FRODSHAM Town Council is to withhold a £2,000 payment towards the cost of draining Ince and Frodsham Marshes.
Councillors agreed to withhold the contribution to the Ince and Frodsham Marshes Partnership following an angry outburst from Cllr Frank Pennington.
He said: “The town is short of money and we are going to give them £2,000 which belongs to the people of Frodsham.
They own the marshes – we don’t own them. If they want to run the pumps, let them use the money from the wind farm to pay for it.”
Cllr Pennington said the council was under no obligation to pay the money, even if it had been included in the budget, It was time they started taking a tougher line on giving money to other organisations.
Frodsham was not in danger of being flooded, he added.
Cllr Alan Oulton agreed. The payment was only a stop gap because the Environment Agency had said they were pulling out and would no longer be keeping the pumping stations going. But the Highways Agency had said they would take over because they had an obligation to prevent the M56 from flooding.
Cllr Mallie Poulton warned that the payment could be “the tip of an iceberg”
It was about time the council started getting a bit more penny-pinching, he said.
Councillors agreed to withhold the payment until further notice.
