TETBURY Town Council has been slammed by its own members after officers missed a crucial funding deadline, throwing an international youth sporting event into doubt.
Organisers Cllr Tina Stevenson and Cllr Sandra Ball had planned to invite children from France, Slovenia and Bulgaria for a culture exchange with children in Tetbury in May next year. The event was to be funded through an EU grant.
But at a stormy town council meeting on Monday evening, members were told that officers, led by chief executive Natalie Haines, failed to submit the grant application by the deadline of October 20.
At a town council meeting on Monday, October 24, Cllr Stevenson told Tetbury mayor Stephen Hirst: “You have failed. Our chief executive has failed.”
“This is an absolute blinder of a mistake to the people who totally let the young people of Tetbury down. It is total lies.”
In response to a suggestion by the mayor that there would be provision of budget money for the next financial year which would allow the French to come over to the UK, she said: “We had to apply for the funding, stock the cash up and the funding would replace that cash.
“If the funding was not applied for, whether we have the £8,000 in our budget next year makes no difference.
“I do not understand what has not been understood by the officers and the mayor sitting at the top of this table.”
Cllr Hirst also said that he did not think there was any intention to run the whole celebration in Tetbury next year and that what had been planned was a visit by the French to Tetbury.
But Cllr Stevenson told the mayor: “What a major cover-up. What a massive load of rubbish. Have you not been to any of these meetings? You obviously haven’t.”
Chief executive Ms Haines explained that time was set aside on October 20 to fill out the application. But she was told on the day that the deadline, which was midnight, had been missed.
She added the town council would not have had the time or capacity to fill out the application: “We were hoping that it was an hour of our time on the 20th. I would not have agreed to write the bid.
“There are about 35 to 40 pages where you have to write about the project and I did not have the detail.”
Cllr Maggie Heaven, who represents the Tetbury East and Rural ward in Cotswold District Council, said she was ‘disgusted’ and ‘disappointed’.
She said: “Who is going to tell the parents and children that they are not able to go to France or the French cannot come over here because there is no funding?
“I am further disgusted with the fact that one of the responses from the town council was: ‘The youth of Tetbury is not my responsibility and it is not my priority. I am in the middle of doing a leader grant.’”
(Cllr Maggie Heaven, pictured with twins from the French town that Tetbury was due to exchange with)
Former chairman of Tetbury Chamber of Commerce Jeremy Townsend also expressed his frustration: “If this was corporate, I would call for the resignation of the chief executive because I think this is absolutely wrong.”
Cllr Martin Lea said: “I’m obviously very disappointed that we haven’t got the grant, but I’m very worried that you say you can find the funding from our budget.
“Is it really fair on the people of Tetbury? Do you realise how much it is going to cost and can you guarantee that?”
It was agreed at the meeting that Cllr Stevenson, Cllr Ball and Cllr Lea will be revising costs for the event and moving forward with plans.
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