Time to ditch cabinet, says Lib-Dem leader

OLDHAM Council should go back to a committee system instead of having a leader and cabinet, according to Liberal Democrats.

At tomorrow’s full council meeting, the party will propose a return to the committee-based system.

This would mean decisions are debated and made by various committees at a more local level rather than by the council leader and cabinet members, who each look after a different portfolio. The later system has opeerated since 2001.

Lib-Dem leader Howard Sykes said: “The Cabinet system has its merits — such as speeding up some decision-making — but it also has a downsides, not least that the majority of councillors are excluded from the decision-making process.

“We would do well to remember that very often the best decisions are made when people are allowed to meet, discuss and challenge fully.”

But the ruling Labour party says this would go against its ambitions to run the borough as a “co-operative council”.

Council leader Jim McMahon said: “We pledged to devolve more power and decision to local communities rather than town hall committees and promote ward councillors as local leaders.

“This is just an attempt to move back to the days when councillors got paid to attend meetings and do little else.”