A row over a controversial matchday car parking company with links to several Liverpool Councillors will be debated a crunch meeting next month.
Earlier this month, Liverpool Council revealed the information it held about activity surrounding the Beautiful Ideas company (BICo). In 2018, the city council launched an initial assessment into the Community Interest Company that ran car parks for supporters visiting Goodison Park and Anfield on match days, amid allegations of poor practice but the document was never released.
That decision was criticised by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who said the council had incorrectly withheld the report. A number of recommendations were made by the council's internal audit team through the different reports. The council says the findings are 'indicative' of general issues with how areas of the council were operated at the time - issues that were raised in last year's damning government inspection.
Last week, former Labour members who created the Liverpool Community Independents called for an extraordinary general meeting of the local authority to be held on the matter. This call was added to yesterday by opposition leader, Lib Dem chief Richard Kemp.
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The council has now agreed for that meeting to be held before next month's full council meeting on November 23.
A message sent to the Labour group from Mayor Joanne Anderson - seen by the ECHO - states: "The city solicitor will confirm that there is to be a special council meeting to discuss BICo on the same day as council, November 23, one hour before council'." The Labour group will discuss the reports in question at a group meeting on November 14.
News of the debate has been welcomed by the Liverpool Community Independents group. Everton councillor Alfie Hincks said: “We have been demanding this course of action for weeks. This is the chance to deliver something that has been denied to the citizens of Liverpool for four years, transparency over the operation of the Beautiful Ideas company.”
In his earlier call for a special meeting, Cllr Kemp said: “The issues contained in this report are too big to be discussed at the fag end of a council meeting at 9pm. By having a proper debate at the normal council meeting we will be able to concentrate on a big financial and political issue rather than a number of small motions which are usually agreed unanimously.”
According to Liverpool Council, the car parks formerly operated by BICo are now closed and the authority said it understands the company is in the process of being wound up. A summary of the findings of recent internal audit reports will be brought to meetings of the audit committee.
Liverpool Council said it complied with the timescale of publishing within 35 days of the ICO decision and used that period to redact relevant parts.
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