Stoke launches investigation over regeneration contract "errors"

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has launched an inquiry after admitting it made “serious” errors in the way it awarded contracts, the BBC has reported.

Kinders Ltd received more than £3.2m for work carried out over the last four years on an “as and when” basis in relation to the city’s Pathfinder regeneration project.

The council said that the firm had done nothing wrong, but the contract should have gone out to tender.

Phil Crossland, Stoke’s director of transportation and planning, said: “As a public authority, it’s not good practice. We should have seen the amount of work coming up and it should have been tendered as a proper term contract.”

The council, which has not broken the law, said it would conduct a “forensic audit” involving the review of invoices for the completed work. It told the BBC it would not rule out taking disciplinary action against staff.