- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 June 2001 14.16 BST
Former Doncaster council leader Colin Wedd has resigned as chair of the town's racecourse committee after charges of expenses fraud were brought against him.
Mr Wedd was the third leader to be arrested in the ongoing police investigation at Doncaster council and, like the others, he stood down as leader after being arrested.
However, just weeks after his arrest, he was controversially re-elected as chair of Doncaster racecourse, a municipally owned track.
But following his being charged on two counts of expenses fraud last week, independent councillors at Doncaster called for him to stand down from the committee.
His belated decision to stand down comes, he said, because the publicity surrounding the charges had had a "negative" effect on the proposed £55m project to make Doncaster an international centre for racing excellence.
Although no longer chair of the racing committee, Mr Wedd is expected still to be heavily involved in trying to win a share of horse racing cable TV rights for the town.
