Settlement reached in Uppingham shopping unpaid money dispute

A financial dispute between Uppingham’s late night shopping organisers and a company linked to the town council has been settled at the eleventh hour.

Christmas in Uppingham CIC had taken the dispute to the small claims court after Uppingham First had refused to pay over funds belonging to the late night shopping event.

Uppingham First had previously been the banker for a grant awarded to the shopping event by the town council, but when the event set up its own account and asked for the money to be transferred, the company, which has number of town councillors as directors, instead paid the funds back to the town council in July.

Uppingham First had until Monday to settle the claim or dispute it and late night shopping event organiser Paula Donaldson found out yesterday afternoon through the court that it had been settled. The CIC has now received the £1,939 owed.

Before that Uppingham First had made a conditional offer on Friday, but the late night shopping company had decided it would not accept that and wanted to follow through the legal channels.

Paula said: "I am pleased it has been settled and we are hoping to put it behind us."

Mark Shaw, who is chairperson of Uppingham First, a limited company, which coordinates the Uppingham Hopper, said: "The directors are exceedingly happy that we have resolved this dispute. We did not want to impede in any way the Christmas in Uppingham event."

He said he did not want to get into why Uppingham First had not paid the money back before the court claim was made.

The role of Uppingham First has been causing issues in the community for some months. Seven members of the council, including former mayor Peter Rees, who had served on the authority for three decades, decided to quit the council in the summer, over what they saw as a conflict of interest between the members of Uppingham First who are also councillors.

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