Westmorland and Furness Council has blamed an “administrative delay” after details showing four of its councillors had become directors of a Community Interest Company were not published on the authority’s public register before the company applied for public funding.
The admission comes 48 hours after Penrith.Town revealed that four Liberal Democrat councillors had set up E927 CIC, a Community Interest Company created to deliver celebrations marking the 1,100th anniversary of Athelstan’s conference at Eamont in 927.
The documents lodged with Companies House show the company was incorporated without an asset lock in its Articles of Association.
The company’s governing documents also contain provisions allowing directors to be remunerated for services provided to the company and to undertake paid work for the CIC, subject to the provisions set out in the Articles.
At the time Penrith.Town published its investigation, none of the four councillors’ declarations of interest displayed on the Westmorland and Furness Council website showed they were directors of E927 CIC.
Following the report, all four declarations of interest were updated on Monday afternoon to show their roles as directors.
A spokesperson for Westmorland and Furness Council said:
“This makes clear they are unpaid directors of the Community Interest Company. However, there was a delay in adding this information to the council’s website. This has now been rectified, and we apologise for any confusion caused.”
The council has confirmed that the four councillors are currently unpaid directors of E927 CIC.
However, the Articles of Association lodged at Companies House set out provisions allowing directors to receive payment for services and to undertake paid work for the Community Interest Company.
The update to the declarations of interest comes just before the Eden Locality Board meets at Voreda House on Wednesday evening, where councillors will be asked to approve a £6,000 grant for E927 CIC to create a website for the Eamont 927 celebrations.
The report before the board asks members to allocate £6,000 from the Board’s Priorities Budget towards the website.
Despite the application being made by a company whose directors include four serving Westmorland and Furness councillors, the report does not state that the directors of E927 CIC are elected members of the council.
It also does not identify that four members of the Eden Locality Board include the current Eden Locality board chairperson are directors of the company seeking the funding.
The report states:
“E927 is a Community Interest Company formed to develop a celebration for the nationally significant 1100th anniversary of Athelstan’s conference at Eamont in 927 after which he became the first King of the English. They additionally will create legacy artifacts of this celebration that will continue to be a source of pride to Eden’s people and a benefit to the leisure and tourist industry.”
It adds:
“The overall Eamont 927 project will develop a confident and empowered community by giving all residents a pride in place and an awareness of the national significance of their place. It will also help sustain the local economy by increasing the cultural and heritage offering of the Penrith area.”
The report says the project will also support other local organisations involved in the celebrations by providing professional publicity and helping attract future sponsorship.
It states:
“All the other local entities who want to organise a small part of the overall celebrations will benefit from the professional publicity that will project nationwide. It will also be easier to raise further funding through sponsorship if we can direct possible sponsors to a professional website.”
The council report estimates the wider Eamont 927 project will benefit 1,050 children and young people aged between five and nineteen, along with 6,020 adults aged 20 to 55 and over.
The funding request comes after council Place Action Groups had already allocated thousands of pounds of public money into the bank accounts of two parish councils for work connected with the same wider project.
Wednesday evening’s Eden Locality Board meeting will consider whether to approve the £6,000 allocation to E927 CIC after the council updated the public declarations of interest for the four councillors involved.
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