FOR years they are questions the people of Knutsford wanted answered.

Last week the Knutsford Guardian attempted to solve some of the town's 'mysteries' using the Freedom of Information Act.

We await the answers, but you will be the first to know when we get them. This is what we wanted to know ..

LITTLE is left of the landmark building that stood in Northwich Road for 108 years.

But it does not mean the people of Knutsford have forgotten - or more to the point how much Cheshire County Council made from the sale of the 19th century Kilrie mansion and grounds six years ago.

There has been a blanket ban on revealing that information since the local authority sold it to Holmes Chapel-based developers Seddon Homes in 1999.

Despite constant requests from the Knutsford Guardian - and appeals from the public - Cheshire said council taxpayers had no right to know details of the deal.

Seddon Homes said too it was a 'matter between ourselves and the council'.

But that veil of secrecy is now being challenged.

The Knutsford Guardian has written to request details of that deal - and others - under the Freedom of Information Act.

Roger Birchall, of St John's Road, Knutsford, has long called for more open government.

"The public has a right to know how its money is spent and how income is received," he said.

"Evasiveness and obstruction in the supply of information only fuels suspicions that there is chicanery with public funds and this perception is bad for open-government in a democratic society."

At 4.29pm on Wednesday last week the Knutsford Guardian emailed its request to Jonathan Pepler, county archivist and Data Protection Officer.

Within 30 minutes, he had written back.

"We will send you a full response within 20 working days, either supplying you with the information which you want, or explaining to you why we cannot supply it," he said.

It was the Freedom of Information Act that helped to reveal the total cost of 'Black Wednesday' - now viewed as one of the biggest disasters of economic management The figure £3.3billion - revealed in February this year when the Act was tested for the first time - was the cost of the Tory Government's decision in September 1992 to exit the Exchange Rate Mechanism.

But how the Knutsford Guardian will fare in unearthing a simple document about a former children's home is open to question.

Since 1999 County Hall has refused to open up despite accusations that it was hiding behind the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 which allows councils to keep a lid on any information likely to upset future deals.

"These are public considerations," said Over Peover businessman Reg Lawrence six years ago.

"It's not just Kilrie. It's all public assets."

So incensed he wrote to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott for an explanation on March 7, 1999.

After failing to appeal to Cheshire's need for openness, the Guardian tried another avenue in June 2002.

Staff contacted the HM Land Registry, which records the ownership of land in England.

A spokesman there said the price of the sale was missing from their official documents.

"The price is not on the register," she said. "There could be a number of reasons why this is.

"Generally the price is listed if it reflects the full market value so that could be part of the reason why it is not there."

That year a Cheshire County Council spokesman said he had no idea why the information was missing from the document, but again refused to reveal the amount. "Under rules and regulations we cannot discuss how much it was sold for," he said.

"The fact that it was sold to a third party means that the information cannot be divulged because it is commercially sensitive."

The then chairman of Cheshire County Council, Bert Grange, said he did not know how much his authority had made from the deal either.

"I've no idea what it went for," he told the Knutsford Guardian at the time.

"In fact, I've never actually tried to find out. I've never really thought about it." He said money made from the sale, though, had helped to fund social services in other parts of the county.

A Cheshire spokesman said the rest went into the 'corporate pot' and was used for a 'variety of things'.

The children's home had closed in 1998 following changes in the way Cheshire looked after children in its care.

It was triggered by a fall in demand for the service and concerns that children should be placed with families and not in institutions.

At the time of closure only eight children lived at the home in Northwich Road.

Seddon Homes then bought it for an undisclosed sum after outbidding other developers. The sale was agreed without any conditions.

The following year the bulldozers - and builders - moved in to start clearing the site to make way for 23 homes.

Today properties on Heath Grange sell for between £270,000 and £330,000.

"There were speculators who bought and lived there for nine months before moving on," said estate agent Stuart Rushton.