Sale of Cemetery Lodge may breach Councils own Financial Regulations

The controversial sale of the Cemetery Lodge by Hadley and Leegomery Parish Council could fly in the face of it’s own Financial Regulations.

In an investigation by Telford Live! we discovered that the Parish Council is unable to sell a property without ‘…a proper business case (including an adequate level of consultation with the electorate).”

While the minutes of the meetings are missing from the website, and the meetings were held behind closed door with press and public excluded, there is no mention of any attempt to carry out any form of consultation with the electorate following the decision by Councillors to pursue a sale of the Lodge.

We put a request in to the Parish Council Clerk asking “what consultation with residents has taken place regarding the sale, what was the outcome of the consultation” on Tuesday 5th March, but we have had no response or acknowledgement of the email, despite following up with a phone call in Thursday, being told ‘she is very busy’.

From the Financial Regulations themselves, “Failure to follow instructions within these Regulations brings the office of councillor into disrepute” and there is a risk of sanctions being applied to Councillors falling foul of this rule.

One resident has made a formal complaint about the matter and we await the Parish Councils response.

We wish to make it clear that there is no accusation of anyone making any financial gain from this decision, but it’s clear that many residents are against the sale, and we understand that a minority of Councillors did not vote for the sale to progress.

Pic: Google Street View