Labour plot to create Liverpool mega-council condemned as “power grab” by Lib Dem’s

Labour plot to create Liverpool mega-council condemned as “power grab” by Lib Dem’s

Southport Lib Dem councillors have expressed their concerns over reports that senior Labour council bosses on Merseyside are plotting to create an expanded Liverpool CityCouncil taking in Sefton Council and Knowsley Council.

Last week, Liverpool’s elected Labour Executive Mayor Joe Anderson told the Financial Times that he would welcome a debate about his council merging with neighbouring Sefton and Knowsley.

He was reported as saying: “People don’t get borders – they are all Scousers. Liverpool in the 1950s had a million people, but a lot were decanted into surrounding areas. My sister works in Knowsley. I used to work in Sefton.”

As if Mayor Anderson’s comments weren’t bad enough, they have been reinforced by those of Cllr Andy Moorhouse, Labour Leader of Knowsley Council for three years from 2015.  He says “I think that we can put a case forward to the government that Knowsley no longer exists and could be subsumed into Liverpool.”

However Cllr John Pugh, Southport’s MP until 2017 and now leader of the 12-strong Lib Dem Council Group, has expressed serious concerns about the idea.

“If we could be guaranteed that Southport, quite possibly with Formby and maybe Hightown, could split off into a separate borough then I’d be all in favour.  However I fear that the views of Southport residents will be overruled yet again.”

“So I think that Southport people, and certainly the Lib Dem councillors they have elected to represent them, need to keep a very close eye on these power grabbing moves by Merseyside Labour politicians.”

Birkdale’s Cllr Simon Shaw, Deputy Leader of the Lib Dem Group, has also voiced his worries, saying: “I was particularly taken by a quote in the FT article from a Dutch academic who observes that the Europe-wide trend for council mergers can have a ‘negative effect on local democracy’ and that ‘citizens identify less with the new, larger municipality’ and that ‘turnout tends to drop significantly’ “.

“As a Liberal my default position is that ‘small is beautiful’, although I recognize that you could take that to excess.  But what is clear to me is that any attempt to include Southport in this Liverpool mega-council is a recipe for disaster.”

The FT article from 6th June is at: https://www.ft.com/content/20d857f0-68a3-11e8-b6eb-4acfcfb08c11