A councillor named this week in a Liverpool ECHO investigation into parking tickets has been suspended by her political group while another has resigned from that group.
Two of those named as having parking fines cancelled by officers are former Labour councillors who last year quit the party to join the breakaway group the Liverpool Community Independents. Our 16-month investigation named Cllr Anna Rothery as having one ticket cancelled in the period of our investigation and Cllr Joanne Calvert as having three fines rescinded while they were both Labour councillors.
Tonight the Liverpool Community Independents group have suspended Cllr Rothery - who was the group's leader - pending an ongoing investigation into the ECHO's revelations and have announced that Cllr Calvert has resigned from the group.
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A statement released tonight said: "The parking tickets scandal, revealed this week in the Liverpool Echo, is a result of the Labour Party’s sense of entitlement as a ruling group and its lack of transparency.
"Inventing a ‘custom and practice’ culture of bypassing the PCN system of fines and appeals is unacceptable conduct. We need to know who took responsibility for this happening. There can’t be one law for councillors and another for the public.
"As a consequence, the Liverpool Community Independents group of councillors has suspended one councillor with historic parking offences, Cllr Rothery, pending the investigation to be reported to the Audit Committee and any further inquiry into the fourteen councillors conduct. Cllr Joanne Calvert has resigned from the group.
"We support calls for a full investigation into the entire episode in order to ascertain the full facts. Earlier this year, members of the ruling Labour group voted down an independent investigation into the Beautiful Ideas company. (BICo)
Two of the councillors, Ann O’Byrne and Nick Small who feature in the list of councillors having fines rescinded were also associated with BICo. Liverpool City Council must be a transparent and honest organisation which has the trust of its citizens."
Earlier tonight, former Lord Mayor of Liverpool Cllr Rothery offered an apology on twitter for her cancelled parking fine, which dates back to 2016. She said: "I am truly sorry for an error of judgement I made over a parking fine. On receiving the fine, I sought advice and was told that because I was on council business when I received it, it would be rescinded, and my offer to pay was twice rejected.
"While this was the usual practice at the time for those on council business, on reflection I believe this was poor practice and I regret following it. My offer to pay the fine still stands. I offer my sincere, heartfelt apologies for the upset caused.
“I will continue to stand up every day for the long-suffering people of Liverpool. They need independent councillors with strong political convictions on their side and I ask that you accept my sincere apology for my error.” My offer to pay the fine still stands."
In total 14 current and former elected Liverpool Councillors were named in our investigation as having had parking fines rescinded by council officers during the period between 2015 and 2020. The highest figure went to current Labour councillor Ann O'Byrne with 17, while Cllrs Barry Kushner, Gerard Woodhouse and Nick Small had 7, 5 and four respectively. All those named in our investigation provided explanations which can be read here.
The council's current chief executive said the information we have uncovered is "an example of the unacceptable culture that pervaded parts of the council in the past", while the lead government commissioner overseeing improvements at the council said the revelations "shine a light on the poor practices that have been all too common in Liverpool City Council."
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