Liverpool Council’s chief legal officer has suggested issues like the operation of controversial match day car parks in the north of the city contributed to the damning Max Caller report in 2021.
Last October, the local authority released historical internal audit reports which looked at the operation of car parks by the Beautiful Ideas Company (BICo). BICo was a Community Interest Company with links to a number of city councillors. It was launched in 2014 to manage matchday car parks in north Liverpool used by Liverpool and Everton fans.
The revenue was to be used to help the community. Three Labour councillors were linked to BICo in the past. One acted as a director from 2014 to 2018 and two were advisors.
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Owing to a lack of evidence, they were cleared of any wrongdoing by city solicitor Dan Fenwick, who told a meeting of Liverpool Council’s strategic development and housing committee this week how practices around BICo and other projects may have landed the council in the position it is currently in. Mr Fenwick said “the whole council probably accepts” the culture around how BICo was managed and similar operations “led to the Caller Report and where we are today.”
The publication of the internal audit reports followed a decision by the Information Commissioner’s Office which ruled it was in the public interest to disclose the documents. Mr Fenwick clashed with Cllr Alan Gibbons over the council’s progress in responding to recommendations made in reports from 2018/19.
Cllr Gibbons, deputy leader of the Liverpool Community Independents, said “forcing” the council to scrutinise BICo has been "a burden I've carried.” He told the committee an independent inquiry was voted down and nobody has been brought to account, a situation he described as "really serious."
The internal audit reports said “the governance and monitoring relationship between the Authority and the BICo was limited.” Liverpool Council said in response to this, it will “ensure that there are sufficient governance and monitoring arrangements in place for any such future relationships.”
Cllr Gibbons said he now felt “the book was being closed” on BICo and what he described as a “tawdry episode” for the city council. Responding, Mr Fenwick said the council could "only work with what we've got" and no member was found to have breached the code of conduct.
One of the findings said there was “no specific clauses or requirements in any of the agreements between the council and BICo regarding neither the nature nor the criteria to be applied to recipients of awards/ investments, reducing the council’s control and/ or influence of the management of generated funds.” In response, the authority has vowed to ensure that there are sufficient obligations and clauses in any agreements between itself and third parties, including community organisations, in future.
In the 2018/19 report, a medium priority was listed as addressing how income earned from use of the former Four Oaks Primary Site had not yet been invested in social enterprises by BICo as agreed with the city council in July 2015. The new documents said following receipt of legal advice, the council had been informed how surplus funds in a community interest company must be transferred to a “similar organisation” upon it being wound up.
The report added: “The council is therefore not in a position to reclaim such funds.” It added how going forward when awarding or investing money, Liverpool Council will ensure “any agreements between the council and third parties take into account any specific legal or regulatory obligations relating to the assets of relevant organisations, including Community Interest Companies.”
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