A decision on whether to release a report into the Lyme Green fiasco will be taken later this month.

Work on the waste facility at Lyme Green began three weeks before planning permission was applied for and the failed bid to build it cost the borough’s taxpayers more than £800,000.

The Express has asked for a copy of the Designated Independent Person’s  report into the affair.

We asked for it under the Freedom of Information Act after the report was completed and submitted to the chief executive.

But Cheshire East says it is likely to refuse the request. It says releasing  the report could have legal implications by prejudicing ongoing disciplinary proceedings resulting from the botched bid.

Two senior officers and the cabinet member for waste, Coun Rod Menlove, have resigned in the aftermath of the scandal.

A report by Cheshire East’s Audit and Governance Committee is publicly available. However the Designated Independent Person’s report was then commissioned by the council.  This report has  been seen by only a handful of people.

A CEC spokesman said: ”We are not in a position to make the Designated Independent Person’s report on Lyme Green public, particularly while that may jeopardise ongoing legal proceedings the council is involved with.

“The leader and chief executive have said they will make a fuller statement shortly, when proceedings are complete.”

A final decision on whether to release the report to the Express will be made on, or before, Friday February 15.

Last week, CEC was ordered by the Information Commissioner to release a separate report into proposals for an adventure playground in Tatton Park.

The Commissioner cited the Lyme Green fiasco when he said disclosure of the Tatton Park report was necessary due to ‘the significant expenditure of public funds and the need for public reassurance and confidence in the council’s practice in relation to substantial projects of this type’.