CABINET members last night faced another fiery round of questions over the wi-fi project but the agreed loan to internet company Digital City was finally signed off.

Members of the public and opposition councillors fired dozens of questions at members of the cabinet in the meeting, which lasted more than three hours.

Leader of the council Rod Bluh continually backed up his reasons for supporting the project and said the same questions are being asked over the process of the deal, which have been answered time and again.

He said: “I have got nothing to hide and I am very proud of this project.

“Out of a population of 192,000 people I have only had 12 people contact me who are not in favour of the project.

“If I had to make this decision again, despite all of the grief, I would not hesitate in doing it again.

“The integrity of this process is intact.

“There has been no failure in process and if anyone can show me one shred of evidence against this I will consider it.”

On the subject of the internal inquiry about Hitesh Patel, councillor Bluh said: “We believe in Hitesh and is a very valuable member of this cabinet.

“I would not question his integrity one bit.”

The cabinet unanimously voted in favour of the proposals outlined at a previous meeting this month that the rest of the £450,000 loan to Digital City be handed over with the exception of £50,000, which will be held back until 100 private internet packages have been sold.

At the meeting leader of the Labour group Derique Montaut said: “As you all probably know, in the last week the Labour group have been calling for an external inquiry into what some are now calling the ‘wi-fiasco’.

“We have been calling for this for a great number of reasons including the fact that there has been widespread public concern about the openness and transparency of council decision making, as a result of this wi-fi deal.

“The fact that this council’s administration simply bypassed local governance by not allowing all 59 councillors to have a say in the wi-fi decision that effects, not some, but all residents of Swindon.

“And, most importantly, the fact that councillors from all sides of the aisle have had creeping doubts about how ethical the council’s governance has been around wi-fi decisions.

“Perhaps the most clear example of this being when the Scrutiny Committee, a committee with a large Conservative majority, declared their dissatisfaction with the governance of wi-fi.”