OLDHAM councillors will be asked to vote on whether a third of them should be cut.
Or as one put it, ‘turkeys will be asked to vote for Christmas’.
Currently, 60 representatives make up the borough authority.
But at a full council meeting on Wednesday, April 9, the Conservatives, which include three in Saddleworth – Max Woodvine, Luke Lancaster and Pam Byrne – Royton North’s Lewis Quigg and St James’ Beth Sharp, will put forward a motion saying that number should be slashed to 40.
According to their figures, doing that would initially save £220,000 a year and the warding arrangements, at the moment each has three councillors, would also be looked at.
Cllr Quigg will propose the motion and he said: “For years councillors who have been elected to Oldham Council have promised to cut the number, cut the waste and put money back into local services.
“Each year council tax goes up and services are scaled back, yet the number of councillors has remained unchanged and increased in cost through allowance rises and ‘extra responsibility’ allowances.
“It is time the turkeys voted for Christmas instead of taking the extra cash. It is time they put local taxpayers first instead of themselves.”
Cllr Sharp added “When I tell residents that Oldham has 60 councillors, they are astonished and rightly so given the state of local services.
“Fly tipping on the up, crime on up and council tax on the up.
“Residents in Derker, Sholver and Moorside want the money to be spent on better local services and not bumper pay packets for politicians.”