Rochdale council abandons plan to pool functions with Oldham

A PROPOSAL to merge several key executive functions between Oldham and Rochdale councils in a bid to save up to £50m has been abandoned.

The two authorities had begun a process to share operating functions from appointing a joint chief executive through to sharing other functions.

Ernst & Young had carried out an initial phase of consultancy, which suggested that savings of between £28m-£52m could have been made through merging functions over a three-year period. The councils then placed an advertisement in the European Journal last month – described as a “soft marketing exercise” by joint council chief executives Charlie Parker and Roger Ellis – called for consultants to bid for the work.

The project involved the design of new management structures and governance for the combined organisation, as well as helping with its implementation.

The consultants’ pay was to be performance-related, based on achieving certain levels of cost saving, with an initial target of £20m set. The document said there was “limited precedent of this level of radical integration within the Local Government sector”.

However, following meetings between political leaders from both sides earlier this month, the idea has now been shelved, with Rochdale Council’s leader Cllr Colin Lambert withdrawing the proposal from an agenda set to be discussed by the council’s executive tomorrow night.

Cllr Lambert said: “We have concluded that we will not be pursuing full integration, the constitutional issue of a shared chief executive or a joint and integrated management team.

“We have concluded that this would jeopardise Rochdale being able to retain its sovereignty and maintain strong, democratic accountability.

“In addition, this could have increased rather than reduced senior management costs at a time when we are being forced to cut services delivered to our local communities. This is not acceptable.”

“However, we will continue to look at joint working opportunities with Oldham, as well as other authorities across Greater Manchester.

Combining central functions was felt to be a way of achieving cost savings without enforcing cuts on frontline services.

Rochdale Council has said that it needs to trim £64m from its budget over the next three years, while Oldham Council needs to make savings of £45m over three years.