Oakham Town Council are set to employ an accountant to look into the "transparency" of their finances following an online leak about missing petty cash.

Last week, local writer and former Oakham Town Councillor Martin Brookes received an anonymous email that petty cash was missing from the Oakham Town Council funds.

Now, Oakham Town Council have revealed, in a newly released meeting agenda, that they intend on employing an accountant to "check the books for transparency". This will cost the Council £520 plus travelling expenses.

Chair, Cllr Sally-Anne Wadsworth confirmed that there are "funds unaccounted for, whether it is theft or accounting mistakes hopefully this will be sorted by an outside accountant checking over the books".

It appears that the loss of public money has been reported to Leicestershire police.

The Oakham Town Council agenda for meeting of 23 December 2022.

We have received comment from Martin Brookes, who originally exposed the leak: "Why is it whenever something is wrong at Oakham Town Council why do we need leaks rather than the council being open and transparent? Why when important questions asked are people accused of bullying?

"It concerns me that public money has gone missing and the council appears to only want to investigate, once a leak has sprung. This makes me question the credibility of our local councillors who may have known about this loss."

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