At this evenings Town Council meeting, Councillor will be told they are being forced to consult with the public if it wants to go ahead and borrow up to a quarter of its annual precept.
The Town Council is submitting a loan application, so they can buy new play equipment for Royce Recreation Ground.
The loans body would be initially rejected the Town Councils application, because it has failed to consult the public its meant to serve.
Simple matters such as do you want new equipment? and a much more serious issue do you want us to borrow and burden the tax payer with a ten year debt?
The Clerk said consultation is a new requirement? It maybe a new requirement of the loans board but surely consultation is something the local tax payer would expect form their local authority? silly of me to even think that I am often attacked and told residents love paying so much to Oakham Town Council to spend as they please.
In the past Oakham Town Council guided by the Clerk have completed many good projects and some not so good without any public consultation.
I disagree with the clerks comment this is something new. When the council applied for a grant a few years ago for equipment for older children at the same park they held a public consultation at the park.
I am not sure how the clerk expected this rushed application for such a large sum of money to ever be approved. So quickly. He now says this will delay the start of work to, yes you guessed it the summer when the children actually might like to play.
At the last Parks and Planning meeting he told Councillors the initial quotes, which I published on this blog did not match his order. They certainly did not match each other.
This evening the Councillors will be asked to decide how to proceed with the consultation. Knowing the issue with the quotes I feel it would be better to start again form the beginning. Because if the loans board has picked up on the issue of lack of public consultation they are surely not going to miss the issues with the quotes.
