Parish council accused of wasting more money

There’s been more accusations of money wastage at Holbeach Parish Council after it was revealed that it is paying over £600 a month to HR companies.

This year alone the authority is set to pay two firms £7,440 to oversee its five current staff as well as having been told to re-establish its own HR committee which it got rid of last July at the time throwing out all pending complaints against councillors and employees.

Following the HR committee being disbanded, in September a company called Peninsula was appointed to take over the HR at a cost of £399.38 plus VAT per month.

But the parish council was already paying another company called ELAS for HR services and had been using it “for a number of years” a council spokesman said. It currently costs the council £200 plus VAT per month.

The Voice asked the parish council and its chair Coun Graham Rudkin why a second HR company had been appointed when the council already paid one, but did not receive an answer with Coun Rudkin declining to comment.

Now the council has also been told by the Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils that it needs to reform the HR committee in addition to any external HR companies.

The council says it agreed to serve ELAS notice on its contract at its meeting on January 18, but that it will have to continue to pay for the service until the contract finishes in December.

At that same meeting the council announced cost cutting measures including not immediately returning to its usual staff level of seven employees, an increase in its share of the council tax and that it was taking £30,000 out of the reserves to balance the books.

At the same time The Voice reported concerns had been raised as to why Holbeach Parish Council made two payments totalling more than £27,000 to creditors whose names were redacted in official documents.

The parish council declined to comment on the payments and whether they were linked to a mystery non-disclosure agreement mentioned in the meeting.

When asked for a comment on Holbeach Parish Council, Coun Rudkin said: “I’m here to hopefully get everybody working together and I think we are moving in that direction but it’s going to take time.

“There’s a fraction of the council that haven’t been working together and I’m hoping to rectify that.

“I can assure parishioners that whatever has been done has been decided on with the best interests of the town in mind.”