A Workington Conservative councillor has written an open letter to council legal chiefs blasting the authority's involvement in a controversial investment deal. 

Mark Jenkinson, councillor for Seaton and deputy leader of the Allerdale Conservatives, claims taxpayers are being “asset-stripped before our very eyes” through a private company - the Allerdale Investment Partnership LLP (AIP) .

The letter sets out why he believes the partnership deal presents a serious conflict of interest for council bosses, and explains why the deal cannot deliver value for money having already failed to meet its own targets. 

Council leaders and senior officers have already agreed to act "in the best interest of the AIP “in all respects”, which Mark describes as a worrying development.

He said:  “It is my opinion that this undertaking has the effect that councillors and officers must work in the best interests of the AIP LLP, over and above and duty they owe to the council or Allerdale taxpayers.

"At the outset of this partnership, the council were sold a number of benefits - such as significant financial returns and large-scale job creation in the first five years from the first three sites, alongside a number of other benefits. The council has recently accepted that it is now impossible to see those promises met at all, not just within the proposed timescale".

"I don't say this lightly, but it is my belief that Allerdale taxpayers are being asset-stripped in front of our very eyes."