OXFORD City Council’s decision to hire an independent organisation to investigate the claim of an inappropriate comment by erstwhile Lord Mayor Alan Armitage was absolutely the correct one, despite the £15,000 bill.

While taxpayers may not be happy, imagine the implications if the council had tried to hold the investigation in-house?

Automatically, given the importance of the office Mr Armitage held, there would have been suspicions of a cover-up. Indeed, the council attracted justified criticism over a lack of transparency during part of the saga.

Given the nature of the allegation it had to be properly and thoroughly investigated and unfortunately that came with a price tag.