Town leader turns away apology call

A council chairman has vowed to resign and reimburse the costs ofan expensive external audit investigation if no wrongdoing is found.

Somerton Town Council chairman Michael Fraser-Hopewell said hewould resign, apologise and cover the costs of the external audit ifthe findings of auditor Moore Stephens leaves "no stain" on thecharacter of a previous administration.

On Tuesday he faced further calls from two members of the publicto apologise after a police fraud investigation led to no chargesbeing made against former council chairman Paddy Keenan, former vice-chairman Tony Canvin, town clerk Rodger Calderwood and builder ChrisEdgar who were arrested in December. All four were cleared in Marchof any criminal activity relating to the council's purchase of theEdgar Hall building and the sale of land at Etsome Terrace in 2008.

At the last meeting of the town council, a woman in the publicgallery said: "The Somerton Four have been treated despicably bythis council.

"I don't think anyone has thought about how they've had to dealwith this physically and mentally."

Mr Fraser-Hopewell said the council had nothing to apologise for,adding he couldn't say anything further until a public intereststatement was released by the auditors.

He then read an email from Tim Shortman who led the investigationfor Avon and Somerset Constabulary. Mr Shortman said he would nothave let the investigation continue if he believed private vendettaswere behind the complaint.

During the meeting Mr Fraser-Hopewell and Pat Bennett were re-elected as chairman and vice-chairman of the council.

An external audit into the town council's financial accounts for2008/2009 is ongoing and has so far cost taxpayers around Pounds24,000.

It was prompted after a complaint to the Audit Commission by MrConnolly who started scrutinising the former town council'sactivities on his internet blog.