A CAMPAIGNER is calling on “heads to roll” after it emerged the council had failed to sever ties with the firm running Basildon Golf Course.

It has emerged Basildon Council has only just served a legal notice calling on the firm running the course off Clayhill Road to give it up, despite assurances by Tory leader Tony Ball this was done in April.

Mr Ball has now been told a notice for Basildon Golf Centre Ltd to surrender its 99-year lease on the course has been served, but that comes after Mr Ball agreed to use taxpayers’ money to clear £9,000 of the firm’s £16,000 water bill debt, believing the council had control of the course.

Mick Toomer, chairman of the Friends of Basildon Golf Course, has been against the council’s links with the company since the beginning.

He said: “We now understand rather than serve a repossession notice the council sent a request to comply with the lease. The council also used another £9,000 of ratepayers’ money to pay off part of the water bill.

“Worse still, Mr Ball was led to believe the repossession notice had been served, prior to his authorising the payment of the water bill.

“If he had been told the truth, it is not unreasonable to suggest he would not have authorised this waste of ratepayers’ money.

“Mr Ball has been put in an extremely embarrassing position.

“Heads should roll and it’s down to Tony Ball to wield the axe, no matter how high he has to swing it.”

It is understood Mr Ball was in talks with chief executive Bala Mehandran at the Basildon Centre yesterday to get answers as to why his orders to serve the notice were not followed.

Mr Ball said yesterday afternoon: “We have served notice to recover the money and course today.”

He would not discuss the matter further, other than to confirm the Echo previously quoted him correctly as saying notices to surrender the lease had already been served.

When asked why officers had not carried out his orders and instead served notices for the firm to comply with the lease, he said: “The reason given was they felt this to be the best course of action.”

The row between the council and Basildon Golf Centre has been going on since April 6th when the firm closed the course and sacked 12 staff.

A council spokesman said legally it had to give the company a timescale to comply with the notice before notices to forfeit the lease could follow. He said the original compliance notices had been the start of that process, which was ongoing.