Documents found in street belonged to Labour group

A small number of documents found scattered across the street by football fans in Spotland were Labour Party documents, the group’s Leader Councillor Colin Lambert, has confirmed.

The papers, which included lists of names, addresses and phone numbers as well as political papers were discovered by football fans making their way to Rochdale’s home match against Wycombe on Saturday 1 October.

The documents were found around Mellor Street and Spotland Bridge and reported to Rochdale Council by a member of the public.

At a meeting of Full Council it was suggested by Liberal Democrat Leader, Councillor Wera Hobhouse that the “exposure of personal data” was an “act of gross incompetence by the Rochdale Labour Party.”

Councillor Lambert was asked if he would be apologising to the public and if an internal  inquiry would be launched.

Councillor Lambert said: “The material found in Spotland was eight years old, the majority of it was public information, some of it was Labour Party information and I will deal with that within my group.”