QUESTIONS have been raised about how to quantify the ongoing risk of Mid Devon District Council’s failed housing firm 3 Rivers.

The controversial firm has been closed down, but the council now owns properties and developments it bought from it and is trying to sell some and hoping to rent others to social housing tenants.

The council’s audit committee heard how both the delivery of the 3 Rivers closure plan and the firm’s impact on its reputation is rated as three out of 20 on a scale where the maximum risk score is 20.

The debate came as the council’s new auditor Bishop Fleming said it felt that during the last financial year a “significant weakness” remained in the authority’s operations because of 3 Rivers.

It felt the council had now taken “appropriate actions” to resolve the issue as the company has closed and the council has no similar arrangements.

Cllr Rhys Roberts (Conservative, Cadbury), told the meeting the reputational damage would be “long and lasting beyond the dissolving of the company”.

“I think the risk rating of three is too optimistic from my personal point of view, as it is going to take some time to go away,” he said.

“I think it still needs to be recognised as a risk and in my view should be higher.”

Cllr Adam Stirling (Liberal Democrats, Tiverton Westexe) agreed that while the closure plan had progressed, the reputational issue “will continue, because as my fellow councillor said, it is a big issue that won’t go away”.

Others, including Cllr Ben Holdman (Liberal Democrats, Tiverton Castle) and Cllr Emma Buczkowski (Liberal Democrat, Cullompton St Andrews), wondered whether the characterisation of the risk needed to change.

“If one of the risks was the closedown plan, but we’ve been told by [council officer] Paul Deal that it is now complete, then my personal thought is that we can scrap that risk,” he said.

Cllr Buczkowski said it was a “historical event” and that her view would be to remove the closedown plan from the risk register.

“Every time it appears on council papers, we are going to get questions on it and it’s not going to repair the reputational damage of the council,” she said.

But Cllr Beckett Fish (Liberal Democrat, Tiverton Cranmore) thought both risks should remain.

“While I appreciate that we have formally closed the company, I just think there are still empty properties sat there and until we’re receiving rental income from them, I think that risk remains,” he said.

Paul Deal, head of finance, property and climate resilience, said the council is trying to sell five properties at Haddon Heights, Bampton, but although people had viewed them, no offers had been made.

In the other part of the audit, which assesses a council’s value for money, it received a “red” rating for governance because of a recently discovered error relating to the over- and undercharging of social housing rents, and a “red” for improving economy, efficiency and effectiveness because of issues around 3 Rivers.

Financial sustainability was rated “amber”.

Bradley Gerrard