IT is all very well for Mr Willey to suggest the Finnegan affair is laid to rest (Letters, December 1).

I, like many others, have asked for details to be made available, but have met with refusal.

What the Information Commissioner makes of it remains to be seen.

I am not particularly interested in the details of Mr Finnegan's misdemeanours. I am far more concerned over the amount of the "pay-off", which the Leader of the Opposition has publicly declared to be excessive, and the way the council fell into the trap of being in effect blackmailed into imposing a gag on all disclosures which I and others would regard as being of legitimate public interest.

The sooner the council resolves this problem the better.

Philip Crowe,

Clifton,

York.

Updated: 10:25 Tuesday, December 06, 2005