A Bit More on CEHRNN and Its Funding

A bit more digging around 0n this strange business of the apparent removal of NCC's funding for the Council of Equality and Human Rights Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (CEHRNN) has turned up the fact that its predecessor organisation Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Racial Equality Council (NNREC) was awarded £122k pa in the latest 3 year funding round i.e. no small beer. This was awarded to help them provide training, advice and hate incident monitoring.

As I said in my previous post I think that it's doubtful that a decision of this significance can be made by an Executive Portfolio Holder under NCC's constitution. If you look at p22 of this document from NCC's constitution, although it is within the financial limits of a portfolio holder decision, a decision that is significant in its effects on two or more wards in the city must be made by the Executive Board. As CEHRNN works across the city and is the biggest anti discrimination organisation in Nottingham I really don't see how that condition cannot be said to apply. I think this opens the council up to the possibility of legal challenge.

Almost as importantly, there is no justification for keeping the decision secret. The claimed reasons for doing so don't really hold any water. The fact that it "contains information relating to both the financial or business affairs of any particular person" would apply to any such decision and you'd hope that "information relating to consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or negotiations" would have been completed before any such decision is actually made.