A SADDLEWORTH Councillor has branded Oldham representatives’ failure to work together and break the leadership deadlock is “the definition of madness”.
Government commissioners are now set to be called in after an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, August 20 failed to select a new head, despite several plans.
And Saddleworth West and Lees’ Cllr Sam Al-Hamdani did not hold back at how the authority lie now.
The Liberal Democrat said: “I joined this council just under eight years ago, and it was a very different environment to the one it is now,” he said.
“There’s been, both inside and outside the council, bullying, abusive behaviour, hostility that was unwarranted, unfair aggression, and overall an approach which has seen politics in Oldham deteriorate to the point at which it is now where we are in this deadlock.
“We’ve deteriorated so much over these few years by people refusing to listen, people only accepting their view as the correct one.
“If we carry on the same route of smaller and smaller minority administrations and not cooperating with each other, this is only going to get worse, and it’s bad enough as it is.
“The only way to change that is to break that way of working, and that means not doing the same thing again. That would be the definition of madness.”
The disarray began with the May elections, which saw Reform UK’s group leap to 16 members as Labour and The Oldham Group were left at 18 and 10.
Without a strong majority, the three parties failed to agree on how to lead, despite repeated meetings to resolve the issue since.
The meeting was called after Oldham Council’s legal officer Alex Bougatef said he would be forced to declare that the council was breaking the law, remarking that the lack of a leader “is not optional.’
He also warned that bringing in government commissioners could cost more than £1,200 a day.
Oldham Council’s monitoring officer will now write to the Secretary of State to officially inform them of the situation.
Several proposals were put forward by members at Thursday’s meeting, though all of them failed to pass.
Saddleworth Independent told how Cllr Al-Hamdani’s ward and party colleague, Cllr Mark Kenyon, proposed a ‘concord council’ which essentially everyone would lead.
Cllr Brian Hobin suggested a “caretaker administration” for the council, though admitted he hoped for his solution to be a last resort.
He ran for candidacy and said he believed it would result in a “decent administration” as he had “no ideology or allegiance” as an independent.
14 councillors voted for the amendment, with 29 against.
The next amendment came from former Oldham Council leader Cllr Arooj Shah, who suggested Labour continue to run the administration as before.
She said Labour wanted to “reset what has gone before and work collectively for the people who rely on [them]”, and that the suggestion was “rooted in humility.”
17 councillors voted for the motion, with 28 against.
The third suggestion was a joint administration between Reform UK and Labour, suggested by Reform’s Cllr Lewis Quigg.
He said they could deliver a minority administration without having a coalition and said while there was no guarantee an alliance would be stable, “if the council cannot pass a budget because we cannot form an administration then this party is in trouble”.
19 councillors voted for the motion, with 28 against.
Reform UK also suggested holding an all-out election, at which all 60 Councillors’ tenures would be at stake, in May 2027.
Cllr Robert Barnes said the people of Oldham “did not vote for power sharing”, while later, Cllr Mark Ruthven said they ought to “undertake the required public consultation on changing the electoral system in Oldham to move to whole-council (all out) elections starting in 2027 and every four years thereafter”.
Labour councillor Elaine Taylor said an election would not work as a “quick fix” for the council’s current lack of leadership and said their suggestions “did not deal with the matter at hand.”
15 voted in favour of Cllr Barnes’ suggestion, and 30 against.
15 again voted for Cllr Ruthven’s amendment, and 31 against.
The Oldham Group, suggested the leader of the council ought to be rotated. For periods of time dependent on the size of the political group.
Cllr Kamran Ghafoor, who suggested the amendment, said he wouldn’t speak on it at length. He said: “After the events of tonight I don’t think I could work with Reform, even on a rotational basis.”
Cllr Al-Hamdani described the motion as “the only option on the table.” However, only 16 councillors voted in favour, and 31 against.
As the meeting ended with no clear outcome but government intervention, Oldham Council insisted: “Services continue to operate as normal, and arrangements remain in place to ensure the Council can fulfil its statutory responsibilities and continue delivering for residents, communities and partners across the borough.
“We will now await further correspondence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.”
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