A CONTROVERSIAL council consultation has been labelled a sham after serious discrepencies were uncovered in official documents.

Confused residents contacted the Guardian about the Redbridge Conversation, saying estimates for the capital value of land sales in the online version differ to hard copies by tens of millions of pounds.

Online respondents to the scheme - which gives residents the chance to have their say on how the council's capital programme should be managed - are given £235m to play with, while those taking part by post are left out of pocket with just £174m to spend.

The embarrassing error was only spotted after the leaflet version had gone to press and been distributed to every household in the borough.

But council officers maintain results will still be valid as most responses have been submitted online.

Richard Walker of Forest Approach, Woodford Green, has expressed concern that the consultation was a front for decisions being made behind closed doors.

Commenting on the latest revelation he said: "It just compounds the extent of the council's arrogance.

"It means elderly people or those without internet access don't get a say, and how many people in the borough does that apply to?

"It's a sham and absolutely pathetic."

Geoffrey Seeff, from Churchfields in South Woodford, has decided to shun the consultation after the council failed to respond to his suggestion, at an Area 2 committee meeting, that alternative ways of generating revenue should be found.

He said: "I support the scheme as it is an exercise in democracy, and the first time Redbridge has consulted its residents.

"It's not comprehensive, however, and I rather suspect that the council will be left in exactly the same position as they were before."

A spokesperson for the council said: "This error is unfortunate but is unlikely to affect the validity of the responses as the majority of people who have completed You Choose' have done so online.

"However when we analyse the results we will look out for any differences between response in the two formats that would suggest this has affected the result."