Oakham Town Councillor says authority is ‘broken’

An Oakham town councillor says the council is ‘broken’ after an important meeting due to take place tonight (June 11) because there are not enough people to attend.

The town council has been in turmoil for a number of months, with fall outs and staff absence playing a part, but a new mayor was elected last month who said the council would regain its place ‘at the heart of the town’.

However tonight’s meeting, which was due to make a decision on appointing a locum clerk and also decide on appointing an auditor for the accounts, has been cancelled at the 11th hour because not enough members will be present.

New mayor Chris Nix, is out of the country and other councillors have given their apologies. The only councillors on the seven-strong council who would have been able to attend were Councillor Martin Brookes and Coun Chris Clark. Three councillors would have been needed to attend to ensure the council could legally transact business.

Coun Brookes said: “I would say it is completely broken. The council is not running as it should be. I don’t think anything can change it at the moment. We [Oakham residents] are all paying for this. It is not a joke. This is supposed to be local government and the way it is being run is appalling.”

The council levies an annual precept of £293,000 on residents, and increased its levy by almost five per cent this year. Almost half of this £145,000 goes on the general administration of the council, with just over £80,000 paid for its three staff members. The precept also covers grounds maintenance, flower displays, public toilet maintenance and small grants to local charities.

When elected Coun Nix made a speech to say the council must ‘diligently guard against pettiness, in fighting and trivial quarrelling’, but since then attempts to hold a meeting have not taken place, due to not following correct procedures.

The authority has also had to be given pro-bono administration support from neighbouring Uppingham Town Council and councillors have had to step in to use the accounting system.

At tonight’s meeting the authority was to consider postponing the audit of accounts due to the absence of the clerk.