A special meeting is to be held in Brora to discuss a community council energy fund after payments were frozen amid governance concerns.
Brora Community Council has announced it will hold an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday, May 5, at Brora Community Centre to discuss its fuel payment initiative. The meeting will be open to the public.
The fund, which was recently launched to help individuals and families struggling with energy bills, was set up using £20,000 secured from the Kilbraur Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund.
However, concerns were raised at a community council meeting earlier this month about how the fund had been established and managed.
It emerged that discussions about setting up the fund had taken place in private and were not minuted, leaving no formal record.
Councillors also confirmed that a separate committee of three community council members had been responsible for assessing applications, with 28 payments made so far, most of around £150 each.
Members of the public questioned both how the scheme had been publicised and whether the decision-making process was sufficiently independent and transparent.
Following the concerns, community council vice-chairperson Dave Andrews proposed holding a special open meeting focused solely on the fund, with payments paused in the meantime.
Next week’s extraordinary meeting is intended to allow further discussion and provide clarity on how the initiative will operate going forward.
