Penarth Town council refuses to answer questions on secret 'momentum' group

Alice Turner Customer Services Lead Penarth Town Council 029 2071 3841 www.penarthtowncouncil.gov.uk

The FOI response received on the "Future Projects Partnership" and the "Penarth Bench"  says "All funding for projects is approved through public meetings of Council Committees – as outlined above. If such approval is not granted, then projects are not taken forward." This is a grossly misleading statement. It implies that the Town Council  - or a Town Council committee -  sits in open session and assesses proposals by the "Future Projects Parnership" PRIOR TO authorising expenditure.

I asked 'Who are the members?' of the momentum group.

Your don't answer that question. Please tell me who the three Cllrs are who 'sit' on the cmte and how often they have attended meetings. A recruitment exercise in 2014 is well out of date, and is not an excuse for hiding the identities of its members.

The Town Council is not required to reveal the identities of community members who sit on a community group on a voluntary basis. For information, the Councillors who sit on the Group, as Observers, are Councillors Cuddy, Thomas and Turner. They have attended over 90% of meetings over the last 12 months.

I have identified members as Chris Loyn, Gary Soltys and Peter Knowles The chair is Martin Gossage as well as Chris Edwards? the Vale of Glamorgan’s new Town Centre Manager.

The Vale of Glamorgan Council’s Town Centre Manager sits on the Group in an advisory capacity.

Why is the small group all men and unrepresentative of the community.
There are not Representatives from the Civic Trust, or the Friends of Belle Vue sit on Group as I was at the AGMs of both and no person was appointed to that cmte.

The Group contains women members. Representatives from the Friends of Belle Vue and the Civic Trust sit on the Group.

Please send me the minutes of the meeting of the Council’s Strategic Review Group where funding for this group was discussed as it is not on your website .

The Strategic Review Meeting is not a Council Committee – no minutes are available to members of the public. All Committee Minutes are published on the PTC website.

Can you explain the law or basis on which this secretive group has been formed, which is making important decisions and spending our money, to avoid scrutiny and hide the membership from the public.
The existence of this secretive group is in contravention of the guidance for Community and Town Councils in Wales, issued, in part, under section 55 of the Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Act 2013. Section 55 places duties on local authorities to make certain information available electronically. When carrying out their duties under section 55, Community and Town Councils have a statutory duty to have regard to this guidance.

Please see previous reply. This is a Community Group. Any Town Council funding associated with the Group’s projects is approved via public committee.

Councils have a requirement to advertise council meetings and proceedings and registers of members’ interests. The members in this group are in fact acting as co-opted members and their names and political affiliations should be recorded in the interest of transparency.

I look forward to the complete information asap.

Please note, in line with the following advice from the Information Commission if any further requests are made in relation to this issue, then a charge will be made:

From the Information Commissioner:

"A public authority can charge for the time taken by its staff on the activities included in communicating the information.

Regulation 7(5) indicates that staff time is to be charged at the flat rate of £25 per hour, irrespective of whether a higher rate is actually incurred by internal staff or charged by external contractor staff. "

More here 

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/who_controls_the_momentum_group#incoming-946041