WINCHESTER’S civic chief has rejected accusations that the public has been “defrauded” over the management of the River Park Leisure Centre.

Simon Eden, chief executive of the city council, was responding to allegations made by a local businessman over the management of the RPLC contract between the council and DC Leisure.

Martin Wilson first made the allegations in January and February and on Monday called for an independent external investigation.

He told councillors: “This matter is so serious and the implications in terms of financial impropriety and potential maladministration are such that it cannot be left to officers to examine their own actions and decisions.”

Mr Wilson said the RPLC contract was first agreed in 1992 and has not been put out to tender since, with the latest contract expiring in 2023.

Despite the centre being highly profitable it has been allowed to deteriorate and the council has had to spend over £13 million on it over the last ten years.

Mr Wilson also disputes Mr Eden’s assertion there is no ‘design, build, operate and manage’ (DBOM) arrangement between the council and DCL over a new centre. “Can the chief executive explain the email from Steve Tilbury (corporate director) and letter from Howard Bone (council lawyer) in December 2012 purporting to vary Clause 25 of the 1997 contract in order to permit DCL to “provide and operate the new centre?”

Mr Eden said there was no DBOM arrangement with DCL and a new centre would clearly have to go out to tender.

Mr Eden explained the contract had been extended several times by city councillors following independent legal advice and judgements over the best value for money.

He denied the contract unduly favoured DC Leisure, saying the council taxpayer had done well out of the agreement.

The latest extension in 2011 saw the council gain several benefits including the ceasing of a £92,000 a year management fee to DCL, the ending of a £200,000 a year subsidy to operate the Meadowside centre in Whiteley which DCL took over, and its investment in new equipment at RPLC, added Mr Eden.

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Mr Wilson told the overview and scrutiny committee: “The chief exec’s report attempts to brush under the carpet, at best, or conceal, at worst the activities of DCL executive and officers, from this council.”

Mr Eden said his investigation had been objective and there was no evidence of fraud. “This is not a council officer protecting his own or an officer protecting the council.”

There was nothing amiss about officers accepting modest hospitality from DCL at a ‘celebration meal’ at a pub in Hyde in 2011. The officers may even have chipped in for the bill, he said.

And he was critical of an unnamed councillor who has also made allegations. “I suggest the member in question either provides more robust evidence to back up claims presented as fact or makes a full apology for the upset caused.”

But Mr Wilson was supported by Cllr Kim Gottlieb, a critic of the council over the Silver Hill scheme. Cllr Gottlieb said: “Senior officers and scrutiny processes within the council have been criticised, but we do not as yet know whether any of that criticism is fair or unfair. The only sensible thing to do would be to initiate a comprehensive and independent inquiry, and there are plenty of precedents for this.”

But most councillors on the overview and scrutiny committee disagreed agreeing with Cllr Simon Cook that all important decisions over the leisure centre had been made by councillors acting on independent consultants and legal advice.