A businessman who loaned land to a match day parking company has complained of a lack of transparency over how the money raised was distributed.
Last month Liverpool Council published a number of audit reports into the Beautiful Ideas Company (BICo.) BICO, set up as a community interest company, was launched in 2014 to manage matchday car parks in north Liverpool used by Liverpool and Everton fans.
The money raised from the car parks was earmarked to help communities across north Liverpool. Paul Lloyd, managing director of Fast Growth Homes, has said that his company granted land on Whittle Street in Kirkdale to BICo in 2017. The land was then used to provide match day parking facilities for Everton and Liverpool fans during 2017 and 2018.
READ MORE: Liverpool builders did not have password for account with £226k of match day car park cash
Mr Lloyd said that he chose to donate the land, which he bought in 2016, to BICo to 'help the local community.' Mr Lloyd said that he was later met with a 'wall of silence' when he attempted to find out how BICo had distributed the money.
He said: "Fast Growth were disappointed not to hear back from BICo about the community projects supported as we agreed to allow BICo to work at this site as a gesture of good will. Following the release of the council's audit reports we were disappointed to read about the issues with BICo.
"We were also disappointed with the lack of transparency around how the money was used to help local groups in the north Liverpool community.
"We were met with a wall of silence and will be interested in the outcome of the council-led investigation."
The internal audit reports from 2015 and 2019 into the operation of match day car parks and the collection of charges were published last month.
Last week it emerged that Mayor Joanne Anderson had lodged four issues regarding BICo and “standards of conduct”. All of the complaints listed make reference to alleged corruption and fraud, with three of them also citing poor performance.
The register of complaints, which is to be discussed publicly next week by the council’s standards and ethics committee, said all four complaints were being assessed and remained open.
In September, before the audit reports were released, Mayor 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.”
Following the publication of the reports the council issued a statement which read: "The Beautiful Ideas CIC is a separate entity to Liverpool City Council and we have never had any legal powers to intervene in its operation.
“Our Internal Audit Team worked alongside the organisation to look solely at the controls and compliance relating to the income and use of funds from car parks on land leased from Liverpool City Council.
"We found there were acceptable controls and compliance procedures in place, but a number of recommendations were made. In our final report produced in 2019 we found that the only outstanding issue was related to record keeping relating to the collection of match day income, but as the car parks are no longer operating it is no longer required.
“The findings and recommendations of these Internal Audit reports are indicative of general issues regarding how areas of the council were operating at the time, as highlighted by the Best Value Inspection in March 2021. Since this time the council has implemented an organisation-wide Strategic Improvement Plan and is taking significant steps to deliver the necessary improvements to strengthen governance and control arrangements.
“The matters raised in the reports are those that came to Internal Audit’s attention during the course of their work. While every care has been taken to make sure the information is as accurate as possible, Internal Audit can only base their findings on the information and documentation provided to them, and the sample evidence tested, at that time.
"In line with standard audit practice, Internal Audit undertakes sample testing and aims to provide reasonable assurance about risk management, governance and control processes. Its findings are not intended as a comprehensive statement of all the weaknesses that existed, or of all the improvements that may be needed. These reports were produced solely for the internal use and benefit of Liverpool City Council.”
The ECHO approached BICo for comment on this story.
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