Councillors have been accused of helping a former colleague by selling a community centre lease for next to nothing.

Under the terms of the 125-year lease, the Muslim Cultural and Welfare Association of Sutton (MCWAS), whose honorary secretary is former mayor and Liberal Democrat Councillor Lal Hussain, will pay the council a £225,000 premium to secure its continued occupation of Wentworth Hall in Ruskin Road, Carshalton.

MCWAS has let Wentworth Hall since 1996 and will also pay an annual off-off ground rent of £100, which will increase by £100 every 25 years.

At a full council meeting held on Monday, Conservative councillors tried to postpone the granting of the lease, alleging the premium had been discounted by 70 percent.

Councillor Tony Shields accused the council of repeatedly attempting to stop the matter coming to council, in an effort to keep the matter secret.

He said: “This is a disgrace. We all speak about opening up the council, being transparent and demonstrating our probity- Wentworth Hall puts paid to any of that.

“The only way to mitigate this disgusting and bordering misuse of a public asset, is to charge a proper rate for the lease to be decided by an independent valuer, agreed by both parties, and not just the intended recipient of this deal.”

But Mr Hussain, who was Sutton’s mayor from 2000 to 2001 and served on the council for eight years, said he was disgusted by the behaviour of the Tory group and no discount had ever been given.

He said: “It is shameful. I don’t think any Muslim would ever vote for a Tory here again.

"We pay full whack. For the first five years we paid the £5,000 rent requested, then we paid £6,500 and now we are paying £8,000.

“In total we have spent nearly £1m helping make the hall become a focal point in the community.”

The provisionally-agreed terms of the grant were approved after councillors voted calls for the granting of the lease to be postponed.

Council leader Councillor Sean Brennan said: "These allegations from the Tories are completelyunfounded and we totally refute them.

"This matter has been dealt with profesionally by council officers and offers extremely good value to the taxpayer."