THE man whose former company is at the centre of the report into the long-running suspensions at South Lakeland District Council, this week denied any knowledge of the issue.

Gordon Taylor was the man behind Taylor West Associates, the consultants who were taken on by SLDC to produce a report on a new pay and grading structure, reports Michaela Robinson-Tate.

As previously reported, it later emerged that the annual cost of the new structure would reach £1.6 million by 2009 or £1 million more than the £600,000 originally estimated.

The discovery led to the suspension of three senior officers, and an investigation by local government expert Rodney Brooke. Mr Brooke has produced a report for the council, a copy of which has been obtained by The Westmorland Gazette.

When asked about the report, Mr Taylor said that the company no longer existed, and that he did not know about the issue.

"I don't have any comment to make," he said. "This is news to me. I have never seen the report and I don't know what you are talking about.

"I gave up Taylor West some time ago for health and personal reasons and as far as I'm concerned Taylor West no longer exists, and that's the end of the matter.

"As far as I was aware there were some queries about some of the costings, that they (SLDC) have never come back to me about and they took the project on themselves."

When pressed for further information, Mr Taylor said he did not want to be quoted.

At a meeting last Friday, members of SLDC accepted Mr Brooke's findings, and adopted his recommendations.

Mr Brooke had found that chief executive Philip Cunliffe was not guilty of misconduct, and that the option of early retirement should be explored.

Mr Cunliffe said in a statement, after the meeting, that he welcomed Mr Brooke's findings and, although he had intended to return to work, he would consider early retirement.

Mr Brooke had found that director of finance Jack Jones was guilty of misconduct, but that no disciplinary action should be taken. In a statement, after the meeting, Mr Jones said he was looking forward to returning to work.

None of the allegations related to financial impropriety or wilful misconduct.

Mr Brooke also found that councillors had acted properly.

Before going behind closed doors, councillors spoke against the leaking of the report.

Coun Bob Barker called for the resignation of the "culprit", saying the leak had "undermined democracy in a very serious way".

However, while acting chief executive Mike Jones said the leak was "regrettable", he repeated his promise to produce a report into lessons to be learned from the issue, and said his experience of such leaks was that it was rare to find sufficient proof to take action.

Meanwhile, Mr Brooke's report shows that the council had hoped that the new pay and grading structure would result in 60 per cent of staff remaining on the same salary, with 20 per cent rising and 20 per cent coming down in pay.

However, if it had gone ahead, the scheme the council agreed to would have meant that 80 per cent of employees would have gained, and only seven per cent of employees would have remained on the same salary.