Published: Friday, 15th May, 2009 11:19am

Leader backs budget chief over Icelandic banks

by James Kell

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THE councillor who oversaw the Icelandic bank fiasco 'will not be resigning' said his boss last night.

Embattled member for budgets Anthony Pollock was given full backing from council leader David Lee, who re-appointed him in the role for another year.

The Wokingham Council leader said Mr Pollock 'acted swiftly and decisively with officers to minimise the damage to Wokingham Borough Council' after it had invested £5m in the failed Landsbanki and Heritable banks.

Mr Pollock had faced calls to quit from opposition members, but Mr Lee told the annual meeting of the council last night: 'I have full confidence in Anthony"s ability to take forward any recommendations from scrutiny and continue to provide a sound view over our finances.'

Referring to Lib Dem leader Prue Bray"s calls for Mr Pollock to resign he said: 'Our investment policy followed clear guidance as spelt out to all councillors in the Investment Strategy. Neither you or anyone else challenged this. This authority did not chase high returns at the expense of security. Hindsight is a great thing, so are you calling for the head of the finance at the Audit Office to resign and every executive member of the other 160 authorities and national charities who lost money, or is this political mischief?'

Cllr Bray said: 'We have listened to what you have said but Anthony was paid £8,000 to supervise the budget and that"s why he should resign.

'I"m sorry but sadly we"ll have to disagree over Anthony Pollock.'