16th November 2025
Stockport Council is under fire again as local campaigner Sheila Oliver claims she has been systematically ignored, blocked, and even banned from asking questions about alleged financial irregularities at Stockport Council regarding the Vale View School.
Mrs Oliver, who has long campaigned on education and planning issues, says her efforts to obtain answers date back to February 2008, when she first raised concerns about millions of pounds in suspicious spending on the school project. Despite repeated promises from council leaders, and follow-ups in July and November 2008, she says she never received a response. Her official complaint to the council’s Monitoring Officer went unacknowledged, and she was later told she could no longer submit questions at council meetings on the matter—a move she calls an “abuse of my human right to question elected representatives.”
“I merely want access to information and documents to examine these strange financial irregularities,” Mrs Oliver told the Gazette. “I am not a lone lunatic. I represented over 800 local residents at the time evidenced by hundreds of formal objections, letters linked to the project.”
The controversy touches not only financial transparency but also the alleged illegal taking of public open space and concerns over historic planning practices in Stockport. Mrs Oliver says she has been denied access to crucial documents that could shed light on possible corruption stretching back to the 1980s.
Council officer Anwar Majothi acknowledged receipt of her complaints and had asked for clarification on the questions she submitted to the council solicitor and other officials, stating that he would include them in his investigation.
The saga has sparked broader questions among residents about council accountability, openness, and how public funds are managed. With hundreds of statutory objections and public complaints ignored, Mrs Oliver’s campaign continues to shine a spotlight on what she describes as a “culture of secrecy” in local government.
For Stockport residents, the Harcourt Street row is more than a financial dispute—it’s a story of one resident fighting to hold the council to account, even in the face of bureaucratic hurdles, silence, and alleged stonewalling.
Will the Council finally answer the questions, or will this saga drag on?
