Councillors are set to oversee Northumberland regeneration company following controversy

Northumberland County Council’s audit committee looks set to take on responsibility for oversight of its controversial regeneration company.
County Hall.County Hall.
County Hall.

This proposal, which would cover Advance Northumberland and any other of the authority’s subsidiaries, was welcomed by members of the committee at its meeting on Wednesday, September 30, but as it requires a change to the constitution, the proposal will need to go to full council for approval.

It follows on the back of a suggestion from the authority’s new external auditors Mazars for a group audit committee approach, ‘to enhance oversight of governance throughout all the entities within the county council’s accounting group boundary’.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Cameron Waddell, from Mazars, said that those he had spoken to from the council and Advance had been supportive, but he added: “Getting it right might take a bit of time.”

Cllr Nick Oliver, the cabinet member for corporate services, also told the meeting that his colleague, Cllr Richard Wearmouth, the chairman of Advance, backed the idea.

It comes as the council-owned company was highlighted as part of what the chief executive Daljit Lally described as ‘serious whistle-blowing concerns’, revealed as she was put on ‘extended leave’ in early August.

At the time, the firm’s managing director Ken Dunbar said that he was ‘surprised’ to see a reference to ‘significant concerns’ about the ‘well-run’ company, but that any ‘significant allegations’ would be ‘thoroughly investigated’.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A financial update earlier this month did, however, confirm that the council is forecasting a £5.5million overspend by the company in 2020-21, due to a legal claim from contractor Farrans, after halting work on the Northumberland Energy Park (NEP1) project on the Blyth estuary in March amid the Covid-19 pandemic, although this is to be ‘vigorously defended’.

Cllr Mark Swinburn, vice-chairman of the audit committee, said: “For some time, questions and concerns have been raised on a number of occasions by members of this committee and while answers have been provided, I’m sure some members have not been fully confident with not having direct sight or access themselves to some of the information. I feel that this can only improve the situation.

“This will help remove some of the perception that things might not have been taken with the same level of seriousness or severity that members might prefer and help remove some of those feelings of things possibly being swept aside.”

The chairman, Cllr Georgina Hill, added: “It seems to be the kind of thing that would be good practice and recommended regardless of the history, but put simply we have lost patience really.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We’ve kept asking questions, we know they were seemingly a new organisation trying to put the bad history with Arch in the past, but we have failed to get any assurance about that.”

Advance Northumberland was specifically set up to replace its predecessor Arch, following concerns around governance and spending, including serious allegations of wrongdoing, under the previous Labour administration.

The early part of the current Conservative tenure was characterised by revelations about previous issues such as lavish spending on hospitality, including £58-a-bottle wine on trips to property events in Cannes, the awarding of contracts to firms involving the family members of politicians and staff, and generous remuneration for certain consultants.

Northumbria Police were involved but later concluded that ‘no criminal offences have been identified’.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper.

If you can, please do pick up a copy when you are at the shops. Thank you for your support.