He was until recently one of the most important officers in Herefordshire Council – holding the purse strings of our squeezed public finances.

But trying to get the facts from our own local authority, regarding the possible departure of chief financial officer Peter Robinson – our public servant, whose salary is funded from public money – is like trying to delve into the boardroom machinations of a private company.

The circumstances are probably completely unremarkable – perhaps we’ve got the wrong end of the stick, but the council has insisted on maintaining a shroud of secrecy over the matter which we would argue is unreasonable.

And it begs the question of why?

We will get an answer, having submitted an FOI request, but you’ve got to ask – should the public have to pay for our request (for it will cost the council money), when it is a perfectly legitimate request for information which we would argue should be in the public domain?

People are entitled to ask what, if anything, is our publicly funded, democratically elected council hiding?

If there are ramifications for the public purse due to circumstances surrounding this matter, we, the public, have a democratic right to know.