Last time CPALC gave SNTC Quality Town Status

This is what happened with the Quality Town Council. It was a "Shambles". Two damning external auditors reports. A Town Council in a mess. The Eatons Community Centre was stopped because the Town Council didn't really know how much money it had. Financial reports weren't brought to Town Council. meetings didn't take place. Everything was hushed under the carpet. Even when the two damning reports were published they are not on the Town Council website and electors were charged 60 pence for the privilege of reading each of these damning reports.

Try to question these reports and questions are batted away. The Town Council doesn't want to learn from its history. CPALC gave the Town Council Quality Status and with that badge it covered lots of wrong doings. CPALC has again bunged awarded the Town Council the Quality Status label. But who is CPALC?

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) is the national trade body for 8500 Local Councils - Parish and Town Councils - many of which are small insignificant Councils which hardly worthy of mention. NALC claims the coverage is 35% of the population of England which means 65% get on without this level of Government. When the Conservatives started Compulsory Competitive Tendering, back in the 90's, only 41 Town and Parish Councils were caught in the net. St Neots Town Council is one of the largest. NALC is designed for small councils. And so are the County Associations which are NALC representatives in the shires. The County Associations are the local trade bodies. They are their to promote Town and Parish Councils in the County and offer advice to their members.

How does NALC and CPALC get its money to operate? The main source is from subscriptions from Town and Parish Councils. CPALC charges St Neots Town Council a subscription fee. This is raised from the local council taxpayer by way of the Council Tax. So CPALC is funded by council taxpayers. It relies on members continuing to be members.