HOW often have we heard the phrase "lessons will be learned" after some debacle or other?

Although much more is still to be revealed about the Asons saga, it is clear that there is already a substantial list of lessons to be learned by Bolton Council.

There may well have been political pressure to facilitate the granting of £300,000 to the company, but that should not have watered down the due diligence which should have been carried out by those charged with upholding the reputation of the council.

The most significant difficulty in carrying out that exercise was the absence of any audited accounts beyond May, 2015, which made it impossible to judge the financial viability of the company.

This in itself should have rung warning bells.

We now learn that in the subsequent 12 months up to May, 2016, and just prior to the granting of the money, the firm lost £2.1 million.

Had that figure been available to the council, would it have still been so keen to hand over the money?

It is clear that this saga has dragged down the reputation of the council to perhaps the lowest level in living memory.

We now await the results of the KPMG inquiry into the grant.

That should have been available and published by now and not kicked down the road until the annual audit is produced in July.

Councillor Morris and company should hold off breathing a sigh of relief. The swamp is not yet drained.

Paul Richardson

Ripon Close

Little Lever