A COUNCIL has been slammed for making a five-figure compensation payment over a planning blunder - and then trying to keep it secret.

Ribble Valley Council leader Chris Holtom today defended the decision and denied the resident involved had been gagged as a condition of the settlement, believed to be around £70,000.

But opposition councillors have called for the matter to be made public without delay.

Today, leading freedom of information campaigner Bob Satchwell described the matter as outrageous and said the council had got it wrong.

And Tory Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said taxpayers had a right to know how their money was being spent and called on the Conservative-run council to go public.

The payment follows a complaint about the effect a planning decision had on the value of a Ribble Valley resident's property, although the council has refused to make public the amount or any other details.

It came to light at a meeting of Ribble Valley Council when Clitheroe LibDem councillor David Berryman asked Coun Holtom why compensation had been dealt with as a private "part two item" by the policy and finance committee.

Coun Holtom replied: "Compensation is a personal financial matter. That was the correct and proper way to proceed."

But Bob Satchwell, director of the Society of Editors, which campaigns for freedom of information, said: "This is outrageous. Clearly this council has got something wrong and the people of Ribble Valley are entitled to know how much compensation has been paid. It is their money, not the council's.

"The Government has called for greater openness, but local government is not becoming more open."

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said: "I believe in transparency wherever possible and the council should look at ways of ensuring the complainant's name is kept private, but the nature of the complaint and the amount of compensation made public. "

Billington and Langho LibDem Graham Sowter said the matter should have gone to the local government Ombudsman for consideration.

He said: "This is a matter of public interest, not just that a person has been paid compensation, but that justice is seen to be done."

Liberal Democrat leader Frank Dyson added: "It is our duty to reveal our errors."

Coun Holtom said he had taken legal advice on the matter and said councillors were wrong to think a secret deal had been worked out and the resident had been silenced.

He added: "Many councillors have spent an enormous amount of time bringing this matter to a conclusion and it would be quite wrong to discuss this in the open chamber.

"The financial affairs in question do not just relate to the valuation of the complainant's property.

"The decision to pay a specified amount of compensation also relates to the complainant's financial affairs and it is therefore perfectly proper that the minute should neither identify the complainant or specify the amount of compensation paid."