Councillor Kerr, the de facto leader of Oswestry Town Council (OTC) responded very quickly to my letter to the Oswestry Advertiser when I criticised the council for going all the way to Cornwall for someone to install solar panels on the Powis Market Hall instead of using a local contractor.

Cllr Kerr was correct when he said, “anyone can come to a council meeting to ask a question”.

It is a basic right that any can ask a question – it’s called democracy.

He seemed upset that I had shared my concerns over the awarding of the contract with a local newspaper, again it is my democratic right and the democratic right of the newspaper to publish it if they so wished.

Since then, I have been privy to more information kindly supplied to me by OTC and having read this information carefully and together with information gained from another source I have concluded that the ultimate decision as to whom was awarded the contract came down to two fundamental reasons.

The first, a comparison between a local hospital who had their solar panels installed by the company awarded the contract, and the second, on the consultative advice given by a firm of consultants called the Marches Energy Agency.

The first, relies on an organisation whose reputation for procurement is littered with repeated failures.

This is a matter of a judgement call by the Council, though hardly a professional way to reach a decision.

The second, is more interesting, the Marches Energy Agency is a company (registered with the Charity Commission as a charity) that offers consultative services to local authorities among others.

This advice comes at a price, and in the case of Oswestry’s solar panels, the price was £2,576 plus vat, although OTC has a well-paid Operations Manager whose job description included “managing services, staff and contracts”.

What I find more than a little worrying is that when reading the Marches Energy Agency website, I noticed a page devoted to “Installers” that invites installers to “join our installer framework”.

One of the promises made by the company to an installer is that they will “Generate warm leads for you”.

I suggest that if an installer is a member of the Marches Energy Agency’s “Installer Framework” and then acts as a consultant to a local authority advising on contractual issues, then this is a conflict of interest and as such should be declared at the outset, especially as a private company does not fall under Freedom of Information legislation.

In conclusion I would like to say that I have no problem with the installation of solar panels, but that the work should have been awarded to a local company.

Paul Wiseman,

Oswestry