Dudley councillors complained a two-year delay for a report on the failed sale of a former leisure centre is ‘unacceptable’.
At their meeting on April 20, members of the authority’s Audit Committee were told they would still not be able to see the outcome of an investigation by external auditors into the planned sale of the building on Wellington Road.
The council pulled out of the deal after it was made public in March 2024 prompting calls for the investigation from committee members who have been waiting for answers ever-since.
Cllr Shaukat Ali said: “We picked this up at the last meeting and we were given assurance that it was going to be this meeting and again now we’ve been told it’s going to be a future meeting.
“What is the delay now? Because at the last meeting we were told the council had to take all the required information to the external auditors, so either the council hasn’t provided this information, therefore the auditors can’t reach a conclusion, or the auditors are failing.”
Committee chairperson Cllr Bex Collins told Cllr Ali there was continued progress and the authority’s chief lawyer, known as the monitoring officer, had confirmed final queries had been sent to external auditors .
Cllr Collins said: “A final review is being undertaken by the external auditors of matters being finalised in advance of the next committee meeting, now likely to be a standalone meeting.”
Cllr Ali said: “We cannot give a date yet, that is unacceptable in terms of delay after delay, we should have had this some time ago.
“We still aren’t getting a definitive answer, between the two bodies something is going missing and I hope it isn’t the elections causing the delay now.”
Clr Karl Denning added: “Could we make a note it’s actually been two years on the sixteenth of April when it was first asked for? We all want this report and two years has been too long.”
The Wellington Road site was eventually sold in 2025 for £1.7m.
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