A FORMER high-ranking Royal Navy officer was paid more than £20,000 by Hull City Council as part of their failed bid to bring HMS Illustrious to the city.

Rear Admiral Robert Cooling was an assistant chief of the naval staff and a former commanding officer of the warship.

After the ship’s decommissioning in August 2014, Hull was one of a number of cities to bid to host the vessel, but failed to make the Ministry of Defence’s final shortlist in October despite spending £540,000 on the project.

Reported by the Hull Daily Mail. You can read the full story here. 

Matthew Burgess
http://www.mattburgess.co
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.