The council’s plans were described as being like ‘spaghetti’ while councillors were told they needed a reality check though current leadership was praised
Wirral Council’s offices at Alice Ker Square in Birkenhead(Image: Liverpool Echo)
A “toxic” and “broken” system from the top down ignored red flags and led to major failures that have now trashed a Merseyside council’s reputation, a critical review finds. A major investigation into what went wrong at Wirral Council’s regeneration department has just been published ahead of a key meeting next week.
In July, Wirral Council appointed regeneration consultants Aughton Lane to look at the council’s approach to regeneration over the last three years. The firm’s directors includes Michael Palin, who has worked for Homes England, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, and been chief executive of St Helens Council.
The findings raise serious questions while also offering a way for the council to move forward, praising current Wirral Council leader Cllr Paula Basnett for her approach. While the review was tasked with looking at issues from 2022, it found issues started long before this.
Wirral Council has been promising major regeneration of the east side of the borough for years with major developments planned in Birkenhead, Bromborough, Seacombe, and New Brighton. These were underpinned by a major policy which said more than 14,000 new homes would be delivered by 2040 across the borough.
A regeneration scheme in Birkenhead town centre has been heavily criticised in recent months(Image: Liverpool Echo)
However the programme has been mired in controversy in recent years after schemes were scrapped, controversial plans were put forward, and a number of key staff left. A major town centre scheme aimed at reviving Birkenhead has also been under investigation.
In the last year, the council has also seen a change of political leadership as well as the departure of its chief executive and regeneration director. This is all against wider problems with the council’s finances and government bailouts.
The review from Mr Palin looked at information put out by the council and interviewed key people outside the council, current and former staff, as well as councillors. However the ECHO understands not all key council partners were interviewed as part of the process.
The council was told the local authority needs to start putting a more positive case in the future as never-ending negativity puts off investment, lowers morale, and stops people working for the council. The review said it “must be seen as a moment to move on from the negativity and to reset in a much more forward facing and positive way”.
Mr Palin said Wirral Council can still be successful but strong leadership will be needed as well as cross party support from political parties to take things forward.
As for when problems started, Mr Palin believes this went back further than 2022 but the local authority’s financial problems made things worse in the years since. With no model for delivery, a complex regeneration programme, and multiple masterplans with no funding to back them up, he said “this led to considerable failures across a number of fronts”.
The review found rather than push forward, the council began to be less ambitious and pull back. Trust broke down with councillors as some felt issues were being politically ignored with the situation described as unhealthy and toxic.
Mr Palin added: “The regeneration model became like ‘spaghetti’ with unrealistic expectations, an absence of any clear model for delivery, confused processes for project monitoring and decision making, a high turnover of staff, and significant failures of project and programme oversight.”
Officers were criticised for a lack of openness and being selective about what information they shared to certain councillors. The review said some officers “wanted to flag issues but were often placed in very difficult circumstances by senior leadership” and these failures of the most senior executive leadership damaged the council’s reputation.
Councillors also come under fire for constantly revisiting decisions they have made, having a lack of consistency, and wanting too much information. The review said elected members asked for “magic-bullet solutions to difficult trade-offs” and “avoided facing the reality when such has not been available”.
Mr Parlin said the council needed a reality check, elected members needed to “not treat the topic as a political football,” and officers “should not be blamed for not being able to magic those constraints away”.
He added: “The avoidance of making decisions when there are trade-offs is particularly damaging. The council simply cannot afford the level of ambition it promotes and must make difficult decisions.”
Wirral Council leader Cllr Paula Basnett was praised by the review(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
While there was praise for the council’s shift in direction in recent months, restoring faith with the private sector and community organisations “will take time to change and the council will need to prove itself more capable than it has been”. Wirral Council has also been told to stop “chasing the cash” and carefully consider future funding applications.
The review makes a number of key recommendations about what the council needs to do next. In the next three months, Wirral Council has been told to produce a recovery plan for Birkenhead town centre, visit a number of exemplar regeneration projects, and set up a group to oversee strategy.
This group would be made up of Cllr Basnett, Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, Homes England, and an industry leader with regeneration expertise. This will be charged with creating a way to deliver regeneration in six months.
By next summer, Wirral Council should have a single vision for how to delivery regeneration, what the focus will be, and how it will deliver this in different areas. By the end of 2026, the council should have a new operating model in place.