Documents used to investigate a controversial 1980s land sale may now be released to the public after a tribunal criticised the council and officers for failing to take its obligations under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act seriously.

An Information Tribunal, convened under the 2000 act, reached the damning conclusion that senior Richmond upon Thames Council officers, including chief executive Gillian Norton, were unhelpful to former Hampton resident Anthony Berend in responding to an FoI request.

Mr Berend sought information about an investigation into the sale of public land at the junction of Wellington Road and Sixth Cross Road, which is now Squire's Garden Centre and Fulwell Golf Course, for £300,000 on a 999-year lease by Richmond council in 1986.

The findings of a council task group, which met in private, investigating the sale was the subject of Mr Berend's request asking for minutes and agendas, papers relating to the sale of the land and memos and notes between officers and councillors.

Councillor Tony Arbour, leader of Richmond council when the task group was formed, said there was a belief the land was sold for less than market value while campaigners suspected there was wrong-doing in the transaction and the price of the land should have been £3million.

He said the task group was hamstrung by loss of papers and solicitor Rodney Brooke was commissioned to investigate their disappearance but his investigation, as with previous ones by the Audit Commission and district auditor failed to clarify the position and douse suspicions.

Mr Berend appealed to an information tribunal after his requests were blocked and in the report issued last Friday council processes and, in a move described as unprecedented by Mr Berend, named officers were criticised.

It said officers did nothing substantive to progress the request for months, a lot of information did not reach Mr Berend and the council failed to meet legal deadlines.

It said legal officers, including information officer Matthew Ginn, failed to scrutinise or check the information supplied by democratic services officer Mary Collins in response to the requests.

And found internal reviews, where Mr Berend escalated the complaint to officers at the highest level including Mrs Norton and head of legal services Richard Mellor, skirted around the real reasons for the council's delay and dealt selectively with the facts in dismissing the majority of Mr Berend's complaints.

Senior legal officer George Chesman was found to have given opinions when he had not seen documents and the tribunal concluded the council should provide additional information to Mr Berend or properly state why it should be withheld.

Richmond council pointed out the tribunal concluded it had provided sufficient advice to Mr Berend and legal professional privilege had given them the right to withhold some documents, although Mr Berend said the decisions in the council's favour were on points of law.

Mrs Norton said the council was following the direction to re-consider Mr Berend's request and is now addressing the areas highlighted in order to ensure that there is no recurrence of the mistakes it made but added no council officer would face disciplinary action "This is a process from which we will learn and improve how we do things," she added.

Mr Berend said Mrs Norton was trying to avoid the truth and spin her close colleagues from the consequences of their actions, for which she is ultimately responsible.

He said he will be questioning Coun Serge Lourie, leader of Richmond council, at a forthcoming meeting asking who decided not to discipline officers and who made the decision to spend taxpayers money on employing counsel, he added there was more to discover about the situation.

Coun Arbour added: "The Information Commissioner's report suggests that if officers had acted with the same zeal as Mr.Berend we may have been able to find the truth about the loss there may have been to the borough taxpayers."