LYME REGIS: Councillors will consider adopting a government document following calls for the town council to be more open with the public.

Members of Lyme Regis Town Council have raised concerns over a confidential contract awarded to Hansford Construction Ltd to complete work at Monmouth Beach - believed to be a six-figure sum. Last month, councillors met behind closed doors and unanimously gave the go-ahead – but the amount of public money to be spent has not been made public.

Cllr Cheryl Reynolds asked the strategy and policy committee to adopt the Department for Communities and Local Government’s document ‘Open and Accountable Local Government’ as part of their standing orders.

“I would like to make an addition to the standing orders to encompass the open and accountable local government document” said Cllr Reynolds. “It is a guide to the press and public, in view of the recent issues releasing information regarding contractors.”

Cllr Rikey Austin said that although the document may be worth looking at, she had no knowledge of its existence and would need time to review it before making a decision.

The document sets out what the governments expects of authorities including town councils in relation to transparency.

Part of the document states “The Local Government Transparency Code sets out the minimum datasets that your local authority should publish. These include spending transactions valued over £500, salaries of senior staff, organisational charts, contracts and the location of public land and assets.”

Deputy mayor Cllr Anita Williams said the council has ‘ground to cover’ in what it releases to the public.

“It might be a very sensible adoption but we need to be able to consider it properly” she said.

“Generally on the release of information, we clearly have some ground to cover. It’s no surprise to anybody that I feel we should be releasing more information.

“I suggest we defer until we can properly consider the document.”

Committee chairman Cllr Mark Gage also suggested the council needed to review it's policy regarding information.

“It may be that some of this document makes sense but I do feel it would be unwise to adopt a document when the majority of us don’t have any knowledge of it” he said.

“I definitely think it is worth reviewing it and to be given the opportunity to include elements of it in a future review of standing orders. We need to make sure that the processes we are using are fit for purpose.”

Cllr Reynolds withdrew her call for the document to be adopted as a standing order, and the paper will be made available for councillors to review.