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The council’s service director of property and infrastructure Roger Kirk will have to resign from his position as the chief operations officer and a director of Foxhall Homes Limited.

“This dual role has led to some tensions and difficulties in the past,” according to a report to the council’s executive.

“Mr Kirk’s involvement in The Stage (town centre) project is crucial in his council role, but compromised because LBC’s housing development company could benefit from this,” explained the report.

“While Mr Kirk is a member of The Stage project board as a service director, it would be unclear to an observer that he isn’t representing the interests of Foxhall Homes in a privileged position unavailable to any other housing developer.

“The genuine concern, confusion and potential distraction this would raise must be avoided, given the criticality of the scheme to the town centre regeneration.”

At a meeting of the Luton Shareholder Group last month, a report was made by LBC monitoring officer Mark Turner on the Foxhall Homes board composition and agreed for submission to the executive for approval.

The group made three recommendations to the committee:

> Mr Kirk should cease both of his roles with Foxhall Homes;

> the corporate director (population wellbeing) Mark Fowler should no longer remain a director of the housing company to maintain separation in his role as line manager to service director housing Colin Moone;

> and the vacant posts of director be held open for now, potentially enabling independent non-executive directors to be appointed.

“On a short-term basis, Mr Moone should take on the role of acting as the liaison officer between the board and the professional team providing services to the company and headed by Mr Kirk,” added the report.

“The Foxhall board has been considering appointing two independent non-executive directors, who could occupy the vacated seats once Mr Kirk and Mr Fowler resign.

“This arrangement will create a clear distinction between client and provider in the purchase of the property development services the company requires from the local authority.

“It would also enable Mr Kirk to work on The Stage project without the distraction of conflict of interest allegations. Mr Kirk will attend board meetings as an adviser, rather than a decision-maker.”

The executive agreed to the changes proposed in the report last week (December 5). Campaigners hoping to save Wandon Recreation Park from development reacted in a social media post, saying: “The decision was rubber-stamped without discussion.

“We’ve said repeatedly LBC has flipped between itself and Foxhall Homes to twist everything to its advantage.

“LBC allowed Mr Kirk to work as chief operations officer and director of the housing company, while working as the council’s service director of property and infrastructure … poacher and gamekeeper.

“Every time we said there’s a conflict of interest, we were told we were wrong and that none existed. There’s still time to put this situation right and not take our much-loved park.”