Oakham Carnival, Oakham Town Council Finnally!

Oakham Carnival, Oakham Town Council Finally!

Oakham Carnival received most of of its funding from public money grants from Oakham Town Council.
Nothing wrong with that until "the big fight" happened  and the Carnival Committee disbanded. Leaving the Chairman Councillor Maureen Dodds holding onto the purse strings.

The current Mayor Cllr Lucas and former Cllrs Sharon Spencer and Lorna Gray. wanted to put on a event in Cutts Close for the Anniversary of The Royal British Legion. It was suggested unspent carnival funds could be returned to Oakham Town Council. There are rules stating grants must be spent within 12 months as it appeared public money granted by Oakham Town Council was unspent it was hoped that money would be returned. The council took no formal action and trusted Cllr Dodds would be happy to return the unspent funds. How wrong were they? Cllr Dodds does not like Cllr Lucas and decided to give the funds away, to her favourite charities. The event planned for the Royal British legion did not go ahead due to poor weather and was not moved to another date after ex Cllrs refused to work with Cllr Lucas due to her dictatorial manner.

Readers of my blog will know I have not lost sight of the public money Cllr Dodds gave away. I raised a complaint with the local police this was ignored and raised the matter with Rutland County Councils monitoring officer this was also ignored. I continued to raise the matter with Oakham Town Council and this was also ignored.

I recently copied one of my emails to an outside body and notified the Clerk and he has responded at long last!

All

At the request of Martin, I sent this to LRALC on Monday. The information sent to LRALC was a letter setting out what had happened as well as the accounts submitted by the Carnival committee when they requested funding for the 2011 event. This grant application was subsequently refused, the Carnival committee eventually folded and no event was held in 2011. However, the accounts for the 2010 event are important as they show what the money (OTC granted £2500 for the 2010 event) was actually spent on.

I received a call from the Acting County Secretary, Rosie McConachie, on Wednesday confirming she had received the documents

She also confirmed that she would be forwarding it to the National Association for their opinion.

Until that opinion is received there is not a lot more to say.

Richard White
Clerk to Oakham Town Council
01572 723627
E-mail: rwhite@oakhamtowncouncil.gov.uk

Reading this email I am assuming Cllr Dodds is saying the committee spent all the money received from OTC
If that is the case where did the large underspend come from? rules state the grants must be spent within the 12 months or returned to the Council and when this was raised at a meeting she appeared not to object and then went away and unilaterally gave the money away.

Cllr Dodds used the Rutland Times to let everyone know the Carnival Committee had decided to distribute funds to charities. As you can see from the content of the Clerks e-mail there was no committee it had folded after "the big fight" (Cllr Lorna Gray's description of event at a council meeting)

The law requires any Grants given by any Council should be spent for the benefit of its Parish in this case Oakham, Cllr Dodds distributed funds wider to include Rutland Charities.

I understand other funders gave money also for the benefit of Oakham residents. I am sure they are charitable people but I wonder if they would have contributed if they knew the money was going to end up being  given away to other causes by Cllr Dodds? Oakham Town Council I am sure would not have done so if it had known this was going to happen.

I think in future Oakham Town Council needs too think very carefully in how it distributes public money locally and how accountable these organisations are. The Carnival like so many local groups they fund don't have charitable status and and therefore makes them almost unaccountable.

At the last Council meeting Cllr Dodds was present when a working group for the Queens Jubilee Celebrations.

I have seen the Account the Clerk refers to it surprise me to see Committee Expences £199.94 when I am constantly told people like Cllr Dodds give there time for nothing and I am wrong to question them because they are charitable people!


Click here to view the Accounts


Click here to view Clerks Letter