Greenfields not "breaking the rules"

From the archive, first published Friday 27th Apr 2007.

Accusations that the rules of Greenfields Community Housing were broken have been refuted by Braintree District Council.

Former Braintree Community Gateway Group member Richard Essex claimed this week that while one of the board's rules state that no more than five board members are local authority persons, there are currently six.

He said: "Greenfields are advertising the fact on their website that they have 6 local authority people, and 17 board members instead of 15 as stated in rule D2.1.

"The councillors on the board are: Joanne Beavis, Neil Coughlan, Michael Banthorpe, David Mann, Eric Lynch, and Tony Shelton. They have been crafty and left off Neil Coughlan's councillor title. This is against the rules."

In response to Mr Essex's comments, a spokesman for the council and Greenfields said that the board was in a transitional period, and its composition, as agreed by tenants and leaseholders, would be in place by November.

The spokesman said: "For a short period, the Board is running in a transitional phase to maintain continuity and support its new members.

"This does not breach its rules as has been suggested and this transitional period has the full support of the Housing Corporation - the Government regulator."