Who runs the council - Take 2

The more Paakwa delves into the murky waters of Craven district council, the more it seems to be that the council is controlled by a few people, rather than the councillors.
On name in particular crops up very often, that of Jonathan Kerr.
Jonathan has many mentions in this Blog, he it was who pushed the recommendation for selling a greenfield site to Bentleys at what might seem like a bargain price (HERE)
Jonathan was also the one who was brought to attention in the first of this series of 'who runs the council. (HERE)
He answered the ago old riddle of 'Why is a council like a condom?' (HERE) and he is also justly famed for explaining the meaning of 'Lively and animated' to an enlightened audience. (Video HERE)

But now Paakwa has discovered that Jonathan, aided by one David Smurthwaite (his assistant as far as is known) decided to spend our money without recourse to councillors.
Last year a money making enterprise was set up, called the Settle festival. This was set up by two promoters, Mark Dale, a chef by trade, and Mike Dean, a commercial holiday cottage rental executive, who formed a limited liability shell company with no employees, no experience, and no listed assets.

Jonathan and David decided to aid these two financially, not out of their own pockets, but out of ours.
Now the council does aid many worthy projects, indeed there were 17 worthy projects chosen who received grants. Not huge grants, for example the total for all sports grants was £6,000 and the total for arts was £3,140

So these charitable activities were aided.
But Settle music festival is not a charity, it is a money making venture.
So just how much of our money did they give to these two budding entrepreneurs?
No less than £11,500 - around FIVE times as much as say Ingleton Swimming Pool school support team got, they received £1,180 to encourage school children in swimming.

Jonathan does not have the right to give our money away, he is not a councillor,he is a highly paid employee of ours.
And so he went to the policy committee, headed by our old friend Carl Lis, who retrospectively approved his largess for this profit seeking endevour.
Isn't it good to know that employees such as Kerr can spend our money without bothering to ask councillors, knowing that they can get such permission afterwards?

This article gives details of the Settle festival planned for this year. Perhaps Craven district council, or Kerr, may be equally free with our money again?

FOI Request from Paakwa:

I note that £5,000 was given to the festival last year by CDC, apparently to pay for licensing, who approved this?

The actual sum granted was £11,500. This comprised of:

£8,100 licence fee

£150 license advert

£2,500 traffic survey

£200 local business event

£150 local business event advertising

Plus VAT

This payment was agreed by Jonathan Kerr and David Smurthwaite

And was it returned when the festival did not take place and remained unlicensed?

No.

Minutes of the Policy Committee, June 2007:

Table 2: Projects seeking retrospective approval

Settle signage project	£2k
Waterways Festival	£2k
Settle Festival	£11.5k total £8,100 licence £2,500 traffic survey £300 advertising £200 local business event Plus VAT