A REQUEST to waive a £4,320 council charge levied on Holmes Chapel Health Centre has been turned down – but questions now hang over how the decision was made.
The NHS medical centre, in London Road, is set to pay the fee to Cheshire East Council so that it can access the council-owned library car park for four months while the health centre is expanded.
Cllr Les Gilbert and Cllr Andrew Kolker, Conservative CEC members for Dane Valley, submitted the request at October’s full council meeting – insisting the move is ‘profiteering at the expense of the NHS’ and that there would be no loss of council income if it waived the fee.
The request was considered by Cllr Nick Mannion, cabinet member for environment and regeneration, before CEC informed Holmes Chapel Parish Council that it would not waive the fee.
But Cllr Gilbert insists neither himself nor Cllr Kolker were given an opportunity to challenge that decision before it was made – claiming the episode was ‘an abuse of process’.
Speaking at last Thursday’s full council meeting, Cllr Gilbert said: “I enquired with democratic services, who advised that the appropriate procedure would be for notice of the intended decision to be given to all members at least five working days in advance so that all members would have an opportunity to make representations.
“Further, that any officer report would be posted on the website.
“None of that happened. A decision was made in secret and notified by Cllr Mannion to Holmes Chapel Parish Council that the charge would stand.
“There was no such communication to Cllr Kolker and myself as proposers of that motion.
“I would ask Cllr Mannion what has gone wrong – isn’t that an abuse of process? What happened to openness and transparency?”
Cllr Mannion offered to meet both Dane Valley councillors in the new year to take another look at the matter in response to the concerns.
He added: “To be fair, when I saw it on the order paper, it was a rather unusual issue to be put forward as a member’s proposal.
“If Cllr Gilbert and his fellow ward councillor want to meet with me, I’m happy to do so to go through the process.
“I apologise for any confusion caused.”
But Cllr Gilbert questioned whether the meeting would be of any use if the decision had already been made – while Cllr George Hayes, Conservative member for Congleton West, questioned whether the original decision could still stand if it was not ‘in line with our constitutional processes’.
Using his position as mayor to intervene, Cllr Barry Burkhill said: “We’re getting into a debate and it isn’t a debate.
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“Cllr Mannion has offered a meeting to try and resolve this, and I am sure with a bit of good will each way it can be done, so let’s leave it at that for the time being.”
Jan Bakewell, CEC’s monitoring officer, added that he council ‘will look into it and respond’.
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