The local authority has seen changes of leadership, major controversies, as well as investigations
The audit meeting in January 2025 at Wallasey Town Hall(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
2025 did not get off to a great start for Wirral Council. Councillors and staff had barely returned from Christmas before a major bombshell dropped.
The auditing of the local authority’s annual accounts, which summarises its financial activity over the last financial year, is not usually headline grabbing stuff. However external auditors Grant Thornton had taken an unusual step of calling an extraordinary meeting and urged the council to get a grip on the situation.
The audit firm believed the council was very close to declaring bankruptcy and “immediate action” needed to be taken to address issues. At the meeting there were calls for the council leader to resign, with one councillor saying it was “the most embarrassing day” in his time on the council, and the council was told “the era of easy solutions is probably past us”.
In the following weeks, things did not quieten down. Cllr Paul Stuart, who led the Labour group at the time, faced pressure from his own colleagues to step aside while the local authority asked the UK government for a £40m bailout.
In the budget, there were fears people could be made redundant while key services such as libraries were on the line. Alongside all of this, there was a battle ongoing to see who would be leading the council from May.
Cllr Paul Stuart is now no longer leader(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
This internal leadership contest ultimately saw Rock Ferry councillor Paula Basnett elected to the top job with Bidston councillor Julie McManus as her deputy. Labour do not have a majority on the council and since then, the local authority has only become more divided politically.
Heswall’s three councillors broke away from the Conservative group to sit independently while two Labour councillors now sit as independents. For the first time, the Conservatives and the Greens have the same numbers in the chamber.
Paul Satoor resigned as chief executive earlier this year(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Chief executive Paul Satoor was absent from work with his role covered over the summer. He later resigned and Marcus Shaw also became the latest regeneration director to leave the organisation.
When elected, Cllr Basnett said that the local authority which she now leads must take decisive action to sort out its finances and pledged that there will be no more delays or excuses.
A regeneration review, as well as an investigation into works in Birkenhead town centre, raised a number of key issues and criticised the poor handling of a major project. A task force was also set up to scrutinise the local authority’s budget.
For many members of the public, things may feel like groundhog day.
Next year, the council is facing a possible budget gap of £32.4m for its budget from April 2026 and a black hole of £67m over the three years after that. Savings proposals for next year only cover around £15m and another bailout request is expected, the third in recent years.
Previous bailouts have added nearly £40m to the council’s debt. The Local Government Association in a recent review said: “There is a need to break this cycle to avoid these applications creating a debt level which is an unhealthy ratio to the size of the council’s net budget.”
While there has appeared to be more cross-party unity, the Local Government Association warned the true challenge was to now deliver any savings, calling for councillors and officers “to be brave”. This is easier said than done.
For example, one saving in next year’s budget could be changes to the way Wirral Council collects bins as more recycling and food waste collections are set to be brought in. However Conservative leader Cllr Jeff Green has already made clear he would not be supporting any move towards three-weekly bin collections.
Cllr Paula Basnett now leads Wirral Council(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Other options under consideration include potential job cuts, outsourcing museums and leisure centres, while plans to turn libraries into community hubs and steps to address housing issues are being developed. Day services for those with disabilities and home-to-school transport services are being reviewed.
January and February 2026 will be a crucial two months. Councillors of different parties seem more positive about the future direction of the council but there could be political turmoil if budget proposals put forward do not have majority support.
The council is set to have £22m more to spend next year but part of this increase is another rise in council tax. The next set of council elections looming on the horizon in 2027 could also be on councillors’ minds.
Beyond budget issues, the council will need to prove to the government it has learned the lessons from recent controversies in its regeneration programme and bring about change in places like Birkenhead. This, and attracting new funding, will become ever more crucial once new housing targets kick in, another Wirral hot potato.
2025 may have been Wirral Council’s annus horribilis but 2026 looks like it could be off to a rocky start too.