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A meeting about the financial situation at Nottingham City Council-owned Robin Hood Energy has been held behind closed doors, despite a request from the media to report on it.

All Labour councillors today (Monday, October 14) voted in favour of removing the press and public from the Audit Committee after five minutes, before the discussion about Robin Hood Energy (RHE) started.

The city council’s external auditor has said the city council’s exposure to Robin Hood is in the region of ‘£40 million’, and that a decision needs to be taken on whether RHE is a "going concern" - whether the company can continue trading for the foreseeable future.

Shortly after the auditor made these comments, energy regulator OFGEM issued RHE with a £9.5 million bill, and threatened to remove their licence if it went unpaid.

However councillors decided all of the discussion about the financial situation should be held in private at the meeting held on Monday, October 14, because it was ‘commercially sensitive’.

Currently, the annual audit of RHE has not been published, meaning the city council’s accounts cannot be approved.

Before the meeting, a joint bid was submitted to the committee from Nottinghamshire Live, BBC Nottingham and the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

It said: “Public money has been invested in a publicly-owned company, and we believe the public has a right to all the information it can be given about an important part of the city’s economy.

“RHE has thousands of customers and hundreds of members of staff and the matters discussed at the meeting is likely to be of great importance to them.

“However it also has a whole city of stakeholders, with a recent report by a senior auditor stating that the city’s exposure to the company was around £40 million.

“Many Nottingham residents not directly involved in the company are essentially investors in it, as public money has been used for the project.

“For the public to have faith that the scrutiny is being done publicly and robustly it is essential that meetings such as this are not held behind closed doors, and we feel the damage which could be done to the council’s reputation from attempting not to do so is considerable.

“The council frequently points out that due to central government budget cuts, money is not as freely available as it was.

“In tight economic times it should become even more important that any spending is subject to as much public scrutiny as possible."

Councillor Michael Edwards represents the Meadows ward for Labour. Speaking at the meeting ahead of the vote, he said: “When we come to talk about Robin Hood Energy I will want to ask questions which are commercially sensitive, and I want to do that in an environment that’s secure.

“To question Robin Hood Energy without paperwork in a public forum limits severely the questions I can ask.

“Because I will then have to wonder whether seeking an answer to that question actually commercially threatens the future of Robin Hood Energy, and I’m not prepared to take that kind of risk.”

All five Labour councillors on the audit committee voted to exclude press and public - these were councillors; Leslie Ayoola (Mapperley) Michael Edwards (Meadows) Jane Lakey (Bulwell) Anne Peach (Radford) and councillor Audra Wynter (Bestwood).

Conservative councillor Andrew Rule, who represents Clifton West, was the only councillor who voted in favour of holding the meeting in public.

Labour Councillor Steve Battlemuch, who represents Wollaton West, is the chairman of Robin Hood Energy, and is also chairman of the Audit Committee.

Having declared an interest, he did not chair the meeting while the vote was taking place, and was not allowed to vote on the exclusion, but was allowed to remain in the room for the vote.

Councillor Lauren O’Grady, who represents Sherwood for Labour, is also on the board of RHE, and was also not allowed to vote on the exclusion.