Who is keeping the lights on at Oldham council?

A top boss is keeping the lights on at Oldham Council while councillors work out who is going to take over.

The local authority, known for its divisive politics in recent years, has been locked in a stalemate after the 2026 local elections where Labour lost eight seats leaving the party. Reform UK is now the second largest group behind Labour by two councillors on 16.

No group has more than a third of the seats in the chamber, with 31 needed to take control. After the local elections, former Labour council leader Arooj Shah announced she would stand down and her party step back while Reform ruled out forming any coalition.

There are currently no councillors running things and with no new mayor, there is no way the council can legally move ahead with business including appointing a new leader and councillors to top positions.

Hours of talks on May 20 failed to find any way through. Another meeting has now been scheduled for June 15.

However while this is happening, the council has said day-to-day council services will continue to operate as normal though no changes to council policy or the budget are expected until a new leadership is in place.

This is in line with the council’s constitution, a key document which sets out what council officers can do in the meantime and governs how the council is run. Any operations are currently being led by chief executive Shelley Kipling, who was paid a salary of £180,646 last year.

Under Oldham’s constitution, decisions are usually either made by the council’s officers or councillors in their role as elected members. However major decisions are often reserved for councillors.

These are called key decisions and likely lead to the council spending or saving money in a particular area. They can also be key if they would have a significant impact or cover two or more areas of the borough.

Key decisions have to be published in advance with reasons set out in a report for why the decision has been taken. Councillors can also give officers the power to make major decisions such as signing off a contract or how money is spent in a service.

However because of the stalemate, councillors cannot make any decisions until a new Mayor is sworn in and a new leader and cabinet are appointed. The mayor helps chair full council meetings where all members can discuss issues while the leader and cabinet make decisions around policy and spending.

Therefore at the moment, the only people who can make decisions are council officers. They are governed by the Officer Scheme of Delegation which sets out what they can and cannot do.

This policy allows officers to deal with day to day management of council services and take any such action necessary to keep those running. However this must be in line with any policies previously agreed.

The chief executive of the council also has the power ‘to take any emergency decisions in respect of council functions’ that ‘cannot be delayed’. Officers also have the power to make staffing decisions.

The deputy chief executive for place oversees property, housing delivery, business growth and support, transport, planning, and economic growth. They also oversee health and safety, public protection, parks, gardens, waste, roads, youth services, and cultural services.

According to the council’s constitution, these permitted powers ‘generally provides for delegated authority to take a decision at the highest level’, adding: “Officers must ensure that the decision conforms to council approved budget, policies and strategies, and that they have observed approved practices and procedures, including those in relation to community consultation.”

However the longer the stalemate drags on, the more issues that could be created if key decisions need to come before councillors for approval. That could mean key projects might be delayed or even not go ahead at all.

Major decisions around council finances could also need to be made. What happens with certain planning or licensing applications may become an issue as the council has to make decisions on these within certain time frames.

Past cases of political stalemate have previously resolved themselves before the government steps in. However if the decision was made to appoint commissioners, this could see the council potentially charged a £1,200 a day fee as has been seen in councils like Liverpool and Birmingham.

A legal warning issued by officer Caroline Elwood in 2008 at Sefton suggested councils in situations like Oldham could face further costs in court too. In her warning to Sefton councillors, she said the leader had certain duties ‘which cannot be performed by anyone else’.

She said there was ‘a clear risk of challenge on procedural groups’ if certain decisions had to be made without a leader in place. She said courts were ‘unlikely to be sympathetic if the council has wilfully failed to elect a leader’ and the case of any judicial reviews ‘may order the council to pay legal costs’.

Professor Stuart Wilks-Heeg from the University of Liverpool previously told the LDRS this mechanism appeared to still be in place and brought Sefton councillors around the table. While local government officials or experts can be appointed by the government to sort things out at failing councils, it takes democratic power away from the people the public have elected to represent them

Prof Wilks-Heeg said: “It is very serious when you are saying this council cannot run its own affairs and can’t govern things so you will have to send someone in to sort this out. It’s mainly happened where there are serious failings, sometimes in a particular part of the council’s responsibilities.

“It virtually always happens when a council has gone into effective bankruptcy and issues a Section 114 notice like Woking, Birmingham, and places like that.

“To bring commissioners because you have no political control in the council, that is another level of seriousness because obviously local government is meant to be run by local politicians.

“I think every council would want to run itself. [Commissioners are] the last thing they want. They might be good people with real experience but the point is local government is meant to be run by local politicians.

“That is what elections are for. If you cannot govern after local elections, then really you have fundamentally failed.”