Recreation and Planning Committee – Another CANCELLED Meeting Wednesday, 27th January 2021 New Offices What is the point of this costly little club?
A town council that now only pays a contractor around £20,000 a year to upkeep three small parks and about the same to rent put up and take down the towns Christmas lights.
That is all Oakham Town Council does for our town.
So why does it demand over £250,000 a year from us?
It pays a (dishonest) fulltime clerk and now an assistant clerk, to help with this extremely difficult amount of work.
Last nights Recreation and Planning Committee was cancelled due to lack of business, I think that sums up this costly and pointless little club that claims to be representing Oakham residents.
Last month Oakham Town Council gave Oakham in Bloom £250 for a small garden project, ex Mayor Joyce Lucas is organising this for outside the library. We are told it was to make up a shortfall of funds raised. Oakham in Bloom holds many thousands of pounds in reserves for no apparent reason.
Last year Oakham Town Council spent a fortune moving its offices to Long Row Oakham, they are shown below.
I wonder how we have got to the situation where we are forced to pay for a local council that only does two things for us, at what can only be described as an exorbitant sum of money.
The localism act of 2011 gave parish councils many new powers to provide for local communities needs it was meant to help local parish councils overcome the very restrictive local government act, the Town / Parish Council could use The General Power of Competence, 'Empowering councils to make a difference' it has never used it.
Some members have not got a clue what it means.
The Local Government Act is like the instruction manual of local parish councils if a suggestion was tabled and it was not in the good book, the council could not do it. The book of course tells councils what it cant do with our money. Oakham Town Council does not like that part much.
Here is an one example of the The General Power of Competence, If a Town / Parish council wanted to open a Cinema or Shop the local government act does not say they can, so they could not open any, they can now. Since the introduction of The General Power of Competence they can because it is not unlawful for anyone else to do it, the power can not be used to over rule what the local government act forbids and Town or Parish Council to do, So its not difficult to understand, So why is Oakham Town Council not using its powers to make a difference for the residents of Oakham? It does not always have to cost the local tax payer directly, the town council could apply for grants from various organisations.
I put the failure to apply for grants down to incompetence.
One example is the disgraceful affairs surrounding the neighbourhood plan, despite guidance made available to all parish councils to apply for grants before starting a plan, both ex Mayors Alf Dewis and Michael Haley objected to this process and felt the cost should be added to our local council tax. After a lot of moaning from me the council agreed very late in the day to apply for one grant of around £9,000 over five years later, we the county town of Rutland still still don't have a Neighbourhood Plan, a document has been prepared costing over £20,000 and has been passed to Rutland County Council. It is so embarrassing members of Rutland County Council are simply making no comment.
Residents are starting to ask on social media why are we paying for this council and even why does it exist. It is at least a three year process to abolish it. The answer is to get people who really want to serve our town to stand for election at our next local elections.
