Councillor James (Jim) McMahon has been Oldham Labour Council leader since May 2011 yet until the week ending 17/02/2013 he continued to work simultaneously as the Town Centre Manager for rival Town Middleton. By early 2013 Oldham had the fourth highest levels of closed shops for medium sized towns in the country. The job specifications for his Middleton replacement identified Oldham as a catchment area from which to attract potential shoppers to Middleton. This was a clear conflict of interests and within any other UK job sector I can identify this would have not been allowed. Other councillors should have spoken out and tabled a motion of no confidence about this when it was first identified they did nothing. Oldham had and still has the highest birth rates in Greater Manchester and some of the lowest levels of growth sector employment. there is no excuse why the Labour party should have allowed this to happen.