Cheshire East has admitted it 'got it wrong' following a dispute with the domestic abuse charity My CWA over funding for safe accommodation for victims.

The council, which completely axed funding for some services provided by the charity, also reduced its offer by £25,000 when it went out to tender to provide safe accommodation for victims and survivors of domestic abuse.

At the time, and following an angry backlash from the public, the council issued a statement blaming My CWA for 'withdrawing from the tender process'.

My CWA said it could not provide the service for the money the council was offering.

Eventually, after the procurement process failed, the council extended its contract with My CWA for another year.

At yesterday's (Monday) meeting of the children and families committee, Cllr Michael Beanland (Poynton, Con) asked why the procurement process had failed.

Martyn Baggaley, head of integrated commissioning, told the committee: "Part of the reason the procurement failed last year was the one party that did submit a bid, which was My CWA, withdrew on the basis of insufficient funding because that was reduced by £25,000 a year…

"That funding was insufficient, they felt, to run the accommodation sustainably…

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"As a result of that we've quite consciously built in a contingency element of an additional £100,000 over their contract value for this year."

The committee was told funding for some domestic abuse provision comes from central government.

Nantwich councillor Geoff Smith (Lab) said: "There was a comment about the loss of £25,000 in terms of funding.

"Could you help me to understand where the loss came from when, you said about central government."

Mr Baggaley replied: "That was a decision taken locally rather than central government, a decision that, I think, time has proven to not be the correct one.

"And I think it is incumbent on us to make sure we learn from that."

Poynton councillor Jos Saunders (Con) thanked Mr Baggaley for his 'candour and transparency on that'.

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