Issue - meetings

In accordance with paragraph 2.32 of the Committee Procedural Rules and Appendix 7 to the Rules a total period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the Committee on any matter relevant to the work of the body in question.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman or person presiding will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question or make a statement at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given.

Sue Helliwell asked about the £20,000 that the Cheshire Neighbours Credit Unit had received from the Council and asked for confirmation that the money went to the most vulnerable people and not to the directors, managers, staffing costs and rental costs. 

Director of Finance and Customer Services responded that the Credit union had provided suitable evidence and that the money could not be gifted to individuals and only used for loans.  He suggested that she contact the Credit Union directly with any further questions on their accounts.

Councillor Tony Dean asked about the source(s) of the reported £2m in s.106 funding which have been identified as possible funding to encourage developers of Community Housing sites in the Cabinet’s proposals.

The Executive Director of Corporate Services responded that this was a question for Cabinet, as the scheme had only just been agreed, and once the monies were included in the accounts, then the Committee would be able to provide assurances.  The Director of Finance and Customer Services stated that any movement of money between schemes would require approval and agreed to provide a written response to the question.

Councillor Janet Clowes referred to the monthly Covid-19 financial returns submitted to the Government and asked if this Committee and the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee could see them.  She also asked about specific auditing of Covid-19 income and expenditure.

In response the Director of Director of Finance and Customer Services stated that the returns were published by the Government and that he would circulate the link to them. Mark Dalton of Mazars responded that they would be looking at the significant amounts of income and expenditure in relation to Covid-19 as they undertook their audit of the Council’s Statement of Accounts in the next few months.  There were no specific audit procedures in relation to Covid-19 but understood that the Government may ask the auditors to undertake some certification work and he would inform the Committee is this was to happen.

Councillor Patrick Redstone stated that he had been going to ask a question on the £4.5m of discretionary government funding available for small and medium sized businesses under Covid-19 but had received a phone call that morning from an officer concerning this money and had been reassured that this money would be released and distributed and was awaiting an email from the officer confirming the details.