IPSWICH: The mole who angered county chief Andrea Hill by spilling the beans on sensitive projects can today be unmasked as Liberal Democrat Andrew Cann.

Mr Cann, who represents the St Margaret’s and Westgate division in Ipswich, believes he was firmly in the sights of chief executive Andrea Hill when she said this week that a councillor had leaked sensitive information earlier this year.

But he was unrepentant today.

He said: “I know I upset the administration when I released some figures about the incinerator planned for Great Blakenham and discussed the costs of the training courses run by Fields of Learning in the run-up to the budget debate.

“But they were perfectly legitimate areas of interest that the public should have the right to know about. I am not apologising for them in any way.

“If the chief executive wants to take me to the standards committee to defend my actions then bring it on!”

Mr Cann’s actions are also known to have irritated some members of the administration at Endeavour House, but backbench councillors contacted by The Evening Star were not aware of any issue over confidentiality.

Mrs Hill has urged the council’s standards’ committee to consider censuring councillors for “inappropriate use of the media” when she spoke to its meeting last month.

Liberal Democrat leader Kathy Pollard felt that Mrs Hill was attacking her after she had commented about leaked newsletters that had been sent to the press.

That was a view that was supported by Labour standards’ committee member Peter Gardiner who said the exchange had felt like an attack on Mrs Pollard.

But Mrs Hill said: “You have to have appropriate standards of councillor behaviour and that was what I was reminding the committee – but my main talk was about the challenges facing the authority over the next few months.

“I wasn’t directing those comments at anyone in the room – certainly not at Kathy.”

Mrs Hill said she had been concerned about a councillor releasing sensitive information earlier this year – and Mr Cann was quick to accept he had released that information.

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