CIVIC wars broke out yesterday as the birth of the new Mersey super council was wrecked on its first day of business.
Mayor Joe Anderson accused leaders of neighbouring councils of holding meetings behind his back to make sure neither he, nor Liverpool, would be at the helm the new Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
Phil DaviesNow he is taking legal advice and says he can’t work with the new body while it disadvantages Liverpool.
Mayor Anderson pulls no punches in a 470-word letter he emailed to all 90 Liverpool councillors just hours after the new combined authority was inaugurated, with the Wirral leader Phil Davies as chairman.
The new authority is the first to draw together the six local councils – Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and Halton – with the aim of working closely to generate jobs and investment and to run the city region’s public transport operation.
Joe Anderson
There was high drama when the first ever meeting started at 11am – with two of the six council leaders, Mayor Anderson and Sefton leader Peter Dowd – not even in the room.
According to Mayor Joe, Cllr Dowd had walked out of a preliminary meeting feeling frustrated over the failure top resolve various issues.
By the time the two entered the meeting chamber just three minutes late, the leadership vote was a done deal - the four other leaders had elected Cllr Davies as the chair and Knowsley leader Ron Round as his deputy.
Nobody at the meeting had suggested delaying the start until the Mayor and Cllr Dowd were present.
Neither councillor spoke or raised any issues during the hour long meeting.
The first indication that all was not well was a critical comment to Liverpool Confidential from Mayor Anderson’s deputy, Cllr Roz Gladden.
A few hours later came a statement from Liverpool Town Hall: “This was not the most auspicious start to the first meeting of the Combined Authority and we would question the rationale of taking a key decision on the Chair and Vice Chair when two of its biggest constituents were not in the room.
Peter Dowd: Walked out“Liverpool and Sefton represent half of the residents in the City Region and just over half of the businesses, and yet this decision was taken without their involvement.
“The decision also seems to fly in the face of public opinion and the opinion of business leaders throughout the city, who have recognised that Liverpool is central to the success of the Combined Authority.”
But that message was a mere hand grenade compared to the Exocet missle propelled into the mix by Mayor Anderson last night.
Pointing a damning finger at Wirral, Knowsley, St Helens and Sefton, Mayor Anderson blasted in his letter: “Instead of thinking and behaving like leaders of a big global city, the City Region leaders have engaged in a dysfunctional debate akin to toytown level politics and ambitions.”
At the meeting St Helens leader Barrie Grunewald proposed Wirral’s Phil Davies as chair and Knowsley Ron Round as his deputy. There were no other names put forward. The nominations were seconded by Ron Round and Halton’s Rob Polhill.
Without the full involvement of Liverpool it is hard to see how the combined authority can properly function.
Liverpool's Lib Dem leader Cllr Richard Kemp has described Labour's internal rows over the leadership and naming of the Liverpool City Region as, "totally unacceptable and the idea that Liverpool might pull out of an organisation that it helped create on day two of its existence would make us the laughing stock of the country.
"I now believe that we need to put in place a small elected Great Liverpool Authority which would take over these strategic infrastructure and investment activities and the work of the four Merseyside activities for police, fire, waste and recycling and transport."
The next meeting of the Combined Authority is due to take place in June, after the May local elections, when there could be political changes that may change things anyway.
Whatever happens in the coming weeks, there is little doubt the image of the city region has been badly dented by a very public fallout.
As one political follower said early today: “They’ll be laughing their heads off over this up the M62 in Manchester.”
'A totally disrespectful attempt to exclude us': Mayor Joe's letter in full
Hi All
Just to bring you up to date with what happened at the first meeting of the CA this morning.
As you are all aware I have reported to you the fact that members of the City Region previously held caucus meetings in a clandestine way to decide who would chair the CA - when I confronted them they admitted to this. They said (and by they I mean Wirral, St Helens, Halton and Knowsley) that I was too big a personality and Liverpool was to strong and therefore they would oppose me being chair of the CA or Liverpool chairing the CA.
Over the years, I have been a strong champion of closer working, and have personally brought together the city region leaders to bring us to this point.
At no time had any of them raised any objections while I chaired the City Region Cabinet for the last four years as Leader and as Mayor. But in turn, I made it absolutely clear that I couldn’t sign up to a position where I or any future Leader of Liverpool was barred from Chairing the CA.
Sefton’s Leader agrees with my stance and felt, like me, that it discriminated against what is the economic powerhouse of the City Region: Liverpool. Incidentally Liverpool and Sefton together make up 49% of the population of the City Region.
This morning a further debate once again took place prior the CA meeting to try and resolve the issue, it made no progress. Peter Dowd left the meeting frustrated and the meeting ended. I told the meeting I would try and bring Peter back. When we returned at 11.03am to the Chamber where the meeting was being held, we found that the meeting had started and had indeed elected its chair. Both myself and Peter felt this was totally disrespectful was an attempt to exclude us in their haste to get the vote through. Although clearly the vote would have been 4 to 2.
I think the clear message that was sent out this morning (and the behaviour of Leaders) was not one I would have hoped for. In my view people are more interested in their own personal ambitions than that of the City Region and it was not the best start I would have hoped for. This is such a missed opportunity instead of thinking and behaving like Leaders of a big global City the City Region Leaders have engaged in a dysfunctional debate akin to toy town level politics and ambitions.
I am considering options at the moment and seeking legal advice and will discuss this further at Full Council in two weeks, however my own view is I can’t sign up to something which disadvantages our City. if you have any views I am happy to receive them.
Joe
