HEREFORDSHIRE Council's chief finance officer has admitted figures which went before councillors for approval were inaccurate.

Peter Robinson sent out a clarification email explaining why there was £9million missing from a table of figures outlining the amount of money spent prior to 2015 on Hereford's impending city link road.

In February 2015 the figure was listed in the council's Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) as £19.7 million. But the figure put to councillors in later council meetings was just £10.6 million.

Mr Robinson has since responded in an email to county councillors saying all the figures in the 'previous years spend' column were incorrect.

"This arose because it incorrectly included forecast spend to 31.03.15," he wrote, adding he was sorry before confirming the correct figure as the £10.6 million.

He said he would refer the matter himself to external auditors.

Councillor Bob Mathews, leader of the county's Independent group, said he will await the auditors' response.

"The issue is now with the auditors," said Cllr Bob Matthews.

"When we get their response we will know exactly what the position is."

The council said in a statement: "There was an error with one table in the previous year’s MTFS which gave erroneous figures in one column. This has been corrected and a clarification published; the error had no impact at all on the budget or on the accuracy of accounts."

Meanwhile, Herefordshire Council has recommended Abergavenny-based Alun Griffiths (Contractors) be awarded the contract to build the city link road, which will connect Aylestone Hill with Edgar Street with the aim of taking traffic off Newmarket Street and Bluescool Street.