A former Lord Mayor of Liverpool and leader of a new independent group on the city council has called on chief executive Tony Reeves to resign.
Cllr Anna Rothery, newly-appointed leader of the Liverpool Community Independents group, has said Mr Reeves should leave his post less than 24 hours after it was confirmed his deputy, Mel Creighton, would be stepping down. Cllr Rothery, who was selected as leader of the new group of former Labour councillors earlier this month, said Mr Reeves' position “is untenable and he does not have the confidence of 95% of elected members or the residents of this city.”
Despite being highly praised in the Caller Report last year, Mr Reeves has come in for intense pressure in the last few weeks over Liverpool Council’s management of contracts, particularly in terms of its utilities supply which could add millions of pounds to the bill of the already cash-strapped local authority. It was confirmed yesterday that Ms Creighton, who served as deputy chief executive and director of finance for three and a half years, would step down later this year in the wake of the energy contract debacle.
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Cllr Rothery said: "The resignation of Mel Creighton was right and predictable but it does not satisfy the residents of this city, who have to pay a heavy price for this fiasco. Mel Creighton was employed by Tony Reeves and is answerable to him.
“It is inconceivable that he would not be aware of the incompetence, he was a part of it. As his deputy CEO, the finance director was fully accountable to him and cabinet reports are given to him weeks in advance of publication.
“As residents of this city, we do not believe his position is untenable and he does not have the confidence of 95% of elected members or the residents of this city.” Mr Reeves faced heavy scrutiny for his part in the energy contract mix-up at a bruising meeting of the finances and resources select committee when he admitted the local authority still doesn’t have all the facts over failures potentially costing millions of pounds.
Calls were also made by a number of councillors for Mr Reeves to go and he was forced to defend his position when committee chair, Cllr Barry Kushner, described his leadership as “passive”. Mr Reeves said: “There's nothing passive about my leadership, I wasn't sighted in this contract, when I became aware of issues I made immediate checks.”
Cllr Rothery said Mr Reeves should now do the “honourable thing” in leaving his position. She said: “This saga goes on and on, with more revelations to come.
“This city has stagnated and developments ceased, council houses need to be built and regeneration kick started again. While the blame game continues amongst senior officers and commissioners, the spotlight is on this fiasco, there is clearly no leadership.
“Only by Tony Reeves doing the honourable thing and resigning can we get some sort of integrity back for this city.”
