SUBJECT : TA centre - Corby Borough Council comment
A meeting of the Resources & Regeneration Overview Scrutiny Panel last night (21st Jan 2003) decided to lift the exemption on an item - Contribution to Catalyst Corby Former Territorial Army Site follow up report.

Councillor Mark Hill, chair of the panel, said "There has been much speculation in the press and a document has been leaked, which was not helpful as this added further delays to the process, but the Council had to comply with the law and this meant we had to keep the item exempt even though we wanted to tell the people of Corby what was going on.

One of our partners made a statement that enabled the panel to vote on the removal of the exemption. I was pleased we could remove it and as you will see the Council has been following the procedures exactly. I hope the doubting Thomas's amongst us will now be satisfied."

The item was exempt for 2 main reasons
1. It contained commercially sensitive information in relation to the contract, which has now been let.
2. Council sought legal advice to support its position and as this had legal implications the advice had to remain confidential.

English Partnerships, (as reported in the press 21-1-03,) will be funding the work to the TA site

Corby Borough Council is not funding this work

ET on Tuesday 21-01-03 Reporters Gill Harris and Paul Whitelam wrote,  page 9, column 4, 2nd paragraph - 'The council will pay for the work'.  

Perhaps Jon Whowell should actually 'read' what is printed

With the interest of the Council Tax payers in mind Corby Borough Council had explored the possibility of funding of the work at the TA site as an efficient financial method for paying part of its contribution to Catalyst Corby but this opportunity is now closed

Corby Borough Council will investigate further methods of making its contribution of £500,000 to Catalyst Corby over the next 2 years.

There were THREE options available to pay this money - The council choose the 'commutation' option and sought the approval of the District Auditor, which was given.
(This is from memory, will check the meeting minutes) Nigel Rudd was given delegated powers to pursue this. Why is this still not resolved?

This option gave the council another £200,000+  over and above the amount needed for Catalyst Corby - some of which went into the 'change reserve' to increase the salary of Officers, re-advertise posts, etc, etc

If the council have the money for Catalyst Corby, via the 'commutation' method, approved by the District Auditor, we ask - Why not just pay it!!

Why all the shenanigans?
ENDS>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>