The Community Right to Challenge gives groups of people (like community organisations and groups of council staff) the right to bid to run Council services by putting forward an expression of interest. If an expression of interest is accepted, the Council must carry out an open and competitive procurement exercise which would allow any organisation to compete to run the service. The Community Right to Challenge was introduced under The Localism Act 2011.
You can visit the Government's Community Rights website to find out who can challenge and how it works.
- Community Right to Challenge - My Community Rights website
When can you submit an expression of interest?
We're currently reviewing the way we design and deliver services across the Council. We're doing this to help us to identify how services might be delivered in a better way so that we provide the best possible value for money for people across the borough.
During 2013/14 and beyond, we will use this process to identify which services will be open to challenge under the Community Right to Challenge. We will publish this information on this website, including details about when you can submit an expression of interest for each service we have identified.
How else can I get involved in running services?
As a co-operative council, there are a wide range of different ways that we work with residents and communities to deliver services - the Community Right to Challenge is just one of a broad range of ways that you could get involved. For example, we've given a group of local nature enthusiasts the opportunity to run Fulwood Nature Reserve in Sholver so they can transform the site in to a much-improved community facility, and the services delivered out of Springhead Community Centre are also now run by a local community group who were keen to do their bit.
If you'd like to find out more about how get involved, please contact us in one of the following ways:
Contact your district team: See Neighbourhoods
Contact your local councillor: Find your councillor
Email us at policy@oldham.gov.uk