The Oldham Liberal Democrat Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, has welcomed the commitment made by the Leader of Oldham Council to make ‘proper time (available) for consideration by councillors’ of the long-awaited report by the review team into historic child sexual exploitation issues at a meeting of the Full Council.

Last month, Councillor Sykes wrote to the new Leader, Councillor Arooj Shah, to request that Councillors be able ‘to discuss this matter in Full Council at the earliest opportunity’. As the Greater Manchester Deputy Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner, Baroness Beverley Hughes, had previously said the report would be available by the middle of this year, councillor Sykes was hopeful that this would be at the July 14 Council meeting.

In her reply, Councillor Shah could not confirm that this would be the 14 July but did commit to a debate at ‘a scheduled full council meeting or a special meeting if that is required’.  The GM Deputy Mayor, who oversees the work of the independent review team, will in any case be asked to provide an update to the July meeting.

Commenting councillor Sykes said: “I am still hoping that we shall see the full report in advance of the July meeting and to be able to debate it, but we may still all need to be patient a little bit longer.  The timetable of the review is outside of Oldham Council’s control.  If July is not possible, then we shall debate it soon and I welcome the promised update on progress next month.”