Kent County Council is pressing for commerical companies set up with taxpayers’ money to be exempt from Freedom of Information laws, it has emerged.

County finance chiefs are asking an information watchdog to clarify if it can withhold information about such trading companies, arguing the council is not being treated in the same way as private businesses.

The move follows a long-running dispute between some businesses and KCC over the scale of the authority’s commercial activities.

The activities of some, such as Kent Top Travel and Kent Top Temps, prompted claims that the council is able to undercut them unfairly, a charge the council has consistently rejected.

Now KCC risks antagonising competitors further still by confirming it wants the Information Commissioner to rule on whether its own companies should be exempt from Freedom of Information legislation, in the same way private businesses are.

It follows a series of requests, including several made by the Kent Messenger Group, for details about contracts and the running costs of some council companies.

These requests have mostly been rejected, with the council using existing exemptions under the law to maintain commercial confidentiality.

Cllr Nick Chard (Con), KCC’s cabinet member for finance, said there was an issue of whether, as a public body, the council’s trading companies operated at a disadvantage.

"If the Government wants us to trade, the ground rules should be the same for all of us. If they want us to act in the same way as the private sector, why not treat us in the same way as the private sector? I would not expect a commercial company who may be competing against us to divulge all their financial information, so it seems illogical for us to have to do it. This is a situation that needs to be resolved," he said.

Cllr Mike Eddy, KCC opposition Labour group leader, said: "I think council companies should be open and transparent. Any profit they make is ploughed back into the council and any deficit they might make is borne by the taxpayer. They are ultimately responsible to the council that set them up."