at the ballot box as a serving councillor (in 2016 and 2022). She regained the position of Council Leader in May, 2023 and Oldham is now seen only as a stepping stone as she avidly courts favour with Party grandees to further her ambitions of holding high office in national politics, preferably elevation to the House of Lords. 

 – A media strategy (read here) that has, quite properly, made Oldham Council a laughing stock and resulted, at least in part, in the impending and welcome departure of the Head of Communications and Strategy, Jeni Harvey. The strategy’s co-author, and Mrs Harvey’s line manager, Shelley Kipling, would be also on her way in any other well-run authority but, for the moment at least, survives as assistant chief executive only through, it seems, the patronage of Cllr Shah.

 – A culture of instinctive deceit and cover-up, highlighted by one very recent example: Firstly, the very same Mrs Harvey, and then Harry Catherall, lying about the mass exodus of senior staff at their Council. A thoroughly shameful episode that can be read about in full here. Cllr Shah, when confronted with the untruths, declined to comment.

 – Upon their own admission, out of control Oldham Council breaks the law at least once every working day, just in the area of information rights (read more here). A full investigation across all business area is likely to reveal significantly more. Again, Cllr Shah is in denial and, instead of addressing the misconduct and making redress to those affected, sends out her senior officers to vex, annoy harass and smear the journalist exposing the wrongdoing.

 – The civic chamber in Oldham is now referred to as ‘The Theatre of Nightmares’, a play on the name of the stadium at which a well-known football team plays on the other side of Manchester. Every meeting of the council now features public disorder, in one form or another, as frustrated members of the public seek to air their grievances from the galleries. Cllr Shah’s answer to that problem is to either prevent them getting in at all or, if they do, forcibly eject them causing injury.

– The recent recruitment of Cllr Shah’s close friend and former independent Member, Cllr Aftab Hussain, to the Labour ranks (read more here). Not least, as Aftab is a vocal anti-LGBQT campaigner. A move that left a number of other Labour councillors stunned and disappointed. Not least the Secretary of the Oldham Labour Group, Cllr Josh Charters, with his self-declared ‘dedication to human rights’ and having a transgender partner, fellow Labour activist Meg Birchall.

 – Cllr Shah’s repeated and disastrous failures as Equality Lead for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (read more here), including non-attendance at the three day Oldham Pride celebration last year, leave what is left of her credibility shredded.

 – The perennial poor judgement of Cllr Shah in her choice of supporters, and whom she supports politically, is the stuff of legend in the local, regional and national press and, of course, in the darker corners of the local social media channels. Her latest gaffe was to back another close friend, the now disgraced and suspended Azhar Ali, who managed to snatch a heavy, humiliating defeat from what should have been a Labour Party victory stroll in the recent Rochdale by-election (read more here).

It is right to point out, as doubtless the Leader of the Council will, that, under the Oldham Council constitution, the no-confidence vote is not binding either upon her, or the Council.

But, what is debated next Wednesday in the civic chamber (13th March, 2024) may well encourage the growing number of elected Labour Members presently, and seriously, dissatisfied with Cllr Shah’s leadership (or lack thereof) to be more open with their criticisms and force a Kirklees Council-style Extraordinary General Meeting to be called to remove her.

Her friend and political ally, Cllr Shabir Pandor, was forced to resign as leader of that neighbouring council before such an EGM actually took place in July 2023. Loss of confidence in his ability to lead effectively, together with integrity concerns (which Cllr Pandor refuted), were at the heart of that controversy.

Remarkably, Keir Starmer has entrusted Arooj Shah as Chair of the Labour Party’s National Constitutional Committee responsible for disciplining errant members. Every other post holder on that committee, and, indeed, ‘Sir Kid Starver’, as one media wag dubbed him, really needs to look inward and question very seriously how, given her appalling and growing track record of ethical and professional failings, and a substantial integrity deficit, the Oldham Council Leader can sit in judgement of others.

Another ‘looking inward’ session takes place next Monday (11th March, 2023) as Cllr Shah will urge her councillor colleagues at a meeting of the Oldham Labour Group to fend off the no-confidence motion. That might not now be as straightforward as it might have been just a few days ago. 

Both Cllr Shah and the Oldham Labour Group were offered right of reply. The emails carrying the invitations were not acknowledged.

Page last updated Thursday 7th March 2024 at 0055 hours

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