QUESTIONS TO FULL COUNCIL - 9th MARCH 2011

The final full meeting of Hyndburn Borough Council for the 2010-2011 year took place on Wednesday 9th March at Accrington Town Hall and Cllrs Harry Grayson and Ken Moss asked the following questions of the Leader of the Council, Peter Britcliffe:

HG:  While the Rishton councillors are grateful that money has been found to hand out cheques around the village in time for the elections, would the Leader please explain why some of these cheques are being secretly presented by the Conservative councillor and not the Rishton Area Council as a whole?

The response indicated that no money had been handed out in secret and a list of the supposed cheques was requested. This statement is somewhat at odds with the Leader of the Council's statement at full council on 1st March that money had been approved for various voluntary organisations around Rishton and it is understood that a sum has already been offered to the Friends of Rishton Youth.

KM: Would the Leader of the Council confirm that he condones the £2,765.47 claimed by former Cllr Roy Atkinson as Chair of the Employment Committee between 2006 and 2010, despite the fact that this committee has not met since 2004?

The response given suggested that, as a relatively new member of the council, Cllr Moss may not understand how things work and that the fact that the committee had not needed to convene was an indicator of how successful Cllr Atkinson had been in the role. 

KM: Can the Leader of the Council confirm that he claimed £1,073.25 as Chair of the Licensing Committee between 2007 and 2008 even though the committee did not convene in either of those years?

This supplementary question was disallowed by the Mayor as having no relevance to the first question or the response given.
 

KM: Would the Leader of the Council please verify the claim by Cllr Marlene Haworth in The Accrington Observer on 25^th February that an extra 3,000 people have been brought into the town following Aldo Zilli’s appearance and explain how the council measured that figure?

Although the immediate response was to suggest that Cllr Moss was talking the town down while others were trying to talk it up, when asked a second time he indicated that there were several devices in the town centre to do this and that he was satisfied that anything Cllr Haworth had stated was true.

HG: Would the Leader of the Council please give a reason why the money which he would have spent on Area Management calendars in Rishton for 2011 cannot instead be given to the Rishton Area Council for better use in the community?

The response to this particular question indicated that the Leader of the Council had already spent the money.