> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Taxpayers owed an explanation over why Burntwood tree funding money hasn’t been paid back, Labour councillor says
- URL: https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/taxpayers-owed-an-explanation-over-why-burntwood-tree-funding-money-hasnt-been-paid-back-councillor-says/
- Published: 2022-02-24T08:33:00.000Z
- Updated: 2022-02-23T20:13:08.000Z
- Description: A councillor says taxpayers are owed an explanation about why funding for a tree planting scheme that never went ahead has still not been paid back a year after it was issued.
- Author: Lichfield Live
- Tags: Burntwood, Politics, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-22 19:15, News

A councillor says taxpayers are owed an explanation about why funding for a tree planting scheme that never went ahead has still not been paid back a year after it was handed out.

![](https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Money-1.jpg)

The money from the Staffordshire County Council climate change fund was awarded to Cllr Thomas Loughbrough-Rudd in two payments last year.

It later emerged that he had neither planted nor purchased the trees – and had not handed the cash back.

Staffordshire County Council confirmed that half of the sum had been paid back so far with the remainder of the funding expected to be back in the public purse next month.

However, Cllr Loughbrough-Rudd has now [revealed that he intends to resign](https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/burntwood-councillor-says-he-intends-to-resign-from-county-council-role-over-funding-controversy/).

But Cllr Steve Norman, the leader of the Labour group at Lichfield District Council and a member of Burntwood Town Council, said there were still many questions to be answered.

> “The county council’s lack of action and lack of openness is astonishing.   
>  
> “Cllr Loughbrough-Rudd seems to have borrowed £924 on a year-long loan, using county council taxpayers’ money, for trees that don’t exist.  
>  
> “As the leader of the council was his election agent, surely he owes Burntwood North residents an explanation for the delay and also to tell us when the audit investigation that has been carried out following complaints will be made public?”  
>  
> Cllr Steve Norman, Lichfield District Council

Cllr Loughbrough-Rudd won his seat last year after beating Labour’s Sue Woodward by 35 votes.

But he has since left the Conservatives having previously been suspended after the tree funding controversy emerged and now appears set to depart local politics altogether having previously quit Hammerwich Parish Council and Burntwood Town Council.

Despite regular requests for answers from *Lichfield Live* about why money issued for a project that never went ahead has not been able to be repaid in almost a year, Cllr Loughbrough-Rudd has remained tight-lipped.

Cllr Norman said he was stunned that the now independent representative had not paid back the cash given he receives a regular payment for his work as a county councillor.

> “It is hard to believe that he was granted £580 in March when he was the Conservative county council candidate for Burntwood North Division and £344 in May when he was elected as a Conservative county councillor.  
>  
> “It is even harder to believe that he has not had to pay it back straight away when each month he will have been sent the basic allowance of £815.53, less tax and National Insurance, by the very council he should have paid it back to.   
>  
> “That’s at least eight payments since his election in May last year.”  
>  
> Cllr Steve Norman, Lichfield District Council