Political opponents have not held back in their verdicts on the damning report into Liverpool Council by government appointed commissioners.
Former Lord Mayor Cllr Anna Rothery, has called on current city Mayor Joanne Anderson and her cabinet to resign, while two former candidates to run the city have described the report as highlighting the controlling Labour group’s “utter failure”. A new approach to governance has also been proposed by Green Party group leader Cllr Tom Crone.
It was revealed on Friday that the government is to take over all financial, governance and recruitment powers from troubled Liverpool Council. That announcement came ahead of an excoriating second report from commissioners installed at the Cunard Building who identified a litany of failures at the council, around its handling of public money and leadership in particular.
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Mayor Anderson said last week that further intervention was not what the city needed. Her authority has been called into question by leader of the Liverpool Community Independents, Cllr Rothery.
She said: "After nearly two years of Government intervention Liverpool Council has been forced to accept additional support to manage its finances. The political leadership and the Officers in place are clearly not fit for purpose.
"The energy fiasco costing ratepayers and schools over £20m plus is a blunder of monumental proportions and the former CEO Tony Reeves, the financial director and the current Mayor are to blame. The Mayor has been in place since May 2021 but not in charge and she has presided over this comedy of errors.
"Our city has entered the doldrums, rudderless and leaderless, going backwards not forwards. Businesses and our city are suffering and as a result, we are being made a laughing stock locally, nationally and globally.
"We need to clear the decks in order to get this city back on an even keel, starting with openness, transparency and accountability. We have had years of mismanagement at a cost of millions to this city, and it continues, the sheer incompetence is a bitter pill to swallow.
"We need strong leadership with the required skills, knowledge and know-how, to restore faith and confidence with a real commitment to the people and businesses in this city. We need the commissioners out of our city but that won’t happen until we have strong internal leadership inclusive of political and senior management.
"Based on events to date the Mayor and Cabinet need to go."
St Michael’s ward member Cllr Crone, said the local authority needed a “fundamental democratic reconstruction” in the aftermath of the report, to “ rebuild trust and lead the city through the economic crisis it now faces”.
He said: “‘The city is in crisis, but this Tory government move supported by the Labour city and City Region Mayors is not the solution. We need a radical new alternative so that the people of Liverpool can take back control of their own futures, tackle the cost-of-living crisis and face up to the climate emergency.”
Cllr Crone said a strategy to share political power across all parties and the establishment of a cross-party committee would go towards bringing change at the Cunard Building. He added that a citizens panel should also be convened to oversee the process.
Cllr Crone said: “I know that staff are working so hard to make improvements, and we need to support them through a fundamental rebuild which will take years.”
Stephen Yip, who stood as an independent candidate to be city Mayor last year, and co-founded ReSet Liverpool in a bid to hold a referendum on the governance system that oversees Liverpool, said the government expansion of powers was “unprecedented”. He said: " Liverpool Council has finally run out of second chances.
“Handing over the day-to-day running of a major English city to Commissioners in this way is unprecedented. No spin or gloss from the Mayor's office or the controlling Labour Group can disguise their utter failure to address deep-rooted problems in the city and the rotten culture inside the council."
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