Wirral council leadership: We will act to address failings

Sep 28 2011 by Liam Murphy, Birkenhead News

WIRRAL Council’s leadership has promised decisive action following a damning report into how the authority has been run.

Council leader Steve Foulkes admitted the authority had allowed a catalogue of failings to continue without being addressed.

He said it was “the ultimate wake-up call which gives all of us the chance to change.”

Chief executive Jim Wilkie said the issues highlighted were “the most significant challenge facing the council”.

He will personally oversee putting into place the recommendations of the Klonowski report including a new cabinet committee to oversee changes.

He issued an apology “to anyone who has been affected” by the authority’s failings and pledged “the radical improvements needed” are put into place.

The report, commissioned by former council leader Jeff Green followed the whistleblowing allegations of former social services employee Martin Morton.

It was carried out by Anna Klonowski Associates at an estimated cost of £250,000. But only part of that report – concerning “corporate governance” or how the authority is run and managed – has been published.

Cllr Foulkes said: “As the investigation proceeded it became more and more evident that the problems were much wider and that there were serious weaknesses in the way we manage and run the council which make it likely not only that mistakes will happen, but they could happen again if immediate action is not taken to put things right.”