'Like Pep managing City one day a week and United the rest': Fears borough will 'suffer' after agreeing to support crisis-hit neighbour

Oldham council have agreed to plans for their CEO to take the reins at its crisis-ridden neighbours - despite some councillors' fears the borough will 'suffer'. Tameside Council has been rocked in recent weeks following a slew of resignations in light of a damning report to the government about the state of its children’s services.

It saw both the council's chief executive, Sandra Stewart, and leader, Ged Cooney, quit their roles. While the authority has since appointed a new leader, an extraordinary council meeting was called on Thursday (October 24) to scrutinise the proposal for Oldham's chief executive, Harry Catherall, to ‘timeshare’ between both councils.

Catherall was headhunted by Tameside Council and Greater Manchester Combined Authority after he oversaw the improvement of Oldham’s children’s services, which was rated ‘good’ by Ofsted earlier this year after being told it ‘required improvement’ during an earlier inspection.

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On Thursday evening, the extraordinary council meeting was called to scrutinise the new working arrangement, which will see Catherall employed by Tameside four days a week while maintaining his role for one day a week in Oldham. The proposal also put forward Shelley Kipling, currently Oldham's assistant CEO, to become acting exec for the council for the next six months.

After a heated and prolonged debate in the chambers, the proposal was approved.

Oldham's leader, Arooj Shah, said: “Despite others in the chamber attempting to make this council into a circus, this is about a good, stable council being asked to support one of its neighbours in crisis. The fact that we have been asked to provide this support is testament to the fantastic improvement that we’ve delivered over the last few years.

“While my priority is and always will be Oldham, I also care about the children of Tameside. Oldham does not exist in a bubble. The boundaries between our boroughs are permeable, and people experience services across those boundaries.”

Labour councillor Josh Charters added that Tameside is ‘in hot water’ and Oldham was ‘simply sending the best possible person to fix that’.

Ms Shah also noted a leaders’ meeting on Monday, October 21, which took place behind closed doors with bosses of all the political groups, had already come to an ‘agreement’ on the change in appointments.

'Like if Pep managed City one day a week and United the rest'

During the meeting on Thursday night, five amendments were put forward to the proposal, which meant the council went through six votes before the decision was made. Some raised concerns about the impact the one-day arrangement would have on the stability of Oldham's council leadership, with councillor David Arnott likening the move to if ‘Pep Guardiola managed Manchester City one day a week and for the other four managed Manchester United’.

Others suggested Mr Catherall should leave completely without ‘keeping one foot in Oldham’ and allow Shelley Kipling to step in as a full-time executive, to conclude Oldham’s three-year search for a successor to the current chief executive.

Kamran Ghafoor, of the Oldham Group, said: “Any organisation without a full time leader will suffer. Let it be on your conscience what happens to the people of Oldham. We’re haemorrhaging money and nobody cares. We need a leader in place to run this council.”

Councillors from the independent Oldham Group also requested the ‘timely recruitment of a permanent successor Chief Executive’.

All five amendments were voted out of the chambers, while the original proposal was passed by a vote of 34 for to 13 against and nine abstentions.

Tameside is due to confirm the arrangements on Tuesday, October 29. If approved, Mr Catherall would be located in Tameside for the majority of the week, but would remain contactable ‘24/7’ for issues in Oldham, according to a council report.

The officer, who has worked in local government for 40 years, will be taking over from Tameside Council Director of Resources, Ashley Hughes, who stepped in as a stop-gap CEO after the resignation of Sandra Stewart.

Once confirmed, Tameside will cover Catherall’s full four-day salary cost at £168k, with Oldham footing the bill for the one day a week he remains with the local authority. Meanwhile, the new CEO Shelley Kipling will receive a wage of £169,125, but with no plans at present to backfill her position as assistant chief, the reshuffle will save between £75k and £123k, according to the council’s assistant finance director Lee Walsh.

Tameside has already voted in Labour councillor Eleanor Willis to replace Coun Ged Cooney, who also resigned earlier this month.

Speaking to her chamber in Tameside, she said: “Our first and highest priority is absolutely our children’s services. Not for the sake of an Ofsted grade but for a much more fundamental reason to ensure that we never again fail those who most need our support.”