Shropshire Council Labour group calls for public inquiry into £80,000 TNS grant
Two senior Labour councillors have called for a public inquiry into a controversial £80,000 grant the authority gave to The New Saints Football Club.
Councillor Alan Mosley, leader of Shropshire Council's Labour group, and his deputy, Councillor Harry Taylor, said an independent inquiry was now needed to clear the air about the circumstances of the money given to The New Saints of Oswestry Town FC (TNS) in 2012.
Shropshire Council says the grant was given on condition that the money was paid back by the club in the form of grants to Oswestry Town Council, but only £10,000 was actually repaid.
Last week the Shropshire Star revealed the full findings of the council's own internal inquiry, which said it was not clear whether the failure to recover the money was 'by design or accident', and that at least eight opportunities to claim the money back had been missed.
It also revealed that crucial computer files had been 'inadvertently wiped'.
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The council's Labour group has written council leader Councillor Peter Nutting and chief executive Clive Wright saying it is now time for an independent figure to probe the matter more thoroughly.
Councillor Mosley said: "We’ve called for an independent inquiry after listening unprecedented and growing demands from local residents who want the truth on the so called ‘legacy grant’ to TNS.
"The public standing of Shropshire Council risks sinking further unless this whole affair, and associated issues are investigated independently.
"Even the internal audit report raises the question of whether the lack of efforts to reclaim the money was due to 'design or accident'.
"I want to know if it was by design or accident."
Councillor Mosley said he was also concerned that a council official who prepared an invoice asking the club to repay £32,000 in 2014 was told to "hold until next week before doing anything please".
He said only an independent investigation, with public and transparent conclusions, could restore confidence in the council's ability to handle major financial transactions.
"The inquiry could be led by a retired judge, a barrister, or a senior police officer, somebody who would be truly independent," he said.
"It needs a completely fresh pair of eyes, somebody who would be able to conduct a more rigorous investigation in terms of interviewing people, rather than just looking at the paper trail."
In a letter to Councillor Nutting and council chief executive Clive Wright, the Labour group said: "Press reports have fed speculation across social media and raised suggestions of corruption and wrong-doing by past and present members of the council.
"Quite clearly, this has the potential to cause significant reputational damage to the council, and reflect badly on all councillors and officers, whether they were involved or not.
"Having read the uncensored report in full, along with other documentation surrounding this ‘legacy grant’ and related issues, we believe that only an open and independent inquiry can resolve this matter.
"We would suggest that this should include the forensic examination and retrieval of information in the files which were stated in the audit report as having being wiped." Councillor Taylor added: “Like me, many new councillors weren’t in office when this affair unfolded and many more had little to no knowledge of it. "Yet the repercussions of the ongoing speculation reflects badly on all councillors and council officers. Only an independent inquiry can settle this issue.”
TNS chairman Mike Harris insists that because the payment was a grant and not a loan, the club was under no obligation to repay the money. But internal emails between the council and the club show that the council expected the money to be repaid.
