THE stand-alone community interest company CMC2 set up by Monmouthshire County Council has suffered a trading loss of £51,000 during this financial year, councillors have been told .

The figures were released during last week's Cabinet meeting at which Councillor Bob Greenland said that CMC2 had generated an income of £172,000 but had incurred a £53,000 overspend against its original business plan projection.

Councillor Greenland added: "The trading loss this year has been caused as a direct result of the government's decision to reduce the feed in tariff of photovoltaic panels, which was part of our original business plan.

"However we believe that things will be different during the next financial year as we should make a small profit of £28,000. We have a business plan that is committed for three years and this company is far more flexible than this council can ever be.

"Decision making in this authority is very elongated. On occasions we need a far quicker, far more nimble process to do things that this council can't do.

"Monmouthpedia for example was taken forward using this principle and it was good for us in terms of publicity as it was the forerunner of many things since."

Councillor Greenland (pictured) told members that the company's ability to implement the Monmouthpedia project in collaboration with Wikipedia, which linked the online encyclopaedia with Monmouth by using Quick Response codes, enabled the town to become the first Wikipedia town in the world.

"Attempting to carry out this project through the normal county council channels would have been a very slow process and we could have quite easily missed the boat but for the vehicle CMC2, which enabled us to capitalise on the scheme. The new digital world is moving forward at a pace, and we need to react accordingly."

Leader of the council Peter Fox said: "There are some really exciting things that are happening at speed which we need to be part of. These projects like Monmouthpedia couldn't have been delivered through normal council channels."

Kellie Beirne Monmouthshire's Chief Officer for Regeneration and Culture explained that CMC2 was a community interest company with a three year business plan with aims of digital innovation, green and renewable energy and community enterprise.

She added that they would be appointing a managing director in the near future on a one-year contract to run CMC2.

The cabinet member for finance, Phil Murphy said: "Running CMC2 is not alien to us as we have a number of other businesses operating under the authority. This type of business venture will be adopted by other authorities in the future.

Councillor John Prosser said: "I am glad that this council has adopted the concept of looking at working in different ways as there are plenty of opportunities for the communities to be involved."

Monmouthshire's chief executive Paul Matthews said: "This concept will be the future of local government. The running of it needs to be as transparent as the county council. The trick is for us to make sure that it is designed for purpose."