WALLASEY MP Angela Eagle had free use of a town centre market stall during her general election campaign provided by a company that was at loggerheads with Wirral Council over cash.

Parkwood Properties has a £6m plan to extend its Cherry Tree shopping centre in Liscard and build a two-storey carpark on land it already owns but currently leases to the council.

The land in question is already a carpark, run by the council, at the rear of the shopping centre in St Alban's Road.

Parkwood offered the authority in the region of £500,000 for the lease and Labour members of the town hall's ruling cabinet were prepared to accept that sum.

But Conservatives and Liberal Democrats refused to back the bid, saying it was not enough, citing the loss of £110,000 in annual revenue from the carpark.

Ms Eagle publicly criticised that move and was quoted in the Globe on June 8 saying: "I didn't want to lose a £6m scheme which my constituents have wanted ever since I was elected as Wallasey's MP.

"It is important that now we have a chance to revive it. It gives the opportunity to provide bigger retail space which will attract the premier retailers rather than those from lower divisions."

Since its original offer was turned down due to the Cons-ervative/Lib-Dem block, the company has since upped the amount it is prepared to pay for the lease by a further £200,000.

This week, it emerged that Parkwood Properties allowed Ms Eagle free use of a market stall in the Cherry Tree centre during the general election campaign.

The MP and her team had use of the stall from April 11 until May 5, the day she was re-elected.

On her election expenditure forms, under the donations section, she lists a "notional donation of £1,586 for use of market stall during campaign" that was accepted on April 8.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing as no actual comm-ercial value was attached to the stall.

But Leah Fraser, who stood as Ms Eagle's Conservative opponent in the general election, said: "I find this staggering.

"To accept a donation from a developer while that developer is in negotiation with your party's councillors is, I believe, an error of judgement.

"If the rest of the council had listened to Ms Eagle and her councillors in Liscard, a Labour Party donor would now be £200,000 better off at the expense of council tax payers.

"I believe a full investigation is required."

Stuart Kelly, leader of the council's Liberal Democrat group, said the MP had been "unwise" not to mention the free stall when making comments about the Cherry Tree centre.

"That she clearly had a relationship with the company is a matter of some concern, if only because she has not been completely open about it," he said.

"She should have been a bit more candid about that relat-ionship before making her unwise comments regarding Cherry Tree."

A spokesman for Ms Eagle said: "Our view is that we did not have any interest to declare.

"The market stall was of no commercial value.

"We used the premises in full view of the general public and have behaved completely above board."