Response to Cllr Louise McKinlay’s accusations

Over the last few weeks, a number of accusations have been made by the Conservative council leader, on twitter and in the press, and we need to put the record straight.

• Cllr McKinlay has asserted that we "wasted £20,000 of taxpayers' money" over a development in Hutton that aimed to convert garages to homes.
• Cllr McKinlay has stated that we didn't have control over the council given that a £10,000 report was commissioned by an officer regarding the Town Hall.

We are disappointed to say that both of the above situations arose when an individual officer did not follow lain down council procedures and appears to have been acting on their own, without permission.

We have called for an investigation into both the above issues, especially given that this same officer (who is no longer in the employ of Brentwood Borough Council) was also working on a number of Accord Administration projects, under my leadership, that were unnecessarily delayed until after the May 2015 elections.

The officer's motivations are unclear.

We hope that the Tory Leader will echo our call for a full investigation as spending public funds without a council decision is a very serious matter.

Cllr Barry Aspinell

Lib Dem Group Leader