THE LEADING councillor at the centre of the childcare allowance row has apologised to the people of the district and offered to pay back some of the money.

Housing chief Carol Broad stunned fellow councillors at a meeting on Wednesday by expressing her "sincere regret" at the £8,500 childcare allowance controversy.

She also said that arrangements had been made to refund any overpayment.

The Morecambe councillor was called on to resign in January after it emerged that she had claimed thousands to cover childcare costs, including £1,323 in just one month.

And two MBI councillors, Nick Westwell and David Kerr, resigned from the group over the issue.

But this week Carol Broad addressed her critics and said: "I deeply regret the furore which has surrounded this and the distress it has caused to many innocent people, including my children and their carer.

"It is clear to me now that the advice I received, given in good faith, conflicts with the intended interpretation of the scheme."

She continued: "With hindsight it is clear that the ambiguity of this scheme has contributed to an unintentional overpayment being made to me for the care provided to my children. I would like to inform council that I have already made arrangements to repay in full the amount I have received that would be viewed as an overpayment, given the present interpretation of the scheme.

"I feel that this is the morally correct thing to do."

Members were not allowed to question Cllr Broad about the issue at the meeting.

She added: "I would like to thank members from all groups who have shown me support at this time. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to extend my profound and sincere regret to every resident of this district and this council for this unintentional overpayment."

One of the councillors who resigned from the MBIs over the issue, Cllr Westwell, responded: "I think Carol's done the right thing by offering to pay back the overpayment.

"It takes guts to apologise and put things right, which is something the Labour lot never did, but I still can't see how the scheme was ambiguous. I'm sure this will be looked at closely by the standards committee."