Oldham Council Annual Meeting Reconvened And No Progress Made

For the third time since the election in May, Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council met under the banner of its annual meeting to nominate, elect and appoint a deputy mayor, leader, deputy leader and a multitude of cabinet members. None of this happened.

The first sitting of the annual meeting was on 20 May, and that meeting failed to agree on a mayor. Without such an appointment the meeting could not proceed since the appointment of a chair, the role of the mayor, is a legal requirement under The Local Government Act 1972.

On 15 June, the meeting was reconvened after parties had nominated prospective mayors, each of whom failed to obtain enough votes to take on the mayoral chains. Councillor Pam Byrne of the Conservative Party nominated herself and was immediately seconded by Mark Wilkinson of Reform UK. At last Oldham had a mayor.

At that point the business of Oldham Council came to an end with all debates on appointments deferred to a later date on the grounds that no party held or could gather enough votes to form a political administration.

That later date was today, 1 July, when once again after several nominations from multiple parties, the council could not agree on a deputy mayor who was acceptable to the whole council.

And so, the pattern of the evening was established with the next agenda item being the appointment of a leader.

Reform UK nominated Councillor Quigg - motion failed. Labour nominated Arooj Shah, and that motion failed too. As did nominations for Councillors Ghafoor, Kenyon and Akthar. Debate on this role was deferred to 15 July.

As a result, all other agenda items were effectively null and void with every position being deferred to the next meeting.

The scheduled meeting was due to be the first full council meeting with the leader and cabinet members reporting back to a public meeting about the progress or otherwise of the Council on their portfolios including adult care, young people, education and many others, but the next meeting will be focused upon all the items deferred from today’s meeting.

It should be the first meeting where the leadership and the Council are scrutinised, and each party or member can propose motions that would have an impact upon the quality of life in the borough. None of these things are going to happen.

What does this mean for Oldham?

In the short term, Oldham will function under the leadership of the Chief Executive, Shelly Kipling and her senior management team. The budget for this political and financial year is set, so for the people of Oldham it will be service as normal for the time being.

In the longer term, the future is somewhat less certain.