Sides left playing the blame game

LATICS STADIUM FALLOUT 
The Charity Commission’s report is a scathing attack on the way Oldham councillors dealt with the Failsworth land-swap plan.

The land was owned by the council, but when stadium plans were revealed, residents protested that it had been bought with money from the Failsworth War Memorial Committee.

It was eventually declared a charitable trust, and a special Failsworth Trust Committee was set up to consider the best interests of the land.

It approved plans to swap the land for two sites also in Failsworth last year, a decision which would clear the path for the stadium plans, but the commission says it did not consider the impact of a £20 million stadium on the value of the land.

The opportunity to sell the land was for the charity, not the council, it pointed out.

And the Failsworth Lower Memorial Park land could have commanded a ransom fee because it provided access to the development site. Council land next to Failsworth Lower Memorial Park, and Trust land were put together, but should have been dealt with in different ways. The commission said: “The council cannot use its trusteeship to carry out its local authority purposes or to control the impact of a proposed development on the surrounding area.”

It added: “The commission cannot see how the trust has adequately informed itself of the views of the people of Failsworth.”

Consultation went ahead on the basis that the land would be swapped and trust members didn’t consider keeping the site as an alternative.

They found 58 out of 66 people who responded to online consultation rejected the swap plans. The consultation also failed to explain the powers and duties of the trustees, and went ahead on the basis that the decision to dispose of the land had been made.

The commission criticises the Tory group leader, Councillor Jack Hulme, a trust committee member, for not revealing his interest because he had been at an Oldham Athletic meeting in March last year.

The same month he said in the press that he supported the stadium plan — that was a conflict of interest and should have been declared, the commission said.

Today, Councillor Hulme said he had acted under guidance from the borough solicitor, and became one of the trustees because he was one of only two councillors who had not discussed the future of the land at Cabinet meetings.

He added: “I had gone to meetings as Conservative group leader before I became a Cabinet member. I was acting in good faith after taking senior legal advice.”