I wrote yesterday how furious KCC was with the Audit Commission over its claim that it had been negligent over the money it deposited with Icelandic banks.

I did so not having seen the letter that chief executive Peter Gilroy and Cllr Paul Carter had written to complain about the report and ask for it to be pulled.

I now realise that I seriously underestimated just how seething KCC is over the report. If officials from the Commission had spent a few hours poking a stick into a wasps nest, I doubt if they could have provoked such an angry reaction.

The letter certainly doesn't pull any punches but I do wonder whether it was wise to be quite so indignant. Reading it, it strikes me as the kind of letter that people are advised to write when they're upset about something - then throw it straight in the bin. I wonder whether anyone suggested toning it down a little? It doesn't look like it.

It even quotes the dictionary definition of "negligent" - and has a none-too-subtle dig at the Commission's own shortcomings over its own Icelandic investments.

We are told KCC is also pondering legal action and a Judicial Review. If it ever happened - and I don't think it will - one consequence will be for all the grisly details about KCC's actions to be replayed in court again. And I can't see the Audit Commission simply rolling over and saying it got it wrong. But who knows? I think that out in the wider world, most people believe KCC made mistakes and are not particularly concerned about what words are used to describe those mistakes, even though the council is.

Meanwhile, KCC has also lodged a Freedom of Information request to the Commission demanding, among other things, to know what changes were made to the report between drafting it and the final version.

Let's hope they don't have to wait the 20 working days it usually takes for KCC to respond to our requests...

~ Read the letter in full here >>>