A resident feels 'misled' by Liverpool City Council over the local authority's relationship with a security company.
In 2020 Spartan Management Service's logo appeared on a billboard advertising a training academy on Derby Road in north Liverpool. An ECHO investigation later revealed that the training academy had not been built.
The billboard included Liverpool City's council's official crest. In response to the story about the academy, Mr Mal Dean submitted a freedom of information act request to the council, enquiring about the relationship between the local authority and Spartan Management Service.
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The council responded to the request in September 2020 by stating that they had no relationship with Spartan and had not paid monies to the company.
Last month the council published audit reports into the Beautiful Ideas Company (BICo).
The report read: "Record keeping of the (Walton Breck Road) car park income was very poor and in need of improvement. Following the surrender of the BICo lease, the Council took the decision to license the site, on a short term basis, to Spartan Management Service to prevent the site attracting fly tipping and/ or unlawful occupation.
"The Council is concurrently preparing a tender exercise that seeks to appoint an operator to run the car park until the end of the current football/ events season, which ends 29th June 2019."
On Thursday a spokesperson for the council said that the local authority responded to the request for information 'in good faith' and would now look again at the matter.
Mr Mal Dean said to the ECHO: "The council clearly stated in response to my request that they had no relationship with Spartan.
"But then the audit report on the Beautiful Ideas Company revealed that the council had used Spartan to manage one of the sites.
"My question was very straightforward and I don't like being misled."
Mr Dean's questions read: "A) The relationship the Council has with Spartan? B) The total amount of money paid to Spartan for any services provided?"
The council's response read: "No commercial relationship or otherwise exists with Spartan Security or any other company of a similar or related name.
Nil – please refer to (1) above."
A Liverpool City Council spokesperson said: “The information in the FOI answer was supplied in good faith following enquiries made at the time. We will look again at the request and will disclose any further information available.”
Spartan Management Service changed its name to Gated Security in September 2020. A spokesman for Gated Security said to the ECHO: "We dealt with the Beautiful Ideas Company not Liverpool Council."
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