£684,276 fees – so far – paid to advisors in Strand deal
SEFTON Council paid £684,276 in fees to advisers over the purchase of The Strand shopping centre.
Sefton bought the Bootle shopping centre earlier this year, in a deal thought to be worth around £32m, which was paid for with loans.
Sefton has said the deal will not impact on taxpayers in Sefton, and that their ownership of the Strand will help them to raise enough money to manage the centre and regenerate the area.
However, Sefton’s Liberal Democrats have discovered that the council paid nearly £700,000 to professional firms over five months during the deal. Cllr Iain Brodie-Brown said the figures were found on Sefton’s website.
The main payments were £235,158 to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PCW); £257,500 to law firm Addleshaw Goddard and £90,600 to property consultants Lambert Smith Hampton. Cllr Brodie-Brown told the Visiter that he queried the payments at a full council meeting last week, but did not receive the answers he wanted.
He said: “All councils are required to regularly publish details of all invoices over £500. In fact, Sefton Council does this on its own website in a sec
‘transparency tion called reports.’
“What we have found is that there are a number of enormous invoices from firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers, Addleshaw Goddard and Lambert Smith Hampton, all charged to a particular cost centre UA25.
“These are tax accountants, lawyers and property consultants respectively.
“We’ve even managed to get hold of a copy of the largest invoice – for £205,950 + VAT – from PricewaterhouseCoopers, and when you see that it includes ‘Tax Structuring and Due Diligence.’
“So, what we now know is that over two-thirds of a million pounds has been spent, and that was only to the end of August. That will almost certainly have risen even more.
“This lack of openness is simply unacceptable.
“The public, as well as opposition councillors, have a right to know how public money has been spent.”
A spokesman for Sefton Council said: “Similar questions were asked by Cllr Brodie-Browne at last week’s full council meeting. He was advised that the legal processes involving The Strand shopping centre are still ongoing and details of the transaction will be subject to a review by the council’s overview and scrutiny committee in due course.