As chairman of the City council's Budgetary Control Committee, a post I have held since May 1991, I write to correct serious inaccuracies in a letter which appeared in the Citizen signed by Nemesis. The council's investment with Chancery Bank was made on 11 January 1991. Chancery went into administration on 8 February 1991. These dates were before Labour took control of Lancaster City Council, but they meant that we inherited a debt of £253,739. Since that date we have made a series of arrangements, as a result of which the council has been able to retrieve a substantial proportion of the money owed to it.

Nemesis also makes reference to Bubbles and obviously in my position as chairman of Budgetary Control I am aware of the finances of that particular scheme. However it was started in 1987 and went into liquidation in early 1991. These dates too reflect a period when the Conservatives were the largest party on Lancaster City Council.

Cllr John Fearnley,

Budgetary Control

Service Group

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