Bungling Cheshire East Council paid out £21,520 of Community Infrastructure Levy funds to Nantwich Town Council by mistake – and only spotted the error 20 months later!
Now it has emerged they are demanding the money back – despite it already being allocated to key improvements to the town’s parks.
The Cheshire East gaffe came to light at a Nantwich Town Council meeting last night (January 15th).
The CIL money – which is paid by housing developers for improvements in the area where they build – was supposed to be paid to Stapeley Parish Council where the development was being built.
But instead, red-faced officers made the payment to the wrong authority.
Samantha Roberts, clerk of Nantwich Town Council, told councillors she was only made aware of the mistake in an email sent by Cheshire East over the Christmas period.
She said: “It came as a big shock to myself and I’m sure to members of this council to receive this email from Cheshire East.
“They admit making an error in paying CIL we received in May.
“We’ve had a number of discussions and debates about how to spend and allocate this money, and now Cheshire East are requesting it back by January 31st.
“They say it’s an error and in fact relates to a chargeable area for housing in Stapeley.
“I emailed the officer on January 5th expressing our deepest disappointment in relation to this, and explaining we have already allocated this funding for improvements to Brookfield Park and Barony Park.
“Proposals have been drawn up with residents, plans gone out to consultation. There is a second batch of funding of £5,700 as well, so we are now seeking clarification on this as well.
“This dates back over 20 months ago when we first received it. Why it’s taken so long to determine the error?”
Ms Roberts said she replied to Cheshire East on January 5th and has so far not received a response.
She said it is feasible for Nantwich Town Council to absorb the £21,520 as a large town authority from its general reserves.
Cllr Peter Groves said: “I agree we take the money of general reserves, but I’m very disappointed with Cheshire East over this as I am sure we all are.
“I personally would have written to the Chief Executive but I understand at the moment they don’t have one.”
Cllr Caroline Kirkham added: “I’m happy to support taking from general reserves as well.
“This is Cheshire East’s error and the money is actually allocated to improve Cheshire East facilities as they own the parks!
“We’ve invested all that time and work on the parks to basically have the rug pulled from under us with very little time to respond or appeal. It’s really bad practice.”
Cllr Riddell Graham added: “It’s worth circulating this a lot wider. There may be people in the organisation who might be able to suggest something.”
Councillors agreed to share the correspondence with more senior CEC officers and make clear the money has already been allocated to improve facilities owned by Cheshire East.
We have approached Cheshire East Council for a comment and are awaiting a reply.
I thought the Beam Heath Trust was the owner of the Barony Park?
Spot on TomL. Town Council Treasurer (presumably there is one?) has been very remiss in not questioning this immediatley when it was incorrectly received. I am treasurer for a local voluntary organization, if any unexpected amount popped into our account I would be onto it straight away. The Town Clerk should not go be bleating ‘it wasn’t us gov’nor’. What about due diligence here. Someone is not paying attention!
Surely the councillors who are members of both CEC and Nantwich Town Council should have seen this!
Some people are that bad they would go in to the office and try to lie their way our of said situation.
They would try every trick in the book to try and get away with it.
These monsters are usually backed by a Union who is there to cause trouble rather than help the situation.
They thrive on chaos and will do everything they can to make sure this happens.
We all have these people at work who have mastered the art of doing nothing and maximising the work load for others.
Then they will get a nice payoff to leave said post, just so the workplace can get back to some sort of normality.
But the damage is already done !!!!
If someone deposited money into my bank Account I would want to know where it’s come from and who sent it,
I was once paid money into my wages by error I enquired about this,
It was paid in error and I repaid it in full immediately.
My work mates spent their money and had to pay it back over the months.
HONESTY IS ALWAYS THE BEST POLICY.
Tom, it wasn’t an ‘unexpected credit’, it was a credit agreed by Cheshire East, with a further second band payment also agreed. Sorry my friend, ‘nothing to see here!’ – Nantwich Town Council, ‘As you were!’
Was it 2 years ago that Cheshire east bought dishwasher for the staff at about. £22,000 so they could wash their cups. Perhaps they thought Nantwich council needed them this time round
great so you can put benches for seating in Nantwich yet Stapeley has barely any
Buses from here are dismal, only every 2 hours and five a day!!
It doesn’t surprise me. My partner and I have run a specialist company providing commercial EPCs based in Crewe since 2011. We’ve done work for Staffordshire Moorlands, Stoke City Council, Shropshire council and Cheshire West but never, in those 15 years have we even had an enquiry from Cheshire East whilst they appoint people from as far afield as London to do work that we could easily do, and at a lower cost to the rate payers. Yes, we’ve approached them – nothing! It’s rather frustrating
This what happen when you remove or reduce the size of financial oversight team. Which kept an eye to work money was going and would question allocations before they where sent but thisvteam was seen as a unnecessary expense. Cheshire has been so busy a cuttings and saving it lost sight of it core management responsibilities. The authority has been a shambles from day one.
The board of directors and senior manager where to busy feathering there nest or leaving. They couldn’t ever get a 5 or 10 year strategic plan together. The millions of £ that went missing and ceo that came and went in the 1st 10 year of the authorities inception was a running joke within the Sandbach offices
It doesn’t say much for the Nantwich Town Council officials if they didn’t notice this £21,520 unexpected credit 20 months ago when they should have reported back to Cheshire East.
Surely £21K is nothing to a council the size of CEC?