Tory councillor reports under-siege Interim Borough Solicitor to police alleging misconduct in public office

Two exclusives published on this Neil Wilby Media website have now grown into an even bigger story. On Monday (14th October, 2024) it was reported that a Conservative Member, Cllr Lewis Quigg (Royton North and pictured above, standing) sitting on the permanently troubled Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, had written to the Mayor of Oldham requesting…

Neil Wilby

October 17, 2024

4–6 minutes

Alex Bougatef, Arooj Shah, community, Dr Zahid Chauhan OBE, Greater Manchester Police, Harry Catherall, Lewis Quigg, Local news, local-government, Neil Wilby, Neil Wilby Journalist, Neil Wilby Media, news, Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, Paul Entwistle, politics, Rotten Borough

Two exclusives published on this Neil Wilby Media website have now grown into an even bigger story.

On Monday (14th October, 2024) it was reported that a Conservative Member, Cllr Lewis Quigg (Royton North and pictured above, standing) sitting on the permanently troubled Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, had written to the Mayor of Oldham requesting an Extraordinary General Meeting at which a motion that, essentially, expressed no confidence in the Council’s chief executive, Harry Catherall, would be debated and voted upon (read more here).

Penetrating the official wall of silence on the issue, it was gleaned from Civic Centre sources that the Mayor (and Chair of all Full Council meetings), Dr Zahid Chauhan OBE, had approved the calling of the Extraordinary Meeting and Cllr Quigg’s motion, but the Council Leader, Cllr Arooj Shah, Harry Catherall and Alex Bougatef, the newly appointed Interim Borough Solicitor then intervened with a mission of finding any way possible to prevent the Quigg motion being placed on the Agenda for the meeting which is now listed for 24th October, 2024.

The published Agenda, as it stands, only includes the planned consideration of a report from the Appointments committee that concerns new working arrangements for Harry Catherall and a proposed secondment to neighbouring Tameside Council.

There has been a fierce debate between Lewis Quigg and Alex Bougatef, over the latter’s refusal to place the former’s motion on the Agenda, which is best summarised by a statement put out by the Oldham Conservatives two days ago:

“A ROTTEN BOROUGH – IMPORTANT STATEMENT.

“Yesterday evening the Interim Borough Solicitor struck down our request for a motion which enacted an extraordinary Oldham Council meeting. He has wrongly stripped the motion from the meeting we requested and issued summons which are improper and incorrect.

“MR ALEXANDER BOUGATEF, who is the Interim Borough Solicitor said: “In relation to your motion, under 12.2 of the Council Procedure Rules it states, “Every motion will be relevant to some matter over which the Council has an influence”.

“Mr Bougatef is incorrect. This is because of the following (Part 4a):

1. A failure to enact a legal summons by the Mayor dated 12th October 2024, under rule 3, 3.1,C and 3.2 of the constitution.

2. A failure to issue the summons and failure to communicate the motion that enacted the summons under 3.2.

3. That the summons has no report to consider as it simply does not exist. Which is is contravention of rule 3.2.

4. The meeting had to be called with a motion under Section 4A, rule 3, 3.1, C. rule 3.2. The motion existed when submitted in order to enact the meeting. The appointments committee hasn’t even met yet and the report does not exist to call the meeting.

5. The meeting was not called because of a report. There is no report to consider from five Councillors who submitted the official request.

6. We are well aware that a vote of confidence would not remove the Chief Executive. So Mr Bougatefs deliberate misuse of this request to strike the motion is incorrect. Indeed, the vote would only be enacted if the motion was passed by a vote. The confidence vote would have been indicative as there was no request for removal from post should the vote have been ‘no confidence in the chief executive’.

“As such we have taken the unprecedented decision to report this to the authorities for investigation. We believe the failure to properly enact the summons which was a prerequisite of a motion being submitted, is improper and unconstitutional.

“Mr Bougatef has deliberately acted to avoid setting out his reasoning and response to clarification and clear evidence to the contrary. He has in our eyes acted improper.

“Vox Populi-Vox Dei!”

It emerged yesterday (16th October, 2024) that one of the authorities to whom the Interim Borough Solicitor has been reported is Greater Manchester Police, whom has received an allegation of misconduct in public office against him. There is also a call for the lawyer to be suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

On that same day, Alex Bougatef was made the subject of a rather lesser complaint, albeit serious enough of itself, by the author of this article, Neil Wilby, over misrepresenting his job function on the social media site, LinkedIn (read more here). A call for his suspension was also made (read the full article here).

There are now serious rumblings of discontent both amongst councillors and the wider public about how Alex Bougatef came to be gifted the post without, apparently, any recruitment process carried out. Despite the fact that it was widely known, for almost a year, that his perennially disgraced predecessor, Paul Entwistle, was leaving Oldham Council.

A statement has been requested from the Leader of the Council.

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

Page last updated: Thursday 17th September, 2024 at 0845 hours

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One response to “Tory councillor reports under-siege Interim Borough Solicitor to police alleging misconduct in public office”

Arooj stooge takes top job in Oldham re-shuffle – Neil Wilby Media

October 22, 2024 at 10:29 am

[…] Harry Catherall, to be seconded to neighbouring Tameside Council was voted through (read more here). He will be present for one day each week at Oldham fulfilling his principal role as […]

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