How Do We Fix A Problem Like Oldham Council?

No one is ever happy with their local council. Councils were not created to make us happy but to do the things that need to be done to keep us safe, healthy and spending money.

Today, they are more about controlling the masses, raising money, and PR. Some councils are also dabbling in corruption, intimidation, voter fraud, sectarianism, organised crime and even child rape. Times have sure changed.

The first thing I must say, based on a decade of working inside a council, is that their priorities are never the same as your priorities. They pretend they share the same concerns as you, but they do not. This lies at the heart of our contempt for local councils for we can never understand why they do what they do – unless you have worked in one.

The number one objective of a council is to keep the councillors who legally run the institution happy and better placed to be voted back into public office. It is that simple. Why would people running an organisation not consciously, or even subconsciously, make choices that benefit them? It is human nature.

This one reason explains why councils are incompetent, underperform, and are going bankrupt across the country. They do not put the people first, they put politics first. They prioritise short-term stunts that look good in the press or impress certain communities. It is all about attracting and holding onto votes.

I once had an important councillor ask me to reduce antisocial behaviour in his area because he was up for re-election and wanted to keep his potential voters happy. I explained that with the budget I had and the time available, it was not possible. He asked if I could make it look like antisocial behaviour was being tackled. I said yes for that would be easy but would waste my budget and achieve nothing of real value. He smiled and walked off. The next day I was told my priorities had changed and to concentrate my time, energy and budget in the councillor’s neighbourhood.

Why does this happen? How do we allow it to happen? The answer is simple. It is a straightforward mathematical calculation. 80% of the people do not vote in local elections, leaving 20% who do. To win the election a politician only needs 10% of the voters at most. One or two small interest groups, an ethnic minority community or a popular campaign can generate enough votes to win the election. Politicians know they do not need to waste their time engaging the wider public for they are irrelevant – many make themselves irrelevant by not voting.

People need to understand the nature of the beast. Politicians want votes, that is all they want. We can influence them by dangling our vote if we are many. Throwing our right to vote away makes us worthless in their eyes.

Why discuss local politics when I am running to be a Member of Parliament?

If I am elected as the MP for Oldham East & Saddleworth then I will be a very lonely man in Parliament sat on the back benches. I will only have real power if and when the government needs my vote to pass their legislation. At that moment, I can demand favours for Oldham & Saddleworth - and I will demand.

As an MP, my special power is my voice and press attention. I will use this to improve lives in Oldham by improving the council.

I will have no legal powers over the council for they are independent and only answerable to the people. I want to help them to be more accountable to the people. I understand how to motivate a council to do better – I will inflict reputational damage upon those politicians who profess to be in charge. It works. I have seen it first-hand.

I will shine a light on every part of the council that does not perform to a decent standard. I will name senior managers and embarrass the councillors who are in charge and have responsibility. I will be their worst nightmare.

I will set up a confidential whistle-blowing system for council employees to report waste and incompetence directly to me. Many council workers are sick of the daily waste of tax money and want to provide better services but are blocked at every opportunity. Patriotic civil servants will be my foot soldiers and I will protect them.

The way we change the culture at a council is by changing the councillors. We change councillors by giving local people a reason to go out and vote. We energise the 72,000 voters by giving them the information they need to make better-informed choices. We get this information by having an MP who will make it their aim to discover and publicise the waste and incompetence in the council.

There is no point trying to clean up Parliament when we have not cleaned up our own streets. There is no point trying to tear down corruption when our council leader’s car is firebombed on CCTV and no one is ever prosecuted. There is no point in trying to prevent crime when the same council leader swings on the arm of a convicted career criminal.

Blaming Westminster is easy, popular and justified to an extent. But change starts locally and we must look locally to see where we are failing and underachieving.

If you live in Oldham East & Saddleworth and want to know why your neighbourhood is not as good as it used to be, look no further than our democratically elected Oldham Council. #NickBuckley4Parliament