Councillors in the dark over sports club leases

The newly-elected Chair of the Welshpool Town Council’s Operations & Development Committee has called for information on the leases in place with sports clubs after claiming councillors were constantly being kept in the dark.

At its first meeting since two committees amalgamated, Cllr Phil Pritchard claimed that 90% of councillors had no idea what was in place for the various clubs to play at their Maesydre fields, and has demanded a presentation at the next meeting.

“Over the years we have mentioned the various leases we have with the clubs there, but I do believe that, like myself, 90% of the people in this room don’t know what’s in the leases,” he said.

“If we are the committee responsible we should know exactly what it is and we should have a presentation here in this chamber.

“I assure you it ends now. It is our responsibility as a committee, we are the people that must know prior to anyone else as to what’s involved. Because I will tell you what you end up doing, you charge one club £10,000 for a 12-month period and another club £1,000 for a 12-month period and you wonder why you have got problems. That’s what happens all the time.”

Previous Chair, Cllr Nick Howells, said that he had frequently asked for lease details after meeting with a number of clubs during his tenure but was told “whenever I questioned where are we with the leases, I just told that it was with the solicitor”.