A CHARITY has denied allegations that it received an “unlawful” payment from the council.

Lancashire Wildlife Trust received £29,359 from Bolton Council for the Kingfisher Trail project through the Community Empowerment Fund.

But a former volunteer claims that the trust had already received tens of thousands of pounds in grants from other sources, including the Heritage Lottery, for an identical project with the same outcomes.

Chris Banks has formally objected to the final instalment of this grant payment under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014.

He has asked external auditor Mazars to declare the payment as unlawful and apply to the courts for the money to be paid back to the council.

Mazars director Karen Murray told the audit committee this week that Bolton Council received only one objection to its accounts during the six-week audit period which ended on July 12.

The objection relates to a “double claim” against a grant payment which a third party received from the community empowerment fund.

She said: “There’s a formal process which we need to follow. It’s fair to say that we will not even start looking at these until we start getting through the summer period.”

Chief executive officer of the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, Anne Selby said the allegations are not true.

She said: “The Wildlife Trust is a large, well-governed charity which has to comply with complex legislation regarding our operation.

"Our finances are subject to a thorough independent audit each year. A specific part of the audit, matches income to expenditure over grants.

“The auditors stated our accounts to be unqualified, which verifies that we are open and transparent in our accounting systems. Our accounts are then submitted to all our 30,000 members, the Charity Commission and Companies House. Our grant funders also monitor expenditure carefully.”

She also said that Mr Banks has a long record of making accusations against trust staff.

Mr Banks dismissed these claims as an attempt to discredit his allegations.