Three Liverpool councillors investigated as part of a probe into a controversial matchday car parking company have been told complaints against them have been dismissed.
City councillors Nick Small, Steve Munby and Ann O'Byrne were three of five councillors facing complaints raised by Mayor Joanne Anderson in relation to their roles with the Beautiful Ideas Community Interest Company (BICO) that ran car parks for Liverpool and Everton fans with the aim of raising funds for the local community.
BICO has been the subject of multiple council investigations, with a number of audit reports released last month.
READ MORE: Long-awaited reports into controversial Liverpool and Everton matchday car parks published
A number of recommendations were made by the council's internal audit team through the different reports. The council said the findings were 'indicative' of general issues with how areas of the council were operated at the time - issues that were raised in last year's damning government inspection. Cllr Small was an unpaid director of the company from 2014 to 2018, while Cllrs Munby and O'Byrne were advisors.
In September, ahead of the audit documents being published, Mayor Joanne Anderson said she would request a “thorough investigation to identify any behaviour in this report which demonstrates a breach of procedures or codes of conduct, and for the appropriate action to be taken.” At a standards meeting last week, city solicitor Dan Fenwick said the conduct probe would be expanded to five councillors. The identities of the other two elected members have not been confirmed.
On Monday, Cllrs Small, Munby and O'Byrne were contacted by Mr Fenwick who told each of them that the complaints against them have dismissed.
In his letters to the three councillors, Mr Fenwick said complaints "will not be investigated due to the lack of evidence" to show that the individual councillors had breached the code of conduct. It added that the complainant - Mayor Anderson - had not provided "substantiated information" to demonstrate evidence of a breach of the code by the individual councillor. He added that no further action will be taken.
The city solicitor said the decision had been taken following consultation with the council's independent person appointed to advise on code complaints.
In a statement, Cllr Small said: "I welcome the decision of the council’s Monitoring Officer to dismiss the complaint against my role with BICO. The findings have concluded that I have not breached the City Council’s Code of Conduct or the Nolan Principles. I have said throughout that I have behaved professionally, transparently and ethically at all times and am not surprised by the outcome.
"BICO was set up to manage matchday car parking on derelict sites that blighted communities near the football stadiums and use the proceeds to benefit the local community in North Liverpool through investing in projects that generated inclusive economic activity and social value, while creating jobs and volunteering opportunities for people furthest away from the labour market.
"BICO has been toxified unfairly and deliberately to serve the narrow political agendas of others. As a result of this, the car park sites have remained derelict since BICO ceased operating them, continuing to blight the community. Money that could have been reinvested in community projects generating social impact has left the city."
"Jobs and volunteering opportunities have disappeared. As Liverpool faces austerity 2.0, the City Council shouldn’t lose sight of the need to adopt imaginative solutions to create alternative models to build community wealth, accessible jobs and inclusive growth, while tackling endemic problems that blight too many of our neighbourhoods."
In his own statement, Cllr Munby said: "“I’m delighted that this charade is over. It’s been a massive exercise in political score settling, with multiple axes being ground. I’m grateful to the monitoring officers for carrying out a comprehensive review of the case and coming to the only conclusion possible: that there is no evidence to substantiate a complaint against us.
"In all the noise on social and printed media the real issues have been lost. Before the Beautiful North was established derelict, council owned sites across north Liverpool, were left to rot and in some cases used for illegal car parks on match days to no public benefit. Our match day car parks generated income and bought funds into the area for community groups and start-ups for local businesses.
"Nearly twice as much money came in match funding from government and other sources. It was a successful model that has been rolled out elsewhere and something we should celebrate not attack. I am angry however that since the Audit Report of 2019, despite its recommendations nothing has been done to realise the value of the sites. That is a scandal!"
An extraordinary meeting of Liverpool Council is to be held this evening to discuss the audit reports. A motion has been submitted by members of the Liverpool Community Independents group, calling for an independent and “full and rigorous inquiry into the company and its relationship to Liverpool Council.”
A Liverpool City Council spokesperson said: “The outcome of this matter will be reported to the next meeting of the Standards and Ethics Committee.”
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