Cllr Loakes should now provide invoices from project

5:09pm Wednesday 5th November 2008

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YOU report that pressure is mounting on Councillor Loakes over the Better Neighbourhood Initiative affair (‘Demands for inquiry over funds fiasco’, 30 October). You are quite correct.

When the BNI programme’s many faults were first exposed, Councillor Loakes blamed officers for the mess. With regard to the latest revelations, he cannot so do.

On October 26, 2006, and again on January 22, 2007, the Local Strategic Partnership executive awarded its chair full delegated authority for approval of all forthcoming BNI projects A few weeks later, in response to my concerns about what seemed a very unusual process, this same chair told me that he only gave his approval ‘following the production of appropriate paperwork for each project and detailed discussion with officers’.

Who was the chair in question? Councillor Loakes.

What happened next? Some £250,000 was allegedly spent on nine ‘social cohesion’ projects.

But when a consultant later checked up on these, it was revealed that none had been tendered correctly, four had not been signed off correctly, none had been monitored or audited.I have a straightforward challenge for Councillor Loakes: either produce the invoices for these nine projects, and explain once and for all how the money was spent, or do the honourable thing.

Nick Tiratsoo, Odessa Road, Leytonstone.