There have been no meetings of the CDP since his appointment in May, but the chairman, Roy Schofield, has written to the council saying that he has 'reviewed the membership of the CDP'.

He said that he was particularly concerned about the make-up of the committee of the CDP following difficulties experienced by the Town Hall Management Committee with regard to its registration with ENTRUST - the regulator and overseer of the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF), which operates with a landfill operator to pass the tax forgone element of its landfill tax liability to environmental bodies, who then spend the monies on one or more approved objects.

Mr Schofield said in his e mail to the council that due to the severe restrictions imposed by ENTRUST, he had concluded that local authority representation on the CDP, in the form of councillors and officers, is more than adequate and in fact may need to be reduced.

Coun Stockwood said there was no indication in the constitution of ENTRUST that having a councillor on a body like the CDP would be a problem.

"I would be the only councillor on the CDP there as a councillor, and there are no officers," he said. "Other councillors on the body are there in a private capacity not as councilors."

Coun John Cole said he could see no grounds for his refusal to accept Coun Stockwood and asked if the CDP committee had made the decision or if Mr Schofield had made it himself and Coun Stockwood wondered if the CDP was 'a dictatorship'.
Councillors were also concerned to understand the relationship between the CDP and the Caistor Development Trust.

Coun Andre Wilkin said: "It has a massive impact on Caistor but does not seem to be accountable to anyone.

"How is it monitored and how do we find out what they're doing and why they're doing it?"

Deputy Mayor Ian Robinson, who was chairing the meeting, said: "I've had some reservations about CDP for some time. We don't know what they're doing."

* Councillors have also queried why there are no councillors on the committee of the Multi-Use Centre when the constitution states there should be four members each from the Town Council and the CDP. Coun Mike Stockwood said the only two councillors on the committee were not there as councillors but as private citizens. After being told by Coun Deb Barker that the constitution had changed because there was no financial input from the council, there was no need to have town councillors on the committee, but Town Clerk Ruth Dawson said she had no knowledge of a change. The council has now requested a copy of the constitution.