Opposition groups in Liverpool are ramping up pressure on the Labour Party over a parking fines scandal exposed last week by the Liverpool ECHO.
Our investigation named 14 current and former elected Labour members as having parking fines cancelled by officers without using the proper processes between 2015 and 2020. The council's current chief executive Theresa Grant said our revelations uncovered an "unacceptable culture" that existed in the council at the time.
All those named in our investigation have provided explanations which can be read here.
Since the news was revealed last week, the only action taken against any of the councillors named has involved two elected members who last year left Labour to join a breakaway group called the Liverpool Community Independents.
READ MORE: 14 city politicians named in parking probe and their explanations
Last week the Community Independents group voted to suspend Cllr Rothery - who was their leader at the time - after she was named as having one parking fine rescinded in our investigation. Cllr Rothery has since apologised and offered to pay her fine. Another group member, Cllr Joanne Calvert - who had three tickets rescinded - resigned from the group.
As yet no action has been taken by Labour against any of its members named in the investigation. The party says its councillors acted 'in good faith' when handing their tickets to officers who then cancelled them.
The city's opposition groups are now piling pressure on Labour to take action against those involved. Cllr Alan Gibbons, deputy leader of the Community Independents has written an open letter to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee (NEC).
In the letter, he said: "I am writing following reports that Liverpool Labour councillors used a secretive back-door route to avoid paying parking charge notices (PCNs). Politicians are fond of talking about making hard choices. The choice the Liverpool Community Independents group of councillors had to make was painful in the extreme, to suspend our own group leader, but it was the right thing to do.
"14 Labour councillors incurred 51 parking fines. Cllr Rothery had one such fine, compared to 17 incurred by the worst offender, former Deputy Mayor Cllr O’Byrne.
"Anna Rothery is the only councillor to emerge with any credit, apologising for an error of judgement over her one fine in 2016 and offering to pay the cost. In contrast, no Labour councillor has apologised or faced any action. We took our decision because we believe all councillors involved in this Labour-invented ‘custom and practice’ of circumventing the PCN process should be suspended pending investigation by the Audit Committee and the Standards and Ethics Committee.
"It does not imply guilt or innocence. It is a matter of due process. Will the Labour Party NEC instruct the Liverpool Labour group to demonstrate a commitment to transparency and honesty by following our example? Liverpool Labour risks degenerating into a self-serving electoral sect whose only purpose is to perpetuate its shambolic rule. We call on you to demonstrate integrity and follow our example."
Liverpool Council's main opposition leader Cllr Richard Kemp of the Liberal Democrats has now submitted a number of questions to be asked at the next meeting of the full council on March 1.
His questions ask about the operational passes cited by a number of councillors named in our investigation, asking for details of if, when and how these passes were used in the council. He has also asked how many parking fines in total were issued by enforcement staff between 2015 and 2020, how many were appealed and how many were paid.
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