'BEYOND BELIEF' - LATEST INCREASE IN UNDERCLIFF LEGAL COSTS

Press Release issued tonight:

LABOUR COUNCILLOR CONDEMNS AS 'BEYOND BELIEF' LATEST INCREASE IN UNDERCLIFF LEGAL COSTS

Labour councillor Geoff Lumley has condemned as 'beyond belief' plans by the IW Council to more than double permitted expenditure on lawyers for the Undercliff Drive enquiry. The new limit is proposed to be £700,000 to allow the Council to hire barristers for the impending disciplinary hearings against the four most senior of the seven suspended officers.

Of the £700K, £30,000 was spent on a now concluded legal enquiry into the contractual elements of the Council's relationship with Undercliff contractors Highpoint Rendell. This Report has been seen by members of the Investigatory & Disciplinary Committee, who have decided that other councillors cannot have access to it until after the disciplinary hearings.

Cllr Lumley said, "It is almost beyond belief that the Council proposes to double expenditure on solicitors to £700K, but will not allow all councillors to know whether the Council's relationship with HPR was either criminal, corrupt, underhand and/or not in the best interests of the Council. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary I can only assume that the Report is not helpful to the case against the officers. Otherwise what have they got to hide ?"

He went on, "I am also concerned that two opposition councillors - one Liberal Democrat and one Independent - are going along with this secrecy as members of the Investigatory and Disciplinary Committee. As long as they are involved they give it all a veneer of credibility. I urge them both to stand down now that this enquiry has lost all contact with the public interest."