Observations on the KCDT funding by Charles McEwan
Community Councillor
As you know your new community council has been raising questions on your behalf about the windfarm money and it has been like pulling out teeth because the Trust are incredibly secretive about what they have been spending the money on.
I was talking with other board members the other day about the winter fuel payment and apparently it is taking a long time because the Trust has decided to contact the electricity companies you all use and arrange for the payment to be applied to your fuel bill as a discount.
I asked why the Trust would not simply send the money directly to your bank account. It would save a lot of time and effort by our Community Development Officer who should really be working on the Action plan and it also involves a lot of bureaucracy for the electricity companies.
The answer to the question, it seems, is because the Trust is afraid that if they send the money directly to your bank account you might (horror of horrors) spend the money on something other than winter fuel.
Charles McEwan
I’ve had some feedback and it seems the Trust are not allowed to send out cheques which means that the only method getting the winter fuel allowance to people is through the Electricity companies giving a discount so my original post was inaccurate. Sorry about that.
Might I suggest that, as a way of encouraging the community to take up (FREE) membership of the trust, that any similar community wide payments in the future be dependent on being a trust member.