Council facing 'highly likely' bankruptcy pleads for ￡40m bailout | Expert explains why Merseyside is flooding more often

By Daniel Haygarth

Hello,?

There is very significant Merseyside politics news to bring you in today’s Liverpool Daily Post. Edward Barnes reports that Wirral Council is facing the likelihood of bankruptcy and is preparing to ask the government for an emergency ￡40m bailout.

Elsewhere, Liam Thorp explains what the critical incident at the Royal Liverpool Hospital means for the city and I’ve spoken to an expert from the University of Liverpool about why our region is seeing an increase in flooding.?

Thanks for reading.

Council facing 'highly likely' bankruptcy pleads for ￡40m bailout

Wirral Council is preparing to ask the government for an emergency ￡40m bailout as the local authority's finance boss warned it is “highly likely” the council will have to issue a notice declaring effective bankruptcy if it doesn't get the support, reports Edward Barnes. A new report said the council “faces a critical financial position.”

The local authority had already revealed it planned to apply for a request to the UK Government for exceptional financial support for up to ￡20m for the current financial year in December. According to the most recent figures put out by the local authority, Wirral is expecting to have gone over budget by ￡21.5m by March 2025 and will need to find ￡36m for the next financial year.

A new report, published ahead of the council's Policy and Resources committee meeting next week has listed a number of recommendations including requesting a further request for up to ￡20m for the financial year from April 2025 to March 2026. The struggling council also plans to keep a spending freeze and recruitment controls in place “to limit expenditure to only absolute essential items” for this year and next year as well as issue redundancy notices if approved by councillors.

The report said nearly all available funds to the council will be used by the end of the year in order to balance the year's budget. Director of Finance Matthew Bennett, who wrote the report, said: “This approach is neither prudent nor sustainable, potentially leaving the council vulnerable to unforeseen circumstances.”

He said previous actions taken by the council including a spending freeze from September, using money generated from property sales and contingency funds had helped but not eliminated the council’s financial problems, adding: “The current forecast financial position is not a sustainable position going forward and will therefore require additional support to resolve.”

Ahead of issuing a Section 114 notice, effectively declaring bankruptcy, the council can apply for emergency support, which will come in the form of significant borrowing, adding pressure to council budgets going forward as it needs to be repaid. Wirral Council has previously had to sell off assets it owns to pay back previous government bailouts.

The latest grim report comes after it was revealed auditors inspecting council finances had requested for their recommendations to be debated by councillors. This is because they believe the council did not have the arrangements in place to manage its finances and the extraordinary meeting will be held on January 14.

Two rapid reviews into this year and the next financial year are currently underway by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. The institute previously inspected council finances back in 2021 and the council later had a watchdog panel appointed to oversee it.

That panel stepped down last year believing the council would be able to manage its finances without extra oversight going forward. Now the report warns it is highly likely a Section 114 notice will be issued.

According to the report, the ￡20m for this year will be used to mitigate the council’s budget black hole due to rising demand in social care while next year’s ￡20m would be used to “support the one-off transformation costs essential for driving service reform and operational efficiencies” as well as further social care costs.

Expert explains why Merseyside is flooding more often and issues warning for future

Several areas across Merseyside have been affected by flooding in recent days as heavy rain, snow, sleet and hail has hit the region. People in Haydock were particularly badly hit, with homes at the junction of Blackbrook Road and West End Road submerged in feet of filthy water after downpours on New Year's Eve.

Merseyrail services and flights from Liverpool John Lennon Airport have been cancelled in recent days due to the flooding and snow. The Environment Agency has also issued a number of flood alerts for Merseyside as river levels remain high in some areas following sleet, snow and rain.

Areas most at risk currently include River Alt and other watercourses from Huyton to Hightown including, Kirkby, Fazakerley, Maghull, Formby, Aughton, Sefton and Lunt. Wirral has also seen a number of roads affected by the weather, with the council saying the flooding was "predominately as a result of melting snow".

The past year saw flooding events in Sefton rise by more than 70%. The most significant event occurred on Bulwer Street, Bootle in September, when heavy rain contributed to a failure in the combined sewer system and resulted in severe flooding - forcing residents from their homes and causing huge damage to the properties.

In light of these incidents, Professor Neil Macdonald from the University of Liverpool's School of Environmental Science has explained why Merseyside has seen an increase in flooding recently and what the region can do to prepare for future events. He also warned that matters may worsen as sea levels rise in the future.

Professor Macdonald told the ECHO: "There are three main causes or threats of flooding in Merseyside, coastal, fluvial (rivers) and pluvial (surface waters). The causes of flooding in a specific location can be varied, or a result of a combination of factors.

"A changing climate is impacting how we experience heavy precipitation events, whilst we have seen a reduction in snowfall, and expect to see a reduced annual totals in the future, the intensity of individual rainfall events may increase, causing challenges for our drainage systems and waterways.

"We can also expect to see increased sea levels, which may present particular challenges to coastal communities around the coastline of Merseyside, we have already seen the erosion of sand dunes up in Formby, and the threat to communities in north Wirral from future sea level change is already well known."

As Merseyside's coastal areas can be particularly badly hit by flooding, Professor Macdonald said a number of changes could be implemented to reduce the risk of this worsening in the future, including alterations to older drainage systems. He explained: "Several areas across Merseyside are susceptible to coastal flooding and these are generally well known, for example the threat to the north Wirral coastline resulting from storms and sea level rise has been well reported, other areas may also be at risk, with some coastal sections protected by sea walls and coastal defences.

"Historically many of the local rivers that drain the city have been integrated into our drainage systems, indeed it was the first such system in the world when designed by James Newlands and construction began in 1848. During heavy rainfall the integrated system can find it challenging to drain all of the water, which can result in surface water flooding, so we need to look at trying to slow the water entering the system or reduce it.

"We can also change the way we cover surfaces, so enabling water to percolate through the surfaces (often known as Sustainable urban Drainage Systems, a common example would be in car parks) rather than running off into drainage systems can help reduce the amount of water entering the drainage system. Increasingly new buildings are employing green roofs, where plants capture and hold some of the rainfall, or soakaways offer opportunities for water to soak into the soil, these need not be expensive solutions.

"In more rural areas where more space may be available, we can enable and encourage waters to spill out of the channel into floodplain areas, giving the system space to store and slow the flow of water."

Professor Macdonald added: "One of the main challenges facing the region is reducing flood risk, part of this process will be reducing the speed at which waters reach and travel through our drainage system. Historically we have straightened and paved over many of our natural waterways, and in some cases integrated them into our combined drainage systems.

"We need to look at ways of slowing these processes, whilst this is not possible everywhere, there are a range of ways we can do this, even simply having a water butt on downpipes off our roof can help slow the flow."

What Royal Liverpool critical incident means for hospital and city

The Royal Liverpool Hospital has declared a critical incident as it struggles to cope with 'exceptionally high levels of demand' on its emergency department and wards, reports Liam Thorp.

On Monday, the ECHO reported that the Royal had activated its full capacity protocol due to the huge numbers of people coming into A&E and the struggle to discharge people to create space. The hospital, like many in our region, is facing huge pressures from soaring rates of flu and other respiratory illnesses. This has now been escalated to a critical incident.

So what does this mean for the hospital and for the people of Liverpool? The NHS definition of a critical incident is any localised incident where the level of disruption results in the organisation temporarily or permanently losing its ability to deliver critical services, patients may have been harmed or the environment is not safe requiring special measures and support from other agencies, to restore normal operating functions.

An all staff note sent to those working at the hospital was revealed on social media by Sunday Times reporter Shaun Lintern. The note adds more details about what the declaration of the critical incident will mean for how the hospital is operated.

The note states that the critical incident has been declared despite the hospital opening escalation areas and says the function is used to help ensure that the hospital can continue to deliver care for patients.

It then details a number of emergency actions that have been agreed. This includes reducing non-essential surgery where possible, prioritising critical care and reviewing what non-essential meetings, administration and educational activities can be stood down to allow colleagues to be deployed to the emergency department and onto wards.

Other measures will include bringing in support from the Broadgreen Hospital site, a sister hospital for The Royal, which can provide extra capacity to support admissions and the review of the allocation of corporate clinical staff to support patient care.

The notice also carries a message to under-pressure staff who are dealing with the huge pressures, stating: "I know the incredible efforts colleagues are making to provide the best possible care to patients in these exceptional circumstances and understand this has an impact on colleagues' wellbeing."

In its statement, the University Hospitals of Liverpool said: "“Given the exceptionally high demands on our emergency department, especially with flu and respiratory illnesses, and the number of patients we have taken this action to support the safe care and treatment of our patients, which is our absolute priority.

“We have a comprehensive plan in place and are taking all the necessary actions to manage the challenging circumstances facing patients and colleagues currently. We are working with partner organisations to ensure those that are medically fit can leave hospital safely and at the earliest opportunity.

“Colleagues are working incredibly hard to treat people as quickly as possible, however some people will experience longer waits while we treat our sickest patients.

“If it is not a medical emergency please consider using other services, such as your GP, local pharmacy or walk-in centre. The NHS 111 service can be used to help identify the most appropriate service for you and help avoid long waits."

“We have seen an increasing number of people with flu and respiratory illnesses in our emergency departments in recent weeks. If you are attending our EDs, patients and visitors should follow some additional infection control measures to help curb the spread of winter viruses such as flu and norovirus. This includes practicing good hand hygiene, only visiting the areas they need to in our hospitals and wearing masks in clinical areas if asked to do so.”

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