A county councillor says she is “appalled” that a debate over funding for a failed tree project in Burntwood will be held behind closed doors.
Staffordshire County Council’s audit and standards committee will discuss the controversy surrounding money awarded to Cllr Thomas Loughbrough-Rudd.
His now dissolved company was handed total of £924 by the authority’s climate change fund in March and May last year.
But despite telling two former councillors in July 2021 that the trees had been “got”, an investigation that concluded earlier this year found no evidence of them being planted or even purchased in the first place.
However, the section of the agenda at the committee meeting will be heard with both media and the public excluded from a section highlighted as:
“Reactive Fraud Investigation – Whistleblowing Climate Change Action Fund Scheme & Breach in Standards of Public Life
Audit and standards committee agenda at Staffordshire County Council
But Cllr Charlotte Atkins, leader of the Labour opposition group at the county council, said there needed to be greater transparency – and insisted the item should be heard in public.
She told Lichfield Live:
“I am appalled that this debate is to be held in private.
“These are matters of real public concern about the way this application was handled. Those concerns should be aired publicly.
“The county council must be open and honest about its failings on this issue.
“The Nolan Principles of public life require openness, accountability and honesty. I am struggling to see how the county council is meeting these principles in dealing with this report.”
Cllr Charlotte Atkins, Staffordshire County Council
A Staffordshire County Council spokesperson said:
“All audit reports are considered in the private section of the audit and standards committee to allow confidential matters to be fully scrutinised.”
Staffordshire County Council spokesperson
The meeting of the audit and standards committee at Staffordshire County Council will be held on 22nd March.
