CLAIMS of dubious asset sales by Middlesbrough Council have been used as a “political football” despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing, the authority’s chief executive said under oath yesterday.

Tony Parkinson was giving evidence at former council monitoring officer Karen Whitmore’s tribunal, who has claimed she lost her job after raising concerns over “flawed” asset sales, including that of Acklam Hall, Gilkes Street and the TAD Centre.

She had made claims she was asked to “cover up” some aspects of the sales, which she said saw the properties sold off at lower costs, two of them to an associate of former Mayor Ray Mallon. Grade 1-listed Acklam Hall was sold off for £1.2m.

He told the hearing, at Teesside Combined Court centre: “Acklam Hall has been a political football for a number of years. It started with allegations in the council chamber that the land around it was worth £15m.

“There was an allegation that had the council sold the hall for that amount then no savings to new budgets would be required.

“That makes no sense because the savings annually are accrued and it would have been one-off capital income.

“Also, there was around one third of the site that is developable, as there are 20 acres of woodland on the site that cannot be cleared.

“The allegation was dealt with in early 2015 by Mayor Mallon.

“However the property transactions of Gilkes Street and the TAD Centre are also being used as political footballs.

“There have been no findings of impropriety, no findings of corruption, no findings of fraud.

“There is nothing to cover up. There simply isn’t anything to cover up.

“There was never a suggestion from me that I wanted anything covering up.”

However, he said he was the first to raise concerns that there was a lack of audit trail relating to the sale, and suggested an investigation, which Mrs Whitmore had carried out.

He said that Mrs Whitmore’s position had been merged with another, and she was made redundant – but he said he had been “concerned” about her reaction, so opened a document to keep notes.

“Karen is a fighter and I wanted to protect myself,” he said. He said that he had been prepared for some “bullying allegations” and wanted to take notes on their interactions.

The hearing continues.