A REPORT has raised 'cause for concern' over Middlesbrough Council's handling of sales of its assets.

The independent audit, by Tees Valley Audit and Assurance Services, highlighted 'unacceptable' risks that had been taken by the authority in a number of deals where council property has been sold off.

However, the council's chief executive has defended the decisions and said that most of the issues raised had already been addressed.

Sales of the council's assets has been coming under scrutiny from residents across the town who have raised issues about the value received for buildings including the Prissick Base, the TAD Centre, Cleveland Crafts Centre and Acklam Hall.

Now an outspoken Middlesbrough councillor has brought his concerns into the public arena.

Brambles and Thorntree councillor Terry Lawton, who has been suspended by the Labour party, believes the public has a right to know what has been going on.

"I'm calling for any future sale of any council asset to be put on hold until a full investigation has been carried out," he said. "People have raised concerns about the sale of a number of the council's assets and this report shows that mistakes have been made and the authority has lost out on money.

"It could simply be due to incompetence that mistakes have been made but we need to have a thorough and open investigation into exactly what has gone on during the sales of these assets."

The report does not suggest any wrongdoing or 'impropriety' by members of staff but does raise concern about the methodology of how decisions were reached.

One issue raised over the sale of the TAD Centre, which was sold for £400,000 – despite being valued at £600,000 – to businessman Nasser Din in August last year, was that despite five expressions of interest being made, which included two full bids, only one was contacted following a delay in the sale – the eventual buyer.

The report reads: "It was evident (from the Auditors' review of files made available) that a Principal Valuer and a Principal Solicitor had expressed concerns over the potential impact on the Council of the failure to notify the other parties that the TAD sale was proceeding."

Middlesbrough Council said it had commissioned the report in response to its own concerns over project management and asset sales, and the report acknowledged that most of the issues were already being addressed by the council.

Chief executive Tony Parkinson said added: “As anticipated, the review that we requested found no suggestion of wrongdoing by any member or officer – quite the opposite in fact – but did highlight a number of areas where our processes could be strengthened, the majority of which we were already in the process of dealing with.”