Exclusive: Top councillor blasts 'dyslectic' Doncaster after it appeals for cash

Brian Percival, deputy leader of Selby District Council, launched an

angry attack on troubled Doncaster Council – where the Government has been forced to intervene following a damning report into its performance – after it appealed for more than 300,000 from a regional fund.

Other council leaders have backed the funding, which Doncaster would use for mentoring and training politicians and officers, but Coun Percival said: "I am totally against the proposal and it must not go through."

The Yorkshire Post has seen a fierce email circulated to more than 50 councillors and other public sector figures in which he says: "I am aghast at the proposal to giving money to a council that has got itself into the mess that it has.

"It must look to itself and to its own community for its own salvation, not to the wider Yorkshire community. Supporting a council that some could call dyslectic in the co-operation between members and staff is not the purpose of the supporting performance fund, notwithstanding that this is an unbelievable sum."

Coun Percival's outburst came after Doncaster's chief executive Rob Vincent appealed for the funding from the publicly-funded Yorkshire and Humber Improvement and Efficiency Partnership, YoHr Space at a meeting this week.

Mr Vincent was brought in by the Government after a highly-critical Audit Commission report into the council. Inspectors said it was the worst authority they had seen, with in-fighting and poor leadership leaving it unable to function properly.

Only six of the 23 councillors who sit on the partnership's

members' board were present at the partnership meeting so although they supported a grant of 185,000 there were not enough present to legally approve the money.

That prompted an email to other board members from YoHr Space Director Chris Taylor to ask them if they supported the bid as well – sparking Coun Percival's passionate response.

Last night Coun Percival said he was speaking in a personal capacity, but said looking after public money was "very, very important".

"We're very progressive at Selby District Council and we're self-reliant. What really grinds on me is I'm not getting any indications whatsoever Doncaster is getting any smarter," he said.

"If there were, that's good, but they have a reputation, unfortunately, of a council that's not attracting the best officers and consequently giving it the best service to its rate payers."

It is understood several other councillors have responded to Mr Taylor's email supporting the Doncaster bid, and he is understood to be the only one to oppose it at the moment.

Doncaster Council did not respond when contacted but speaking last week Mr Vincent, the former chief executive of Kirklees Council who has been appointed by the Government to run the authority until December 2011, said a "great deal of progress" had been made in some areas, mainly those which will be affected by the expected cuts to be introduced in next month's Government spending review.

But he also admitted there was "much work to do" in others, particularly in those where new relationships had to be built between senior council members and officers.