I ask the question what is the purpose of the remaining town Councillors? because every time
our chairman or the office feels things are not moving along at the pace they require they go ahead
and do as they please and quote "executive powers"
The council is required by law to obtain three quotes for any work or purchase and it often
as in this case fails to follow that law.
Whenever I have asked members of staff why we had not obtained quotes from three people
as required I often told its not worth trying because no one is interested or some other poor
excuse. Cllr Tracy Carr touched on this in a similar matter recently, when she asked a question
about the advertising for contracts and tenders the response was very unsatisfactory. Some might
say its is either laziness or cronyism.
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2016 at 12:26 PM
From: "Allison Greaves"
To: "'Martin Brookes'"
Subject: Painting of Benches
Dear Cllr Brookes,
You are correct, the painting of town benches was deferred at two meetings, minute reference 26/16 and 38/16.
The contractor was given a work order (2016-119) on the 4th May 2016, as per quotation of £737.00 to prepare and paint benches in Cutts Close and Royce’s Playing field only.
At that time, it did not require authorisation from the Council, because if you refer to the Councils Financial Regulations for “expenditures of £1,000 or less the Clerk or the duly authorised Assistant Clerk shall also have executive power”.
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2016 at 1:14 PM
From: "Adam Lowe"
To: "Martin Brookes"
Cc: "Vince Howard"
Subject: Re: Benches
Martin
I requested the information from the office which came through today and I believe you may have been provided with, however for the benefit of all Cllrs.
The painting of town benches was deferred at two meetings, minute reference 26/16 and 38/16.
The contractor was given a work order (2016-119) on the 4th May 2016, as per quotation of £737.00 to prepare and paint benches inCutts Close and Royce’s Playing field only.
At that time, it did not require authorisation from the Council, because the Councils Financial Regulations for “expenditures of £1,000 or less the Clerk or the duly authorised Assistant Clerk shall also have executive power”.
Regards
Adam Lowe
Dear Allison
Thank you for your reply which has been duplicated by Cllr Lowe.
Firstly can I ask did anyone in the office think to tell Vince Howard that his valuable time was being wasted
as the office has decided to go ahead and get most of the benches painted during a school holiday.
The contractor is currently driving his van around a park whilst small children are playing.
You refer to the clerks and your powers to authorise this, the authorisation for this work is an
blatant abuse of those powers which were put in place for emergency use only.
The office knew there was an issue with the way this contract was being handled so no authorisation
should have been made until this was decided at full council. Of course you will repeat you have powers
this in my opinion was a failing of the council when it first introduced this power it should have included
the word emergency, but then should it because Jake told us at training there is no such thing as
an emergency and everything should be approved by full council and not via email or phone calls etc.
I do accept the original reason was valid for introducing this because a tree fell down and the clerk
needed to be able to get it cleared straight away. The benches did not need immediate painting, they
were all in good condition, I am sure it is less than a year since they were last painted.
The law also states we are to obtain three quotes for all work. As is often the case only one quote
was obtained from the councils favoured contractor. For this reason I will be disputing this
expenditure and payment at the end of the financial year with the external aditor.
Every time I raise a concern it is described by the office as an excessive drain on the resources
if the office and the chair and deputy followed the rules of the council I would never need to contact
this costly pointless over paid office.
The clerk has written to me saying I question his competence. I don't really need to do that the public
are saying that when they see the letter he was posted in the window of the office including all those
mistakes. I assume Joyce Lucas gained immense pleasure from posting the same in the various council
notice boards this morning.
In the same email sent by the Clerk he states the Chairman Adam Lowe has conducted a conduct
investigation. NALC legal make it very clear that neither the council or any individual councillor can
investigate any conduct complaint about any member. This is the role of the monitoring officer.
Cllr Lowe Chair and Deputy Cllr Haley have no more powers than any other member of this council
The chairman has powers when chairing a meeting and working with the clerk on the agenda and
signing things approved by the council.
Cllr Michael Haley as deputy has no powers accept to step in during the absence of the chair.
At Oakham Town Council we seem to expanded their roles beyond what is considered lawful and
created some some sort of monstrous bullying management style run council which should not
be accepted.
If the Chairman, Deputy, Clerk and assistant can now do as they want, please can you explain
the role of the remaining Councillors?
From
Martin
