A report into the goings on at Oakham Town Council has found 'significant underlying issues'. 

The town council has been embroiled in disputes and infighting for several months and now a confidential report seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), has outlined some of the issues going on in the authority. 

The report, written by Rutland County Council's monitoring officer Amanda Wakefield and an independent person, found that there are 'serious concerns about OTC's governance'. 

The findings were reported to RCC's standards committee in July and senior staff from RCC are to meet staff and councillors from OTC later this month to try and improve the way the council operates. 

The LDRS has decided to publish details of this report, which has also been sent anonymously to the Rutland and Stamford MP Alicia Kearns' office, for public interest reasons, as the town council spends public money that is levied on Oakham residents by a precept. 

In the coming months it will decide whether to commit as much as £400,000 towards taking on and repairing Victoria Hall, which is currently run by a charity. 

Over the past 12 months the town council has had three chairmen and had a number of councillors leave and join. The current chairperson is Chris Nix. 

The report says 12 complaints were filed within the 2024/25 municipal year and while the complaints did not lead to any formal sanctions it highlighted 'significant underlying issues'. 

It says a vacancy rate of 33 per cent 'presents a challenging environment' and increased co-options of councillors (who have not been elected at the ballot box) as well has created 'increased workloads and interpersonal friction'. 

Key observations cited in the report include; a pressing need for governance training; an excessive number of redundant policies; clear reporting lines for staff and a formal code of conduct for staff. 

It also said: "The council's reliance on informal and late-night communication communications, such as WhatsApp, is problematic and must be discontinued." 

It also said that an investigation revealed that a former councillor was engaged by the authority improperly, which may have breached the local government act.