Oldham Council declares it is breaking the law

Despite emergency steps being taken to keep services running, the local authority is in a state of ‘paralysis’

Oldham Council has officially declared it is breaking the law amid warnings of ‘significant’ costs that could be passed onto taxpayers.

After more than two months with no one in charge, the local authority is still in limbo with officers continuing to use emergency powers just to keep services running. Key political decisions cannot be made and multiple meetings have been cancelled.

Despite Reform gains, the recent local elections in May left no party with a majority or even a third of seats in the council chamber. Four times councillors have met to vote on a leader but the last meeting on July 15 saw no one break through the stalemate.

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The deadlock has not shifted in recent weeks with all parties accusing each other of being the reason talks have failed and arguing that they are the only way forward. Reform have since said they are done with talks and declared it is time to move on.

At the beginning of July, the council’s top legal boss Alex Bougatef warned the local authority was close to acting unlawfully. He has now declared this is the case setting in process that could see outside intervention if no solution is found.

An Oldham Council spokesperson said: “On Friday July 31, Oldham Council issued a formal Section 5 report to all 60 elected councillors. This report sets out that as the council has no leader or cabinet, the council is therefore acting unlawfully. Councillors now have 21 days to consider the implications.

“Within those 21 days, there will be an extraordinary council meeting for councillors to meet and once again attempt to elect a leader and cabinet – this is a legal requirement. If they are unable to come to an agreement at that point, the council will write to the government for them to consider next steps.”

The report from Mr Bougatef, which has been shared with the Manchester Evening News, said councillors needed to ‘acknowledge the continuing governance failure arising from the inability to appoint a leader’ and ‘take all reasonable steps to secure the appointment’. The report aims to prevent government intervention by forcing a discussion of the issues in public ‘before the position deteriorates further’.

He added: “The monitoring officer’s conclusion is that the issue has progressed beyond ordinary political disagreement and now raises questions concerning constitutional compliance, effectiveness of governance, accountability, executive decision making and public confidence.”

Because of government changes, there is no option for the local authority to move away from its current structure of having a leader and a cabinet. While officers have still been running council services, Mr Bougatef said: “Officer delegations are designed to only be an emergency bridge, not a legally sustainable substitute for executive democracy.”

In the report, he said the current situation has meant the council did not have ‘clear political direction’ and was currently in ‘prolonged institutional paralysis’. He added this ‘prolonged absence of political leadership creates uncertainty both internally and externally’.

Under law, the council has a legal duty to have an elected member in charge of children’s services but the current situation means having no person at the helm is unlawful. Mr Bougatef said the current situation was putting the council at risk of outside intervention.

In the report, he added: “There are no direct financial implications arising from the act of issuing the report itself, however the financial risks for the council should commissioners ultimately be sent to Oldham are significant.

“Based on previous instances where commissioners have been sent to local authorities, it is likely there would be a need for multiple commissioners. This cost is not currently budgeted for and would need to be.”

As councils have to balance their books, this money would need to be found through savings, service cuts, or council tax rises. If no leader is appointed at a meeting in August, officers will be required to notify the government.