Misguided action over toxic contracts?

4th May 2012, 1:00am

You reported that Suffolk County Council suspended the head and the governing body of a school for entering into a toxic lease agreement involving laptops costing #163;5,000 each that the school believed were free (“Thousands of schools duped by ‘toxic contracts’”, TES, 20 April).

A better course of action would have been vigorous public support of those who were thought to have been misled and a letter to the bank with a robust refusal to pay more than the normal retail price for each computer. It would not have been an easy court action for the administrator - until the council seemed to concede everything in advance by punishing its own team.

Ian Macaulay, Former solicitor.