Former housing boss dies aged 69

A FORMER Chadderton and Oldham councillor who was chairman of the housing committee, Barrie Wright, has died aged 69.

Mr Wright, who lived in Oakbank Avenue in Chadderton for 47 years, was also a magistrate.

He died in hospital on Friday and his funeral will be held at Oldham Crematorium at 3pm on Monday.

Mr Wright was elected to the former Chadderton Urban District Council in 1971. At one time both he and his mother, Eva Wright, were Labour members of Chadderton UDC.

He transferred to the Oldham Council for the same ward in 1973, but from 1978 until 1993 he represented Hollinwood.

Mr Wright was housing committee chairman for eight years until 1990, when he instigated Oldham’s first barter deals, swapping development land for housing built privately.

He was also chairman when some of Oldham’s worst public housing mistakes were either sold off or demolished.

Mr Wright became deputy chairman of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities’ housing committee, a national body.

By 1990 he had begun work for a private housing company, and retired from the council three years later.

He was outspoken and never afraid to make his point. At one council meeting in 1991, he approached Chris Davies, now Oldham’s Lib-Dem Euro-MP, who was then a parliamentary candidate, and appeared to slap him. Mr Wright later described it as a tap.

He leaves a widow Carole, children Gillian and Peter, and two grandchildren.