Following claims a report which led to calls for the Alsager Partnership Review Panel to be dissolved was a "mistake", panel members have called for an emergency meeting to be held before discussing the organisation's funding request for 2021/2022.

At last night's (Tuesday, 1 December) Alsager Town Council meeting of Finance, Policy and Governance Committee, councillors voted to defer discussing Alsager Partnership's funding request for 2021/22 until the New Year.

Representatives from the partnership's management team and Alsager Town Council are meeting tonight to iron out issues between the two organisations.

Speaking at the finance meeting, Cllr Sue Helliwell highlighted that the Cheshire Association of Local Councils (ChALC) is a member based organisation that exists to promote the rights and interests of town/parish councils across Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Warrington, Trafford and Halton boroughs.

ChALC also provides professional support for member councils in all aspects of their work and where necessary can provide formal legal advice on a wide range of council related issues, they also run a comprehensive training programme for clerks and councils.

Cllr Hough, who is the town council representative for Alsager Partnership, recently contacted Jackie Weaver, from the Cheshire Association of Local Councils (ChALC) and told her the situation between the review panel and the partnership "could not continue".

Cllr Hough circulated a document at the last review panel meeting from Ms Weaver, which recommended the "council might consider that it would be content to have the partnership report direct to the council itself or one of its committees".

Nub News previously reported that councillors who sat on the Alsager Partnership Review Panel had recommended that the panel is closed with immediate effect following the abuse they had received.

Cllr Helliwell said: "Not one councillor can ask ChALC to write a report, it has to come through the chairman of the council [Cllr Rod Fletcher], is this correct?

"Also, I can confirm as the ex-chair of the Alsager Partnership Review Panel we have had correspondence from ChALC to say the report was a mistake.

"Bearing that in mind, I am asking that the review panel have an emergency meeting before December 15 to discuss the email from ChALC and look at a way forward because that report should not have been written."

Cllr Derek Hough, chair of the Finance committee, confirmed he did ask for the report and he claimed it "has had the effect of clarification and I make no apology for it".

The panel's recommendation that the partnership review panel ceases with immediate effect is due to be discussed by Alsager Town Council on 15 December.

Giving her thoughts on the saga, Jackie Weaver told Nub News: "I think what we can all agree on is that Alsager Town Council and the partnership are passionate about Alsager and its communities.

"I was contacted by Cllr Hough and the town clerk and asked to give an independent view of the tensions between the review panel and the partnership."

"I agreed to do so but given the very short timescale I made it clear that this was not an in-depth review (although it may be the catalyst for one in the future) and it only took into consideration the Service Level Agreement, review panel's terms of reference, the notes of the meeting on 16 November and the partnership's vision for 2021 onwards.

"It took no account of any other issues or histories. The document drafted by me and presented to the panel had a number of recommendations that they may wish to consider and one of them was direct reporting and it is difficult to see how that then led to the panel considering that it should disband."

Amongst the other recommendations made by Ms Weaver, she suggested that the panel might wish to review the panel's terms of reference.

Ms Weaver continued: "Cllr Helliwell may well be of the view that the 'report should not have been written' and she may consider to be a mistake - I cannot comment on her views.

"Alsager Town Council asked for an opinion, it was drafted at short notice and therefore was narrow in its view and they are still able to commission a wider scale review of partnership working if they so wish.

"At that point, the views of many people would be considered."

Alsager Partnership has submitted a grant request for £12,000 for the financial year 2021/2022, although the organisation stated they may seek a further £3,000 should the additional funding be required.

The organisation's funding for the remainder of this financial year remains unresolved and is due to be discussed once again on 15 December.

Cllr Jane Hearne, who sits on the partnership review panel, did not understand why the committee was discussing next year's funding request on the eve of a meeting between the two parties and when the remainder of this year's funding had still not been agreed.

Referring to Cllr Helliwell's comments that Ms Weaver had made a "mistake", Cllr Hearne said: "That is why the review panel chose to close because we thought at the time enough was enough after receiving that report.

"Now we know it is a mistake, the partnership review panel meeting which was held on 23 November is now null and void."

Cllr Hearne suggested deferring discussing the partnership's 2021/2022 funding request until after tonight's meeting and wanted an emergency review panel meeting to discuss the recommendations ahead of 15 December to be held.

The Conservative councillor highlighted that in the partnership's anticipated costs for 2021/2022, it listed £10,950 for a Project Officer, but Cllr Hearne told the committee that the organisation did not have a project manager listed on their structure chart.

Cllr Hearne added: "All of a sudden the project manager has left, and we are still expected to pay £10,950 towards nobody.

"Administration is £10,145 that's fine, but I still need to reiterate where is the common sense in spending £6,500 on an office space when free office space is available [in Sandbach] to the partnership."

The partnership's total anticipated cost for 2021/2022 was £21,095 before any outgoings. Cllr Hearne highlighted that the organisation receives £8,000 from Cheshire East Council, which would leave £13,095.

Speaking on the financial information provided by the partnership for the current financial year, Cllr Hearne continued: "Using the partnership's figures only, I do agree with the incomings and outgoings which leaves them with a total of £15,261.08.

"However, the balance is missing from their finances is the opening balance on 1 April 2020 of £25,000. So, £25,000 needs to be added to the £15,261.08 in order for the information provided to be correct."

Cllr Hearne told the committee the addition of £25,000 would leave a carry forward balance that also included £10,000 for reserves, £5,000 for the dementia fund and £1,500 for the youth forum.

Once all those figures had been considered, Cllr Hearne claimed there would be a balance of £8,456.58 remaining in the partnership's account.

Cllr Hearne added: "I think the figure they should have been requesting is £4,638.42, that is not considering the office space. If you take the office space off, you can see we do not need to provide any money to them at all for next year."

Cllr Hough thanked Cllr Hearne for the work she had put in on the panel and although she came to "different conclusions on many occasions" to the partnership, he could not "doubt" the work and dedication she had put in.

Cllr Helliwell said: "The whole review panel worked extremely hard through the whole year; it was just saddened that we received a report 15 minutes before the meeting was due to start."

Cllr Hearne, who is a landlady rents out family homes for less than £6,500 a year, which is the same fee the partnership pays for an office used for storage.

Cllr Helliwell reiterated that no audited accounts had been provided to the panel from the partnership over the last year alongside previous requests over years prior.

Cllr Helliwell added: "I cannot understand how we are discussing giving them more money now, when they have not adhered to the Service Level Agreement to begin with."

Cllr Julia Hawkins said: "I do not see how I can vote in favour of this at this stage until we have had the meeting [tonight] and the review panel have had an opportunity to discuss a way forward."

Cllr Michael Unett agreed that a decision could not be made before other meetings had taken place.

Councillors agreed to defer voting on Alsager Partnership's funding request for the financial year 2021/2022 until after tonight's meeting and a meeting of the Alsager Partnership Review Panel had taken place.

The Alsager Partnership Review Panel recommended that the town council provided no further funding to the partnership for the remainder of the financial year 2020/21.

The partnership's funding for the remainder of the financial year will now be discussed at a town council meeting on 15 December.