Leader’s call to oust trust group

The new Failsworth Trust Committee should be scrapped and replaced by a group including local people, according to Labour leader Councillor Jim McMahon.

He has sent a formal complaint to the Charity Commission about the way the council is handling the trust which covers land at the Failsworth Lower Memorial Park off Broadway.

The land is part of the site for the proposed Oldham Athletic £20 million stadium, but the trust could be swopped to a different site in Failsworth leaving the Broadway land for possible development.

The Failsworth Trust Committee’s first meeting on Friday was adjourned after only two minutes when a councillor was forced to step down.

All three Trust Committee members, Councillors Mohammed Masud, Jack Hulme, and Kay Knox, who stepped down, are also members of the Council’s Cabinet.

Councillor Knox left when it was pointed out that she had taken part in a Cabinet meeting on the subject earlier this year.

Councillor McMahon, who is also a Failsworth East councillor, said: “This is about what is right.

“There is an inbuilt conflict of interest. On three occasions Cabinet has formally agreed to support the stadium, and is part and parcel of the administration of the council.

“I should think other Failsworth members should be on the Trust Committee or the whole council, as it is with the Clayton Playing Fields Trust.”

And he has written to Councillor Masud, who is chairman of the Trust Committee, and said: “The resignation of one of the committee members at the first meeting is a worrying sign of a committee which has little, if any legitimacy, and is now backtracking after realising it is not able to defend itself against public scrutiny.”

He added: “I have expressed my concerns to the council about the way it continues to handle this issue and I am in the process of formally objecting to the Charity Commission about this abuse of process.”