"Letter"? "What Letter"? "Oh I've Lost It sorry".

Wales online tell is reports that  there have been calls for an internal investigation into evidence of a Welsh Government letter used by Cardiff council’s economy boss to help justify an attempted multi-million pound land deal.

Councillor Russell Goodway, cabinet member for economy, this month said his only copy had been shredded and he’s yet to get a replacement from the Welsh Government.
The former Labour council leader used the letter last November to help justify the urgency of a £7.25m bid to purchase five acres of land at Callaghan Square in the city centre.
He told two meetings late last year that the Welsh Government had, in the letter, advised him a “third party” wanted to purchase the site and “land bank” it, meaning it would be “sterilised for a number of years”.
The deal subsequently collapsed, but Coun Goodway has since failed to respond to repeated requests from councillors to produce evidence of the letter.
He has said his copy was wrongly shredded by a council officer and there was no record of it on the council’s system as it had been hand delivered to him at his other work by an Assembly official.

 Liberal Democrat .Elizabeth Clark, chairman of the Policy Review and Performance Scrutiny Committee, has now asked council chief executive Jon House to launch a “full internal audit”.

In her request to Mr House, Coun Clark said she was “aghast” that a cabinet member and council officers had “carelessly and apparently cavalierly” thrown away such an important document.

“Especially, since at that stage negotiations to buy the Callaghan Square land by the council were still on-going for another six days,” she wrote. 

“It is irresponsible behaviour at best. To make matters worse, I have asked for the letter on many occasions over the last six months with no substantive response until this week.“I feel that Coun Goodway is holding the scrutiny process in contempt.“As a result, please could you undertake a full internal audit of the situation.”

Coun Clark also asked Mr House to obtain a copy of the letter from the Business Minister Edwina Hart.

Well assuming  Coun Goodway, is correct for an highly experienced councilor not to make a copy of a letter that was important in convincing Councilors that they should proceed in hast to secure  the Land deal  and even if it was marked Private and Confidential (ehich it may or not have been) not to have made a copy for himself if only to avoid any suggestion that he is being duplicitous is odd.

Even odder is that the Assembly may not have kept a copy for its own records '

A young couple viewing a new House may be told ny an estate agent that they need to put an offer in as soon as possible as there is already another couple interested  in the property even if it is not true in order to get a deal.

I wouldn't dream of accusing  Coun Goodway, of doing such a thing with regards Callaghan Square purchase but I hope that he, The Council or the Assembly can  produce a copy of the letter to vindicate him or suspicion of its existence will continue.