Council Leader and Vice - acting in a way thats not appropriate ?

Question

In March 2024 our Parish Council voted to buy a 6 acre strip of land on Star Fen. Several Councillors and many residents of the village objected to this purchase and the way it was done. • No one other than the Chair and Vice-Chair were aware of the exact location of this field until the last moment, and it was only discussed in Closed Sessions that excluded the public • Contrary to the rules that govern Parish Councils there was no Business Case for the purchase. There will be further expense to make it accessible for public use and there is no plan detailing how much more money will be needed The cost of this land was the equivalent of two-thirds of the Councils tax income in 2024.
The land is some miles away from the village, there is no provision for getting there, the land is quite boggy, and they want to use it as a public area, there are no street lights to get there, there is a very small road with no provision for pedestrians, no facilities on the site, and no disabled facilities anywhere.

The council leader and Vice, have refused to give information when asked, like price paid, whether any surveys, for the land have been completed, whether the land has been used as a dump or any other such use, constant questions are being ignored, they have indicated that further expense will be required but refuse to inform ANYONE of what they may be or the cost. Is there anything we can do to get this sorted properly, they have spent tens of thousands of pounds on a piece of land that no one can get too safely, there are no  facilities, and the land is in the middle of nowhere, and you can only get to it safely by car, meaning anyone that does wish to walk (upwards of 4 miles round trip) they are taking their lives into their hands as the road is not suitable.

Answer 1

"Council Leader" is immediately ringing alarm bells.. the role simply should not exist within a Parish/Town/Community Council. The role of Chair in this setting must never attempt to mirror that of a principal authorities "Leader". I assume a majority of your elected Cllrs considered the information within a formal meeting and have made the decision (if they have voted for it.. very little you can do at this point). From your post it appears you know (or have a good idea) how the Council has paid so presumably information is in public domain?

Comments

The land idea was originally agreed upon by members, in principal, but the Chair and V/Chair went ahead and purchased this land without the knowledge of the other Councillors, it was only after the purchase did the location and value paid came out, because one Councillor kept on and on at them about it, NO information is in the public domain, they are refusing to put anything out, saying that there is a confidentiality clause in the Valuers paperwork - they are also refusing to say whether surveys had been completed before purchase and what the expected cost is going to be ongoing.

All questions as at the Extraordinary meeting called for last night were fobbed off, or answered with a different reply to the question asked.

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Where is your Parish Clerk / Responsible Financial Officer (often combined role depending size of council)? They should be advising (and obtaining specialist advice) on matters such as this. This process shouldnt be Chair or Vice led.. Even to obtain free/gifted land we followed a clear process and it was nothing more than tiny strip of grass blocking entrance to Play Area in contrast.

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The chairperson owns a farm near to Star Fen. Is this land being purchased owned by them or someone else?

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The Clerk is off sick, due in major part to bullying from the Chair and Vice chair, as discussed last night, I believe further action is being taken on that front, there is NO clerk and apparently the Vice chair is doing that roll, which seems to be a huge conflict.

Answer 2

Are you a Cllr or a member of public?

Any decision of a council can only be made by after a publicly advertised agenda item, a proposal and a seconder and a majority vote of the council.
Decisions such as described cannot lawfully be made, unilaterally, by 1 or 2 Cllrs (regardless of whether they may be chair and / or vice chair)

Comments

Sorry, just to clarify, I am public, however, the majority of the Parish Councillors were NOT advised of WHERE, HOW MUCH, ETC of the land except for the Chair and vice Chair, the idea of buying a piece of land for the use of the village was agreed upon, but at no point until it had been paid for, £75,000 for a 6 acre piece of land, were ANY of the other council members made aware of where this land was or how much was paid, ONLY the chair and vice chair - the clerk of the council is off sick, as she was bullied by the chair and vice chair, and so were previous clerks. (This all came out in  a public meeting arranged by another Councillor last night)

The land is apparently sold by the land owner for way less than the other pieces of land he is selling, and it came out last night that this parcel of land may have been used as a dump before hand, but when asked by myself and others if surveys had been done, the vice chair refused to answer (The chair never bothered to attend) in fact out of the 40+ questions asked by the parishioners, less than 10% were actually answered with a genuine answer, the rest were fobbed off.

I asked "were there any disabled facilities going to be available, and had a disability requirements survey completed" I was greeted by the "the woodland trust is dealing with it" as far as I am aware, the woodland trust does not deal with disability access, requirements and more.

It also came out that the there would be need to be an excessive amount of extra money needed to fence the entire land off from roaming deer, so that the trees being planted would not be destroyed, again, questions were asked as to who is paying, and the answer came back as they do not know. They were applying for grants, and apparently they can not get them "NOW" so it is looking like over £200.000 more is going to be required. The vast majority of the people there, and the hall was at maximum with people outside the open fire doors, are all of the opinion that the land is not wanted by the village, and it is a waste of money, what can be done now ?

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Did the purchase occur in March 2024? If so check whether your council is still within the period that you can object to the external auditor. if it is, you can object to the EA on the basis that there is an unlawful payment.

If the purchase happened later than March 2024 you will have to wait till next year (first 10 days of July at least).

It won't reverse the purchase, not a lot can be done about that now if it has already happened. But you will get the external auditors decision whether the council has acted outside its powers or not.

Answer 3

To get a copy of the information you should submit a Freedom of Information request. The council legally would have to supply this information unless they can claim an exemption.

They may try to claim exemption 41 (information provided in confidence). However to rely on this exemption the breach of confidence must be actionable, i.e the person breached must be able to take the case to court and win. Case law on the common law of confidence suggests that a case won't win if there is a public interest in the information. Therefore the case would not win, is inactionable and section 41 exemption cannot be relied upon. If they still refuse to release the information you would have to make a complaint to the ICO.

Answer 4

Putting to one side whether or not buying the land was a good idea, did the council vote to make the purchase? Did they know how much they were spending when they voted? Under what power did they make the purchase (eg. was it under general power of competence or some other power)? Is there any relationship between the landowner/seller and any of the councillors that might be a disclosable interest, and if so, what happened about it?