LTNman - you are raising topics for discussion that sound like they need to be clarified publicly, but in which a single ordinary individual probably cannot alone get a convincing answer. The amounts of taxpayer funds involved are worthy of public interest
By all means, ask those awkward questions and make freedom-of-information requests to see what you can find, but it's easy for a council to play smoke-and-mirrors with a private individual in a way that they can't with experienced journalists. It is perhaps time to hand over some of the publicising of these questions to a well resourced investigative news gathering organisation and see what they can uncover.