Port St Mary Commissioners have been ordered by the Information Commissioner to make public all documents relating to the purchase of Manxonia House.

The order follows a complaint by Jill Hamilton - wife of former clerk Alastair - that the authority had not complied with her Freedom of Information request.

Manxonia House, a derelict building bought by the local authority in 2016 for £191,000, was placed on the market for £295,000 in August last year.

The authority said £270,000, including the purchase price, had been spent on its refurbishment so far and there were insufficient funds to complete the project.

Controversy has surrounded its purchase, the lack of prior public consultation and cost of refurbishment.

Residents called it a millstone and blamed it for the 5.2% rate rise - which some commissioners denied.

It also emerged at a public meeting in June 2018 the commissioners had taken the decision to purchase Manxonia House without seeing a survey. Funding for the purchase was originally to have come from borrowing. But in the event, the funding came from money in an account that had gone unnoticed for years.

A previous FoI request, submitted by the Examiner, revealed that the original business case didn’t stack up as it would have meant a net call on rate-borne income of just under £5,000 a year.

Mr Hamilton went on sick leave in January 2018 and stepped down in April that year.

His wife submitted an FoI request regarding all documentaton relating to the building’s purchase and refurbishment.

She requested: ’That Port St Mary Commissioners disclose all information held in, but not limited to papers, correspondence, meeting records, business plans, surveys and Board records relating to the acquisition of Manxonia House in October 2016 and the subsequent ownership and redevelopment by the Board.’

The authority, after taking advice from lawyers and the local government unit, refused the request and upheld that refusal after a review.

But it accepted there is a public interest case and released a number of documents from 2016 including a plumbing report, a damp and timber survey, a market valuation, a structural report and a quantity surveyor report.

It also released an asbestos survey from August 2017 and an electrical report from March last year.

Mrs Hamilton was not satisfied with this response and complained to the Information Commissioner, who has now upheld her complaint and ordered all information be made public.

Commissioners’ chairman Michelle Haywood said: ’We tried to help but recognise his decision. There is confidential information relating to staff matters we were concerned about making public as we have signed an agreement with Mr Hamilton not to disclose information about each other.’

She added: ’We tried at every step. The advice on FoI requests is not very clear. Our staff worked hard to comply It is a burden. We are disappointed. We have tried very hard.’

The Information Commission’s ruling will be published shortly.