HUGH BAYLEY has weighed into the controversy surrounding the departure of former city council commercial services director David Finnegan.

The York MP has written to City of York Council chief executive David Atkinson to ask for more information on the circumstances surrounding Mr Finnegan's departure from the authority earlier this month.

Mr Bayley is representing two constituents, including Robert Potts, of Poppleton Road, who are unhappy at the secrecy surrounding the compromise agreement which allowed Mr Finnegan to leave.

The Evening Press reported earlier this month that Mr Finnegan left the council after taking "early retirement".

He had been suspended since August following a high-level council disciplinary inquiry, before members of the council's urgency committee agreed the compromise agreement which allowed him to leave.

The council has consistently refused to discuss what the agreement was or what it entailed, but business experts defined it as "setting out the financial and all other terms on which the employment relationship will end".

Confidentiality restricted Labour opposition leader Dave Merrett from discussing any details of the agreement, but he told the Evening Press at the time of the committee's decision that he had voted against it on the grounds of cost to the taxpayer and the council.

It is the council's refusal to discuss the details of Mr Finnegan's departure which has angered Mr Potts and has brought Mr Bayley into the debate.

Mr Potts said: "I believe the council has to answer this. This is not the right way with which to use public funds."

Mr Bayley said: "I accept that the council needs to keep the terms of contract with individual members of staff confidential.

"But I have written to the chief executive to ask him to explain to the public, as much as he reasonably can, about why this department needs a new leader and what it is going to cost."

In a statement, Mr Atkinson said: "In the context of the imminent council-wide restructuring, in which the new directorate of neighbourhood services is created, the council has agreed that David can take the opportunity to retire and seek new challenges after a lengthy career in local government."

Updated: 09:39 Monday, October 31, 2005