Its failure after 10 years of posturing to acquire the site in the middle of Brighouse by compulsory purchase, to build a long-promised swimming pool, was a big enough embarrassment.

Auditor Grant Thornton has subsequently demanded a shake-up in the way the council handles major development projects and stressed the need for the right numbers of experienced and dedicated officers to manage such high-profile schemes in future.

A second and even more damning interpretation of what had gone wrong came from the council's own auditors.

According to them "governance, senior accountability, project roles, project resourcing, statutory officer involvement, communication, documentation and risk management were lacking".

All in all a poor state of affairs and not the council's finest hour.

It is one thing to have tried and failed, but an altogether different matter when failure has come about through poor planning and procedure.

That is why the Courier remains interested in full disclosure on this matter and that means we, and our readers, be shown these letters, in particular one between the Grant Thornton and the council chief executive, that has so far remained secret.

We asked for access under the Freedom of Information Act, but the request was declined because "it would prejudice the management of local government administration and therefore the effective conduct of public affairs".

Of course we are considering appealing against this decision as is our right.

We would do so it because from a taxpayer's point of view this has been a huge waste of money, time and resources. And that is something that cannot be taken lightly in today's climate.