Oakham Town Council Grants and Finance

The statement said: “Stamford Town Council’s requirement to submit verified audited accounts in respect of applications for grants of public money is entirely normal, fiscally prudent and best commercial practice to ensure sound judgement and complete transparency.  Stamford Mercury


Is this normal? No not so for Oakham Town Council.

Oakham Town Council only dish out money to groups they know and don't ask for the above, recently they gave a grant to the Oakham Festival and then asked the committee to let the council know how they have spent the money before just before the event to be held this summer. This is a large sum of public money given with no control over how it is spent. The CAB were the only group who provided accounts.

Only one awful town Cllr, was willing to question why the Council was giving away so much more money than originally expected, the Chairman's response was don't worry the budget can be juggled.

This evening Oakham Town Council will be attempting for the fourth time to set the budget for the next financial year.

I am not saying its an easy task, but when you pay someone so much much money, you would expect them to know what they are doing.

The Grants should not have been awarded before the budget was set.

I wonder if the budget includes provision for the Town Clerks Guaranteed annual pay rise? 

Did The Clerks friends fear if there was a major change of Councillors in May, they would not get the cash?
 
Quite frankly it stinks!

I am told the government proposing to a cap of £2,000 on grants given by the councils from next April and groups like Oakham Festival will have to show proof that they can raise funds to match the grant.