Interview with Council Leader of the Year winner

Depending on who you ask, Oldham’s townhall boss divides opinion. She’s been the target of racial abuse and a car-bombing. She lost and regained her leadership in consecutive elections.

And in the last two years, she’s survived not one but two bids to ‘overthrow’ her leadership by an alliance of political groups and independents.

Yet despite some very vocal opponents, councillor Arooj Shah was this year voted the ‘Leader of the Year’, a national award hosted by the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) and investment firm CCLA.

The award recognises council leaders who have ‘demonstrated outstanding political and personal leadership’ and is the only of its kind in the UK. Hundreds of council leaders are put forward for the title.

Cllr Shah took the crown for leading ‘an ambitious regeneration agenda, a bold economic recovery plan, and overseeing key service improvements across the council’, according to the judges. She has seen in the shift of Oldham’s children’s services from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’ and launched a major regeneration programme, which aims to bring shops and 2,000 new homes to disused sites around the town centre.

“People see the messy council meetings and judge us on that. But actually there’s a lot more happening behind the scenes,” Cllr Shah told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. on her way to see Andy Burnham about a £31m investment into three major projects in Oldham, part of the Greater Manchester Mayor’s £1bn Growth Fund.

“I feel this is an acknowledgement of all that work – by all our staff, and also the people of Oldham. It’s a vote of confidence. We’ve always believed in what we are doing in Oldham. Now we’ve got people from outside telling us that we’re getting it right.”

Cllr Shah, born and bred in Oldham, is the first Muslim woman to lead a council in the North of England. She wears the accolade with pride – but it also makes her a target, the Oldham boss has previously shared.

She regularly receives horrifying voice messages she has played to the LDRS, where complete strangers shout racial slurs down the phone and threaten to sexually assault her.

Shah said: “[After the award], a lot of people commented to me saying they see how much abuse I get, and ask me ‘how do you carry on?’ One colleague from London told me ‘actually, as a Muslim woman, you have it a lot tougher than most of us’. It’s about people understanding and acknowledging how difficult it is.

“There is a vocal minority, especially online. But I think many of them are being misled by certain people who know the facts – but it doesn’t suit their narrative to be honest. These people are SO negative, and their whole motive is to make people feel miserable and left out.

“I’m hoping this will be a call to those people to see that we are actually working so hard. We do things that other places aren’t doing nationally, and have a leader who is gaining national recognition. That’s a testament to the strength and determination of Oldham as a place.

“I might not be perfect. I might not always get it right. But Oldham is in my blood and I will always try to get the best for this borough.”

But online isn’t the only arena where the council leader gets a lot of flack. The council chambers have become an area where elected representatives are increasingly at each other’s throats.

It’s worth noting that Cllr Shah has been accused of ‘giving as good as she gets’ in this respect.

“I’m not in it to entertain the negative voices in the chambers,” she said. “I’m in it to improve things for residents. And I want to send a message to our opposition members: there’s more at play here.

They need to do what their ward members have elected them to do – which is serve them, instead of attacking each other. They need to take the pettiness out of it. It’s time to grow up.”