New Gosport council leader says he wants to look at 'financial dealings' at town hall

Councillor Peter Chegwyn, the new leader of Gosport Borough Council, says he wants to ‘establish the facts’ on allegations surrounding the way business contracts have been handled during the previous Conservative administration.

Cllr Chegwyn said: ‘There’s been a lot of allegations about financial dealings in the town hall and the way that contracts may or may not have been handled and pressure perhaps on certain people to give work to certain companies.

‘We’re determined to get to the bottom of all that, we think we owe it to the public to have a full audit of what’s gone on.

‘We will look at what’s happened in the past, see if there’s any foundation to all of the allegations, potentially very serious matters - we want to establish the facts.’

Cllr Chegwyn said it would be wrong to disclose names before the inquiry apart from former leader of the council Mark Hook ‘because his name does come up an awful lot’.

In 2011, Cllr Chegwyn went on a well-publicised attack against Mr Hook for taking on a £7,000 contract to carpet the town hall through his company ELJ Furnishing whilst he was council leader.

He was awarded the contract just weeks before voting to approve the refurbishment using the council's overall budget.

Although no rules were broken the opposition said it was immoral to take up the contract and vote on the budget.

In 2018 Mr Hook and council officers faced calls to resign after ELJ Furnishing accumulated four years of unpaid business rates - totalling nearly £20,000.

In the 50 months he owed the debt, council officers did not grant a single liability order.

Cllr Chegwyn added: ‘Certainly ex-councillor Hook’s name comes up repeatedly - if he’s done nothing wrong, fine.

‘If there has been any wrongdoing then we need to take action.'

In response, Mark Hook said the newly appointed council leader has a ‘personal vendetta’ against him.

‘He’s made these sorts of comments in the past which have been totally unfounded, I would welcome any investigation into financial dealings,’ he said.

'He's had plenty of time whilst I've been in the town hall to raise any issues - he's been leader of the opposition.

'I find it staggering that all of a sudden he's made these comments, I can't say they're allegations because they're not against me.

‘It’s a bit rich coming from him - he should have bigger things to worry about.’