We need to talk about Oldham
Through the Welcome to Oldham series and the revelations through the Disclosure articles, I have provided clear evidence of multiple instances of how public land was undervalued and sold by Oldham Council to associates of Oldham Labour Party.
We now all know of the dodgy deal to undervalue and sell land on a 18 year interest free basis for the building of Oldham Central Mosque. Run by members of the Coldhurst branch of the Labour Party including the brother of Cllr ABDUL JABBAR, Oldham Central Mosque is a venue that we have evidenced as a key anchor for the activities of JIM McMAHON MP and his Oldham Labour Party including allegations that it was used as a venue to harvest postal votes.
We also know of the sale of Glodwick Baths to an organisation during purdah. Sold to the GHAZALI TRUST, an organisation with strong influence in the neighbourhood, the Council refuse to provide any legitimate reason why the sale could not have waited until after the election. Even though Cllr AROOJ SHAH had declared a prejudicial interest in the sale of this site, Oldham Council somehow still managed to sell the old baths just days before she was up for re-election. Again, as in the case of Oldham Central Mosque, Glodwick Baths was sold for an amount well below market value.
We also are beginning to learn all is not as it appeared regarding the sale of land near Alexandra Park to the brother of Cllr SAHID MUSHTAQ. Also his business partner, Oldham Council are still refusing to release information under the Freedom of Information laws and are now on the brink of being referred to the Information Commissioner.
It seems case after case after case, Oldham Council has not acted in the best interest of the local tax payer and when legitimate questions have been raised, they do their utmost to avoid answering them.
In such a climate, where questionable behaviour appears to be a regular occurrence, where even the Head of Planning, Steve Irvine, resigned after his suspension for gross misconduct, is it any wonder that reputable businesses are reluctant to invest in Oldham?
In its own way, what I share now is more damaging than an adolescent Council leader sharing his ripped boxer shorts on social media whilst he describes his sexual fantasies only days after he has been forced to open an investigation into historical grooming in the town. When you next take a look around the town at all the empty shops and derelict buildings and ask yourself for the thousandth time where have we gone wrong?, read this and you will know the reason why. But I’m guessing you knew this anyway.
Disposal of land situated between Salmon Fields and Turf Lane
On 22nd October 2018, the Cabinet for Oldham Council met. Chaired by SEAN FIELDING, also present were Cllrs SHAH, JABBAR, MUSHTAQ, CHAUHON, CHADDERTON, ROBERTS & JACQUES. One of the items discussed was the DISPOSAL OF LAND KNOWN AS 'PLATEAU 1', SITUATED BETWEEN SALMON FIELDS AND TURF LANE, ROYTON. The minutes reveal the following;
The Cabinet gave consideration to a report of the Principal Development Surveyor that provided an overview of the offers received by the Council, following the recent open market advertisement of a Council-owned opportunity at Salmon Fields, Royton.
The Cabinet were informed that the Council owned an area of land at Salmon Fields, Royton, measuring circa 5.69 acres. Whilst identified as a development opportunity, the site had been vacant for a number of years, following the expiration of an option agreement.
Marketing had begun in June 2018 and the marketing exercise had produced 10 offers.
Excellent I first thought. They’ve finally done something properly. 10 offers following open advertisement. And yes, as detailed in this report the Council’s own preferred option is
It is considered preferable for the Council to accept the bid submitted by the party offering the highest financial offer.
So why did this then happen?
Haughton Warburton, a reputable Agent, was tasked to complete a tendering exercise. They received 10 bids through this process and at the Council meeting on the 22nd October 2018, it was agreed that the highest financial offer was to be accepted.
Remember Helen Lockwood? The Deputy Chief Executive that arrived in Oldham under a cloud from Rossendale Council? Remind yourself all about her by reading this.
Instead of accepting the highest offer received through the Council appointed Agent, a member of Ms Lockwood’s team just happens to accept a bid outside of the agreed process.
Would it surprise anyone that as well as accepting a bid outside of the process that this ‘new’ bid also came in just higher than the highest bid the Agents had received? Coincidence?
Both the Agents and legitimate highest bidders subsequently kicked up a fuss once they became aware that Oldham Council had decided to ignore their own agreed procedure. Nonetheless, Oldham Council continued attempting to proceed with the sale of land to a bidder they accepted an offer from outside of the agreed process.
Oldham Council Director of Economy, EMMA BARTON, recognising that what has taken place would not stand up to any level of scrutiny, was forced to defend the actions of the Council to the Agent. A copy of this email has been leaked to me from trusted sources. It is here for everyone to see.
I also have the name of the Council Officer and of the company involved.
As can be seen, this is OLDHAM COUNCIL admitting to
undertaking a formal internal investigation in to potential irregularities in to the sale of land at Salmon Fields
that the investigation did find wrong doing and that a disciplinary hearing had taken place
and that said disciplinary hearing resulted in action against an employee
This email finally proves what we have all long suspected. That Oldham Council CANNOT be trusted with responsibility to sell OUR land and assets.
It is an admission of guilt.
An admission that has resulted in the Council Tax payers of this town losing out on c£1.5 million that would have been generated from the sale of this land.
As a direct result of Oldham Council’s failure to follow their own process, to this day, the land remains empty. This is separate to any loss of jobs that would have been created or future investment triggered as a consequence of the development. I’m genuinely surprised that the reputable developers that bid to buy this land, that followed due process and acted in good faith, are not suing Oldham Council.
An absence of trust
It is common knowledge that Oldham struggles to attract investment whilst neighbouring towns like Bury, Ashton and Rochdale are flourishing. Almost every year we hear another outlandish claim by our political leaders of ‘game changing’ developments, hundreds of millions of pounds of investment and thousands of new jobs. Predictably, only for it to later emerge, that the scheme has failed and that potential investors have withdrawn. With each failure, the consequences are the same, Oldham tax payers are left to pick up the millions of pounds wasted whilst no one from the Council either explains what went wrong or accepts any responsibility. It is always someone else’s fault. Usually, the government. Yes, that’s the same government they have in Bury, Ashton and Rochdale.
But now we know a different truth. A truth where, as well as undervaluing and selling our assets to their Labour Party mates, the Council is prepared to bypass all of the standard procedures through which serious legitimate businesses are familiar with. Even when they bid to buy land and invest in the town, and win by submitting the highest offer and meeting all the other requirements, the Council can still find a way of messing things up. Which private sector investor is going to take this town seriously when they know how business is really done here?
Is it any surprise that this happens knowing what we now know?
This one particular example is not unique. And stories like this regarding Oldham Council are well known in the business community and amongst investors. The consequence is obvious, they view Oldham Council with suspicion and are reluctant to do business with them.
And to put the cherry on top, only last week we learn from JIM McMAHON MP (via Facebook) that he has written to the Serious Fraud Office. I’m not at all surprised that in the pursuit of his vendetta against me, he is now prepared to throw his own Council under the bus. A Council that he was once Leader of.
For those who are unaware of the specifics of the story, in a last ditch attempt to dodge concerns of his involvement in covering up news of a grooming gang in Oldham and his knowledge of the ringleader of the Rochdale Grooming Gang’s role in Oldham Council (read the full sorry story here).
So desperate in trying to protect himself, he has helped reveal that Oldham Council did not undertake the minimum necessary checks and balances when awarding contracts and that they also did not have the internal safeguards one would expect. These shocking revelations confirm that it was possible for Oldham Council Officers to authorise payments of millions of pounds to whoever they liked, including companies that they owned. Just imagine how many millions could have been siphoned away this way and for how long this has actually been going on.
This latest debacle involving the sale/not sale of land and the subsequent cover up of what went on with Salmon Fields appears to be just a continuation of a pattern of behaviour within Oldham Council that is just everyday practice at the Civic Centre. How else can anyone explain any of this?
I, of course, welcome and fully support JIM McMAHON’s letter to the Serious Fraud Office requesting that they launch an investigation. Unfortunately for him and Oldham Council, I doubt that the focus of any investigation will be myself. Rather, I believe that if they did investigate, it will be to investigate something that we all have been asking for a long time.
Is it not past time that OLDHAM COUNCIL was investigated?
Is it not past time that those that run our town are held responsible for their actions?
Sadly, the likelihood of such an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office is extremely low. They are not in the habit of taking instruction via Facebook from politicians like JIM McMAHON, or through communication from the dodgy relatives of certain councillors and criminals that benefit through the existing failures in our town.
Oldham - A town with widespread, systematic and extremely serious failures
Once ranked the second worst council in Britain, where the Government’s own AUDIT COMMISSION described Oldham as ‘ungovernable’, Oldham is increasingly looking like a town run by the Mafia. Now a place where senior figures of the Council openly spend their evenings with convicted heroin dealers, it is a town where deals are done with shadowy figures in the back rooms of smoke filled shisha bars or ice cream parlours that no one quite knows who really owns.
It is a town where a leading senior politician, tasked with responsibility for managing the tens of millions of pounds of public finances, openly sits alongside a convicted sex offender.
It is a town where White working class communities do not matter. Not even their children, who are left to be groomed and raped in plain sight of the authorities, whilst a past Council leader uses the funeral of LEE RIGBY to keep news hidden and the new leader claim ‘bare faced lies’ whilst knowing the truth.
It Is a town where the only vote that matters, is the one controlled by the Asian Cartels. So much so, that the MP will shamelessly sit in rooms filled only with men. Legitimising their misogyny, he will turn a blind eye to their attitudes and beliefs and leave them to fester and infect a new generation of children that are less integrated than the generation previous.
To those that live here, it is quite clear, that Oldham is a town where politicians and Council Officers blatantly do as they please, irrespective of the law.
Is it any surprise that such a town struggles to receive investment from legitimate sources? Would you invest in Oldham knowing what you now know?
The only hope we have left is for the government to intervene. The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government has statutory powers of inspection under the 1999 Act to appoint inspectors to take over the running of local authorities. It is a power of last resort that has only been used 4 times before in Doncaster, Tower Hamlets, Rotherham and Northamptonshire. These powers are only used in highly exceptional circumstances. with evidence from statutory inspections of widespread, systematic and extremely serious failures by the local authority.
I challenge anyone to have a look around our town and claim that Oldham is anything other than a place that perfectly fits this criteria.
How much longer will the people of this once proud town allow this to continue?