LAST week I asked full council to call for a review by the Independent Police Complaints Commission into the handling by Notts Police of the housing allocation scandal in Nottingham.

It has come to light that the police agreed with the council in 2006 that any investigation would be left to the same council who were responsible when the housing scandal was happening.

They apparently concluded that there was nothing to suggest any criminality had taken place. But how and why did they reach that conclusion?

There are still many unanswered questions.

Who was it in the council that met with the police in 2006 when they agreed not to investigate?

Why was that meeting and agreement kept secret for five years? What investigations had they already done by then?

The auditor said that there were specific allegations about 70 cases and hundreds more could have involved wrongdoing.

Why haven't the police interviewed the key people the auditor identified?

The auditor said that she had been unable to interview them because they claimed to be too sick to be interviewed or respond to written questions. Have they been sick for the last five years?

Why hasn't the CPS been formally consulted at any stage in the last five years?

Of course it is a reasonable approach to decide whether to proceed with cases on the basis of the quality of evidence. But if you don't look for evidence you won't find it!

In 2009 the police said that nobody had given them any new evidence. Is that how they investigate nowadays?

Do they wait for people to come to them and give them evidence, or do they ask questions and challenge inconsistencies?

After five years no one has been held accountable; no properties have been reclaimed and no one knows how many homes were allocated to people who shouldn't have had them.

The Labour Executive, supported by the Chief Executive, Jane Todd, claim that the council has done all it can and that it is now time to move on.

But that is nonsense.

The minute that the police and council agreed in 2006 that the police would not investigate, then both of them stopped doing everything they could.

I have personally asked the IPCC to conduct a review into the scope and conduct of the police handling of the case.

If the whole council had supported me it would have been more likely to happen.

Labour said that they were frustrated and disappointed that no one has been held to account and that no houses had been reclaimed. But there are widespread suspicions that the police and council may not have done all they could.

The council has a duty to residents to manage its business in a way that is honest, open and beyond reproach.

So at the council meeting I appealed directly to Labour councillors to support the call for an independent review.

I said that if they didn't vote for the motion the public would never trust them again.

They voted against!

But now I make one final appeal to Jon Collins to use the authority of his two roles as leader of the council and chairman of the Police Authority to show that he is not afraid of an inquiry and not just to say he would welcome one, but to demand one in order to scotch the rumours.

It is the only way trust can be restored.