THE former boss of Stoke-on-Trent City Council has said an internal audit report into the sale of the Britannia Stadium contains "misleading inaccuracies and omissions".

Steve Robinson has written to the council with his concerns after it emerged he had not approved the draft report leaked to The Sentinel this week.

It reveals Mr Robinson, pictured below, never told councillors that Stoke City's £4.5 million purchase of the stadium would be paid in three instalments rather than one lump sum, meaning the council missed out on £180,000 in interest payments.

Mr Robinson, who is now chief executive of Cheshire West and Chester Council, said yesterday: "The summary does not state that the transaction was carried out legally and totally within the bounds of the council's constitution and the corporate governance in place at that time.

"It also omits to emphasise that the sale achieved good value for money, a return of well over 30 per cent, and brought considerable redevelopment of the area around it."

The row has broken out after councillors complained they were kept in the dark over the details of the stadium sale.

Councillors agreed to sell the stadium for £4.5 million in June 2007, but never knew the deal – which went through in December 2007, involved staged payments.

Mr Robinson added: "The decision to take the details to full council in June 2007, and informing members that there were further negotiations to continue, when there was no constitutional need to do so, was good practice."

Mr Robinson says key councillors and group leaders were told that payments would be made in instalments.

That claim is denied by Councillor Roger Ibbs and the then Labour leader Mike Tappin, who say the first they knew was when the deal was signed on December 21, 2007.

But former elected mayor Mark Meredith said: "It is my recollection that we were aware of it before the deal went through. The details of the deal were primarily dealt with by the chief executive and the football club. We were made aware of the main thrust and the final figures and style of payment as senior members."

When asked why he did not report back to full council with details of the sale, Mr Meredith said: "The council itself is duty bound to scrutinise properly and to do a good job at scrutiny.

"They have had two-and-a-half years to ask all the relevant questions and discuss it properly at overview and scrutiny meetings. Officers would have been fully open and transparent with elected members."

Mr Tappin strongly denies any knowledge of the staged payments. He says he is seeking legal advice after the council's audit report was released without his consent. Mr Ibbs was unavailable for comment.

The council's governance in 2007, which saw Mr Robinson and Mr Meredith running the council, is being blamed for the lack of information.

It is claimed such an issue could not arise with the current system of governance.

New council chief executive John van de Laarschot said: "Under your new constitution, you have the right to know and to make the decisions.

"There was no evidence of any financial impropriety"

The council's report will now go to the authority's Audit Committee on February 8. It is expected that the District Auditor's final report into the stadium sale will be presented at the same meeting.

Audit Committee chairman Councillor Paul Billington said: "It is clear from this report that the reporting arrangements between the council manager at the time and leading council members from the previous administration led to significant failings in terms of the flow of information.

"To have waited seven months to see the report, which doesn't seem to be that controversial, is a disgusting amount of time. Had our senior officers and members co-operated more quickly and fully than they appear to have done then we could have resolved all this months ago.

"This report will be fully debated, along with the final external report by the Audit Commission, at a special meeting of my committee on February 8."