A FLOOD of litigation is set to be launched as a result of the district auditor's report into the 'Blobby-gate' scandal, the Citizen can reveal.

City Council leader Cllr Tricia Heath has contacted a leading Manchester law firm in a bid to challenge the auditor's claim that he did not accept her evidence.

And the City Council meets next week to discuss whether to launch an action to recover cash from former chief executive Bill Pearson - or even Noel Edmonds' Unique group.

Members of the Labour group have put forward a motion to next week's special council meeting, calling on Cllr Heath to resign after the auditor described parts of her evidence as 'false and brought into existence to support the objection.'

However, Cllr Heath said this week: "I and all those people that matter know I told the truth regarding Crink-ley Bottom.

"It is far easier to dismiss my evidence than it is to take on the establishment and all its power which could have resulted in a surcharge and the return of public money. My conscience is clear, I know I told the truth.

"If the only outcome of the district auditor's £600,000 report is that the political parties ask me to resign for telling the truth, and that the people responsible for this fiasco have no consequences financial or otherwise, then it's a sad day for Morecambe. A four-year waste of every-body's time.

"At the end of the day it was a Labour administration that was in control of the council at the time - not the Independents."

She points to an article in 'Entre-preneur' magazine, in which former council leader Stanley Henig, is quoted as saying a number of councillors would not have gone ahead with the park if they had known that a side letter had not been signed.

"It is an interesting question whether the outcome would have been different if there had not been this promise of a side letter. I think councillors would have asked more questions," says Cllr Heath.

Her solicitors, Manchester based Pannone and Partners, are expected to write to the council's chief executive this week pointing out that a planned 'no confidence' motion should not proceed until Cllr Heath has completed her legal challenge to the report.

The council will also discuss whether it should seek to recover the £20,000 in unlawful pension payments to former town clerk Bill Pearson as well as stopping any further overpayment.

It will also consider attempting to recover £150,000 paid to Unique under the unlawful supplemental heads of terms, though this is unlikely because of the 1997 settlement with the firm.