Conservative councillors will ask colleagues to launch an investigation over a letter of a “political” nature sent out to Sefton homes.
Councillor Mike Prendergast has called for the investigation after a letter from Councillor Ian Maher, head of the Sefton Labour group and Leader of Sefton Council, was sent with recent Council Tax bills.
The motion will be heard at a full meeting of Sefton Council next Thursday in Southport Town Hall.
In the letter, Councillor Maher blames cuts in funding from central government for recent Council Tax rises.
The two-page letter sent on behalf of Councillor Maher reads: “Since 2010, before Coronavirus, Sefton Council had to deal with over 51% cut in funding for the Borough from the Government. And sadly, I am writing to you at the end of another year when the Government has failed to recognise just how hard our Borough has been hit by over a decade of those cuts and the COVID pandemic.
“Instead of providing the funding we need to deliver services for local people and businesses and ensure a brighter future for all, the Government is, once again, forcing us to increase Council Tax to pay for vital services instead.”
Conservative Councillors will ask colleagues to launch an investigation and present any findings to the Audit and Governance committee, however, the motion will require support from Labour councillors to succeed.
Sefton Council confirmed to OTS that the letter was sent to 129,000 households within Sefton, with 12,000 of those being sent by email, indicating that the letter was included with every Council Tax bill in the borough.
Councillor Predergast’s motion, seconded by Councillor Tony Brough, reads: “This Council adheres to the Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government. The public have a legitimate expectation that public money will not be used for party political purposes.
“It is therefore, highly regrettable that the Leader of the Council has chosen to disregard the Code and proceed to print and deliver thousands upon thousands of letters and send out many thousands of emails (at the expense of Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council) of a clearly political nature which accompanied the recently issued Council Tax Bills.
“These letters may well breach the Code.”
Councillor Maher declined to comment.
Councillor Prendergast said: “The letter sent out by Councillor Maher, using public money, is a party political broadcast for Sefton Labour. Public money has been used to push Labour propaganda through the letterboxes and into the inboxes of Sefton residents.
“The arrogance on display shows what Sefton Labour think they can get away with and that there won’t be any consequences for them. The people of Sefton deserve better.
“I would hope that those Labour councillors who did not know or disagreed with the letter going out would vote for an investigation into the issue so the public can have confidence that public money is not being wasted on party political campaigning.”
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