Liverpool City Council granted a shopping parade to a private company connected to a well known Liverpool man.
The ECHO has documented how the council has paid millions of pounds to trusts and companies associated with Phil and George Knibb.
Phil Knibb is a social activist and George Knibb is a ward councillor for Norris Green.
READ MORE: Liverpool Council moves forward with bin charge and Council Tax plan
The latest figures obtained by the ECHO reveal that £2,696,722.63 was paid to the network between 2013 and 2020.
The council has also revealed details of land and buildings granted to the same network.
However the ECHO has now identified a new piece of land that was not included in the response by the council.
In 2013 The Neighbourhood Services Company (NSC) was granted a 99 year lease to a parade of shops off Landford Avenue.
The ECHO obtained this information by searching Land Registry records. Phil Knibb is named as sectetary of NSC, which is a private company. George Knibb is not linked to the company.
Information about the cost of the lease is not available.
A spokesperson for Liverpool City Council said: “In light of new information we are carrying out a full review of this FOI response to establish all the facts and will provide an update in due course.”
A spokesperson NSC said they took out a loan to buy the lease from the council in order to help the community. They said that NSC used its own workforce to build new units to provide the community with much needed services.
Last year the council, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, revealed the information about land and buildings granted to the same network of companies.
The council revealed that NSC was granted a 30-year-lease in 2019 for £1 per annum to Croxteth Farm
Alt Valley Community Trust (AVCT) bought Dovecot Multi Activity Centre for £1 on December 2 2016.
AVCT was granted a 30-year-lease to Walton Leisure Centre on April 24 2013 at a peppercorn ground rent.
Croxteth Leisure Centre was sold to AVCT on December 16 2009 for £220,000.
Last year Liverpool council revealed they paid £1,269,513.29 to the network of community trusts across the city between 2013 and 2020.
This included a payment of £811,933.86 to AVCT.
The council also paid NSC, a private company, £ 277,026.17 between 2013 and 2020.
Last week new information emerged about the flow of council money to the network of companies and trusts.
The ECHO revealed Liverpool council paid £2,231,065.00 to AVCT from 2013 to 2020. The largest single payment was for over £600,000 in 2018.
The information was published in AVCT's annual accounts on Companies House.
This revealed a large disparity between the £811, 933.86 which the council said they had paid to AVCT.
Established in 1988, AVCT describes itself as a social enterprise dedicated to improving the lives of people in north east Liverpool. It offers support to business start-ups in the Croxteth area, adult education and training. Information on the NSC website states that it is a social business aimed at developing jobs.
A spokesperson for NSC said: "Alt Valley Community Trust had community workers based in Sparrow Hall working with the local tenants association. A recurring theme was the lack of local shops, particularly the need for a convenience store and concern that the local doctors and chemist would be moving out of the area.
"The issue was raised at a local community engagement meeting and NSC took up the issue with the city council and worked with the local community to draw up plans to rebuild the shops.
"These were to include space for the doctor’s surgery next to a chemist, a convenience store, chip shop and two other units were planned.
"The City Council made the former shops land available and NSC negotiated a loan and committed funds to the project. The new premises, (not including the doctors who moved to a joint practice on another site) were built by the NSC workforce from start to finish with local architects and surveyors.
"The shops were completed in 2013 and comprise of a double unit Boots chemist and a double unit convenience store, and single unit café take-away, hair and beauty salon and a chip shop."
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
