WARRINGTON Borough Council’s Scrutiny Committee has rejected a Tory request to examine the Labour Cabinet’s decision to give significant additional funds to LiveWire.
At the start of the meeting, Tory Councillors Mark Jervis and Ken Critchley proposed that the majority of the Scrutiny Committee’s agenda should be conducted in public rather than in a private confidential meeting, but this proposal was rejected by a Labour majority vote.
Once in private session, Tory leader Cllr Balding spoke for 15 minutes to present his report of “evidence” to explain why he thought the Cabinet’s decision was flawed. He believed that his presentation contained no confidential information and so has made it available on Facebook for interested residents.
After the meeting, he commented: “I’d like to thank the Scrutiny Committee and council officers for their time, as well as members of the public who were only allowed to stay for a short period at the beginning of the meeting.
“Previously Cabinet decided to increase spending on LiveWire, which is described as an “independent company operating in a competitive marketplace”. This decision committed to a still-to-be-written Restructuring Plan for LiveWire, and WBC will pay to LiveWire an extra £1.3 million p.a. in management fees plus a large but unpublished grant. These funds are not now available for other council priorities.”
He said WBC Scrutiny Committee only had three options to consider when reviewing Cabinet decisions. It can offer no advice; offer advice to Cabinet for consideration; or, very exceptionally, it can refer a matter to Full Council.
Concerning the options, Cllr. Balding said: “I tried to persuade the Scrutiny Committee that Cabinet has not approached this in the right way. I recommended that the Committee should advise Cabinet to arrange for a full consultation with staff and residents, as well as looking at the available restructuring options before reconsidering its decision.”
“It was very disappointing that the Scrutiny Committee decided to choose the first option and offer no advice to Cabinet. Only the two Conservative members of the committee voted against this, making an additional point that Cabinet had failed to follow the decision-making principles which are set out in the Council’s Constitution.”
“If I’m right, then sorting this out will take much longer than it would have done if Cabinet had made its decision with a full understanding of the facts.”
“Subsidy proposals must be sent to, and approved by, the Government’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). WBC’s proposed subsidy runs the risk of being challenged by competitors after publication by the CMA, with the additional risk that the CMA may not accept it.”
“It might seem surprising that a Local Authority could get this wrong, but WBC has a history of disagreeing with external bodies like its external auditors, which leads to protracted uncertainty. Also, new legislation has just come into force in the form of the Subsidy Control Act 2022 which complicates matters.”
LiveWire is a Community Interest Company which runs council-owned sports centres, swimming pools and libraries across the town.
Council’s proposed £1.3m subsidy and restructuring of LiveWire set to be scrutinised
