Directors of company delivering Tatton Park catering will not be paid (From Knutsford Guardian)

Directors of company delivering Tatton Park catering will not be paid

2:30pm Friday 4th January 2013 in News By James Wilson

THE directors of a new company set up by the borough council to deliver Tatton Park’s catering will not be paid, the council has confirmed.

Cheshire East Council set up a new company to make sure Tatton Park’s visitors are fed and watered after its current catering contract finished.

At a cabinet meeting in October the authority set up Tatton Park Enterprises Ltd.

The council said the company was set up to take over the catering contract from the current firm, which is set to end shortly.

But readers contacted the Guardian to ask whether the directors were to be paid as a result of being appointed and to see if the contract should have been put out to tender.

One of the company’s directors, Clr Jamie Macrae, said a tendering process was not required.

“The directors of Tatton Enterprises are not paid and receive no financial benefit,” he said.

“The sole purpose of the company is to deliver efficient services for Tatton Park through a company wholly owned by the council. A tender process was not required for this.”

At October’s meeting it was decided that Clr Jamie Macrae, Clr Peter Raynes, John Nicholson, the strategic director of places and organisational capacity, and Brendan Flanagan, the Tatton Park visitor and economy manager, would be made directors of the company, and Caroline Elwood, borough solicitor and monitoring officer, would be company secretary.

In light of the resignation of Mr Nicholson and Mrs Elwood from the council – as a result of the Lyme Green debacle – a council spokesman said the company was monitoring the situation but could not add more information.

“We are reviewing the implications for the board and will be talking shortly,” he said.