DETAILS of Stoke City's £4.5 million purchase of the Britannia Stadium were kept from city councillors as the authority missed out on £180,000 in interest payments, The Sentinel can reveal.

A leaked copy of Stoke-on-Trent City Council's internal audit report into the stadium sale reveals that the £4.5 million price was agreed by councillors in June 2007.

But the then council manager Steve Robinson and Elected Mayor Mark Meredith never told councillors the cash would be paid in interest-free instalments.

It meant the council received a dividend payment of £480,000, £1.52 million and then two payments of £1.25 million over two years to December 2009 – leaving the council missing out on £180,000 in interest payments if they had received the £4.5 million upfront and invested it in a bank account.

The report has cleared officers and councillors of any financial wrong-doing. But the District Auditor is expected to criticise a system which allowed the council manager and elected mayor to make major decisions and saw councillors kept in the dark.

The council report states: "It would seem to have been good practice, although not necessary, to report back to full council regarding the detail of the final payment terms."

The city council invested £3.14 million in the stadium development in 1996 before selling its stake for £4.5 million on December 21, 2007. Stoke City chairman Peter Coates agreed to pay £4.5 million in staged payments for the stadium during a meeting with Mr Robinson on May 16, 2007.

The overall payment was then approved at a meeting of the full council in June 2007 – although councillors never knew about the staged payments because the details had not been finalised.

Mr Robinson said: "The transaction was carried out legally and totally within the bounds of the council's constitution and the corporate governance in place."

Mr Meredith, who also knew about the staged payments, said: "I think we got a good deal. If the payment had been made up front, we would have probably got a lot less."

Mr Robinson claims in the report that Councillor Roger Ibbs and the then Labour leader Mike Tappin also knew about the staged payments. But they have told investigators they only found out once the deal had been signed.

Mr Tappin said: "We were not told it was staged payments until after we signed the contract."

Details of the internal audit report were discussed by councillors at yesterday's full council meeting.

Councillor Paul Billington, pictured, who has previously called for answers over the deal, said: "This inquiry has caused all manner of upset."

The internal report will be discussed at a meeting next month. Mr Ibbs was unavailable for comment.