KIRKLEES Council leader Mehboob Khan has been meddling in public information.

Everyone has the right to request information held by public sector organisations under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

But the Examiner can exclusively reveal that Clr Khan has been amending the information which has been prepared ready to send out to people.

Former council leader Kath Pinnock has described his actions as “disturbing”.

The Lib Dem leader said: “The whole purpose of Freedom of Information requests is to make sure that the public know how their money is being spent. It is taxpayers’ hard-earned cash. The council leader should know what information is going into the public domain but there should be no interference with it.”

But Clr Khan has denied doing anything wrong and says he has merely been trying to put things into “context” and “improve” the information sent back to applicants.

The Examiner was able to get hold of emails sent between Clr Khan and Freedom of Information officers at Kirklees Council. In the emails printed below, Clr Khan can clearly be seen intervening in FOI responses and preventing information from being sent out.

We thought seeing as Clr Khan had been amending information Examiner readers and the rest of the public had a right to see, then the readers should tell us exactly what they thought of his actions. Read the rest of the story andl et us know: Email us at newsdesk@examiner.co.uk, call us on 01484 437728 or write to us at Huddersfield Examiner, Queen Street South, Huddersfield HD1 3DU.