Maria Makes Maher Flip Over Offshore Strand Shops Sale Fib

Independent Councillor Maria Bennett knocked Council Leader Ian Maher back on his heels in Thursday’s Sefton Council meeting when the Labour boss blamed councillors for being ignorant about the offshore purchase of Bootle Strand.

Under pressure from Birkdale Councillor Ian Brodie Browne, the Council Leader told opposition councillors that it was their own fault if they knew nothing about the secret meeting which had made the £36 million purchase if their political group leaders hadn’t told them anything about it.

Councillor Bennett silenced the meeting when she pointed out that the three Opposition Group Leaders who had been given a briefing about the purchase had been pledged to silence about the New Strand Deal. Councillor Brodie Browne pointed out that the group leaders had also been told that they could not keep hold of any papers, take notes or seek professional advice about what they had been told.

“If I had told my independent group members anything about that confidential briefing,” said Councillor Bennett, “I would have been likely hauled up before the Standards Board for breaching my commitment on confidentiality.”

Shamefaced. the Labour councillors admitted that the opposition group leaders had been pledged to secrecy when they had been given a briefing on the purchase.

Councillor Bennett also told the council meeting that she had been very concerned with the BBC report which had said that opposition councillors had supported the controversial purchase when this was not true. However, she had contacted the BBC directly and been assured that the mistake was the BBC’s and not the fault of the Council.

A number of councillors expressed anger at being kept completely in the dark, even months after the event, about the Council’s multi-million pound offshore purchase of the Bootle Strand shopping centre. Councillor Dan Lewis asked the Council Leader how he felt the thousandsof people who had difficulty keeping up with their Council Tax payments would feel when they heard that the Council was making spending this kind of money offshore.