THE Labour council has been accused of "outrageous" secrecy over a decision to dispose of Addington Palace Golf Club.
The agreement to hand the golf course to the club on a 999 year lease was sanctioned at Monday's meeting of the council's cabinet.
Tory opposition members protested at the meeting that the deal went through without them having a chance to study a paper outlining its details.
Labour's cabinet member for finance, Simon Hall, said the paper had been published online last week but admitted it had not been included as part of the written agenda papers.
He claimed "a glitch" in the system had meant the availability of the online publication had not been properly flagged up in the agenda papers.
The cabinet decision gave Cllr Hall permission to sign off the deal and although figures involved have yet to be published, it is understood the council will receive around £1 million from the club for the lease.
Councillor Dudley Mead, deputy leader of the Conservative opposition, said after the meeting: "The Labour council has promised there will be more openness about decisions but this went through without any of the information being made public.
"It is absolutely outrageous. I have never in my 34 years experience on the council seen anything as bad as this."
He said rather than go ahead without members seeing the background document, the deal should have been put on hold.
Councillor Hall dismissed Cllr Mead's allegations of secrecy as "mischief-making". He said the background report was available online shortly after the printed papers were published and his Tory opposite number had been given a full briefing last week.
He said: "If the opposition did not check the background document that is regrettable."
But he agreed that in future when background documents were not part of the physical papers sent out to councillors, their presence online would be made explicit.
Cllr Hall said: "It wasn't done this time and it should have been."
He added the deal, which does not involve the historic Addington Palace itself, would benefit council taxpayers.
The council will lose £60,000 a year in rent paid by the golf club under the existing 999-year lease.
The background report says the disposal of the site will bring a capital receipt, reducing the need to incur overall debt and saving the council £80,000 a year.
In addition, Cllr Hall said the council retained the freehold of the land, enabling it to retain control over future use of the course.
