Cllr Lucas Oakham Town Council Heritage Lottery Grant Disaster Cutts Close Oakham
Cllr Lucas put a paper before council it was poorly written and you had to be a mind
reader to work out what she wanted the grant for.
She was annoyed with me as I spoke about her list, she told me they were just headings,
Headings they maybe but is it not normal for some content to follow headings?
One thing which stuck out from the report to me was blatant cronyism.
Cllr Lucas was asking to spend around £4000 on a consultant who would apply
for the grant from the Heritage Lottery on behalf of the council.
After some digging Cllr Lucas revealed that Tracy Halliday would be the prefered
consultant. Tracy Halliday is not a consultant and recently received tax free pay
for working in the office helping the assistant Clerk.
Fortunately members did not support this proposal.
I suggested a working group was set up to do the initial work because I know if the
lottery go ahead with considering a grant application they will cover all other costs.
Here is the daft council at its best. They voted to support my proposal to set up
a working group and then know one wanted to join the group. After some time Cllr Lowe
very reluctantly nominated himself. Most others claiming they had no time to spare to
do any work for the council.
Cllr Joyce Lucas the report author and the Cllr making the request of the council decided
she did not want to join the working group. Despite Jasmine Hopkins asking her
to so because she held a lot of information on the subject. Jasmine asked Joyce if
she would being sharing the information with whoever takes on the project. Joyce did
not respond knowing Joyce very well I doubt if she will.
Cutts Close needs a lot of work done on things like the paths which have been neglected
for years and the council is aware of the issues. It even took up the cheapest option of installing
bollards a few years ago banning disabled use. I wonder if the Lottery supports the funding
of willful neglect.
