A BLUNDER by Waverley Council led to important confidential papers regarding the East Street redevelopment arriving in newsrooms across the area on Monday, leading the council to fire off legal letters and warnings of an injunction. Three appendices, intended for councillors' eyes only, were posted out to the press, attached to copies of the agenda for a meeting of the council's executive to be held on Tuesday. Marked "exempt' and "not for publication", they contained information that Waverley chief executive Christine Pointer later said "could harm the future of the project". The council, still unaware it had dropped a clanger when The Herald phoned for a comment on the day of the meeting, responded with frantic demands to newspapers and other media, including Meridian Television, for the papers' return. The Herald, which cannot reveal the contents of the papers at present, received a letter from Waverley solicitor Sarah Whitmarsh asking for their return and an undertaking not to publish them, warning that the council would seek an injunction "for the protection of the interests of the inhabitants of Waverley". In a statement to the executive that evening, the chief executive said: "The distribution of the exempt executive reports was the result of an administrative mistake by Waverley. "Unfortunately the exempt reports were printed on the wrong colour paper and because of this the post room staff could not have identified them as being confidential reports intended for councillors only," said Miss Pointer. "Waverley's professional officers have advised that the reports should remain exempt. Disclosure to the public could cause harm to the interests of the residents of Waverley. "Publishing the content of the exempt reports could undermine negotiations between the council and the developer. "Disclosure could harm the future of the project, which in turn would have cost implications for the Waverley taxpayer." Richard Gates, leader of the Conservative group on Waverley, said he did not believe that any political capital should be made "out of this unfortunate human error". But he sought an assurance that the papers had only been circulated to the media, and were not in the hands of any members of the public. He was told this was believed to be the case, based on the number of copies left after the distribution had taken place, The chief executive's statement was greeted with great interest by two members of the East Street Action present in the public gallery. The pressure group was the organiser of the public meeting which passed a vote of no confidence in Waverley's handling of the East Street scheme and has accused the council in the past of undue secrecy regarding the project. The executive duly went into private session at 11-15 pm to discuss the contents of the main exempt report. A statement on the outcome of the discussions, issued on Wednesday, read: "The executive agreed to discuss further various contractual issues with Crest Nicholson and asked the officers to investigate further the possibility of using compulsory purchase powers."
