Council not to reverse decision on payment to Foundation

AN attempt to persuade Frodsham Town Council to reverse a decision to give an £11,000 payment to Frodsham Foundation was heavily defeated at its monthly meeting – after a lengthy debate in which there were complaints of “secrecy” surrounding the Foundation’s accounts.
Only three members voted in favour of Cllr Graham Bondi’s resolution and six voted against. There was one abstention and councillors who are also directors of Frodsham Foundation were barred from voting.
Cllr Bondi stressed that he had nothing against Frodsham Foundation. But because its accounts had not been made available, he had not known they had received £10,000 from the Government. He was not at the meeting when the council had agreed to give the Foundation another £11,000 but had he been so and had he known about the Government grant, he would not have been in favour.
It seemed strange that no-one on the council apparently knew anything about the Government grant.
Chairman Cllr Mark Warren said anyone who attended the Foundation’s annual general meeting – and several councillors did – would have learned about the £10,000 from the Government.
He said councillors were sent an email which contained a link to the Foundation’s accounts before the decision had been made to give the £11,000 grant.
Cllr Mike Pusey – who has been nominated by the council to become a director of the Foundation but has not yet taken up the position – said his problem with the Foundation was that it was difficult to find out anything about its accounts.
He was also amazed that under the Foundation’s constitution, any resident of Frodsham could apply to become a member but there were only 34 members. He would have expected there to be thousands.
Cllr Andrew Dawson said the money from the Government arose from Frodsham’s bid to become a Portas Pilot town. Although the bid was made by the Town Council, it was made on behalf of the Foundation, which had not been set up at the time. The eventual bid was made by a partnership which included the Foundation, the Town Council, Cheshire West and Chester Council and numerous other organisations in the town.
In the event, Frodsham did not become a Portas Pilot, but the Government decided to give £10,000 to every partnership team which had made a bid. This was announced by the Government and even broadcast on the 10 o’clock news on television so it was in the public domain.
Cllr Dawson said the Town Council had created the Foundation to be independent and should be celebrating its success. There was never any question that the Government money could have come to the council and the whole point of the Foundation was that it could receive funding from elsewhere.
“We should be celebrating the organisation we have created and take pride in the fact that Frodsham is receiving funding as never before. Let’s get behind it.”