Efforts are made to ensure that as much as
possible of the Cabinet's business is done in public
meetings. Occasionally, Cabinet will
meet in private when it might consider items that include
information that, if discussed in public, might prejudice the
public interest. Examples might be:
The value of land that the Council wishes to
sell, which might affect the price negotiated if discussed in
public the details of proposed contracts for goods, services or
works that might reveal commercially confidential information or
might affect the price the Council has to pay information about an
individual
Details of the type information that might be
discussed in private are set out in the Council's access to
information rules within the
Council’s Constitution. Where
an item is discussed in private, any report discussed may be
released after the meeting on request, with any private information
deleted.
The Local
Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to
Information) (England) Regulations 2012 requires the Council to
give at least 28 days notice of any
private meetings of the Cabinet or its sub-committees. This is to allow any interested party to make
representations that the meeting should be held in
public. A further notice then has to be
given 5 clear days before the private meeting, setting out the
Council's response to any representations.
Notices of private
meetings can be downloaded within each meeting date as a pre-agenda
notice.
The
Cabinet is a group of nine elected members responsible for the
overall business of the Council.
The
Cabinet comprises the Leader of the Council who is the Chairperson,
and seven other members appointed by the Leader.
Each
Cabinet member has a defined portfolio of responsibilities linked
to the Council’s range of services.
All
Cabinet Members have a shared and individual responsibility for
developing and implementing the Council’s policy, performance
and budget framework.
For further details of the
Cabinet, please follow this link: https://www.oldham.gov.uk/cabinet
Leader of the Council
The
Leader chairs the Council’s Cabinet meeting and is
accountable for proposing and directing the overall strategy,
budget and policy arrangements of the Council.
The
Leader of the Council is Councillor
Arooj Shah who is elected by all members of the Council at the
annual Council meeting.
It is
the responsibility of the Leader to ‘lead the Council’,
build a vision for the district and represent Oldham at regional
and national events.
The
Leader also provides community leadership to those organisations that work closely with the
Council.
Leaders of the Opposition
The
Leaders of the Opposition are Councillor Howard Sykes
and Councillor
Graham Sheldon who
shadow and scrutinise the Leader of the
Council and Cabinet in the undertaking of their duties.
The
Leaders of the Opposition act as the principal spokesperson for the
Opposition Group of which they are leaders and establishes and
represents the views of the group on issues of policy and
priority.