Angry councillors query Cheshire East gift of £2.4m to Ansa

A special council meeting has been called for next Thursday (December 14) to discuss the decision by Cheshire East to gift £2.4m to Ansa following claims the decision was based on ‘incorrect or misleading information’.

The full council voted in July to transfer council tax payers’ money to the council’s waste and recycling company after the portfolio holder for finance, Cllr Paul Bates, said it would be a loan which would be repaid.

“That £2.4m will be coming out of the public purse initially but it is on a pay back scheme so Ansa will be paying that money back to the council at commercial rates,” Cllr Bates told the full council before members voted.

It has emerged the money will not be repaid to the council – it was a gift – to be spent on cleaning up contaminated land at Ansa’s own new site at Middlewich

Angry councillors, demanding that the money should be in the form of a loan and must be repaid, have called for a special meeting.

Bollington councillor, Amanda Stott (Ind), has tabled a motion: “Council recognises that aspects of its decision of July 27 to gift a sum of £2.4m to ANSA, were based on incorrect or misleading information and could, therefore, be perceived as unsound.“In order to provide clarity and assurance to its taxpayers, council now agrees to commute this sum to take the form of a fully repayable loan.”

Cllr Bates has apologised on a number of occasions for telling the council the money was a loan saying: “I have no problem in saying I made a mistake.

“When I was doing my preamble to that motion I made an error and I apologised for that in cabinet, I’ve apologised for that in the press.”

The council’s acting head of legal services, Dan Dickenson, said in August there was no need for a re-vote after the validity of the vote was questioned by a number of councillors.

Mr Dickensen said the vote had been based on the recommendation on the agenda [which did not say it was a loan].

“The council decision is valid and binding and lawful and stands and there is no legal basis on which it can be taken back to the council,” said Mr Dickinson in August.

But the Independents have refused to back down and now five, led by Cllr Stott, have called the special meeting, which will take place tomorrow , to challenge that.

The special council meeting will take place on the same day as the regular full council meeting, which starts at 11am on Thursday December 14 at Sandbach Town Hall. Both meetings are open to the public.