Exclusive: How Wirral Council’s multi-million pound regeneration dream crashed

When former asset management director Marcus Shaw became Wirral Council’s interim director of regeneration in 2024, he couldn't have expected an easy ride. Indeed, recent history tells us there are few jobs, if any, as cursed as this one, few chalices quite so poisoned. In just three years four directors of regeneration have been seen off, each seemingly more unpopular than the last, as a council which stood on the precipice of a huge and exciting regeneration process has descended into in-fighting and ill-feeling. 

Now, Wirral Council finds itself at a new precipice: that of financial collapse. In November last year, the council requested a £40m government bailout in order to keep it afloat. And last month, a report revealed the council was already £12m over budget for regeneration works in Birkenhead.

Somehow, Shaw’s tenure appears to be going even worse than his predecessors. One opposition councillor, speaking to The Post anonymously, went as far as to suggest his appointment was an “act of vandalism” by the council — there were numerous other esteemed candidates for the position, all who held more regeneration experience than him and were less divisive across party lines. Despite this, none were offered an interview.

Just weeks after Shaw was made a permanent fixture in the council — ascending from interim to fulltime director of regeneration in March this year — an inquiry was launched into the regeneration department, focusing on how so many projects had veered away from plans, costs spiralling. In a public statement, the council’s new leader, Paula Basnett, said she would not be “brushing anything under the carpet”, and would “hold officers to account” over mistakes made.

Since then, Shaw has been absent from his role, with many speculating as to his return or removal from the ill-fated post. A council spokesperson said: “Many of these issues are currently being looked at as part of an internal audit and an external regeneration review. We won’t comment while these pieces of work are ongoing. Once they have concluded, the findings will be made public.”

To understand how Wirral Council got itself to this point, you have to go back to 2022. With the pandemic in recent memory, and councils all across the country facing serious financial challenges, Wirral Council looked like the rarest of things: a local government success story. It had just received millions of pounds of funding to transform its towns, thanks in part to its ambitious plans for Birkenhead, which aimed to mirror the success of Salford Quays, using the backdrop of Liverpool to sell Birkenhead as a hub for new business and residential developments. 

Back then, Alan Evans was the man in charge of regeneration. His 20-year plan, named Birkenhead 2040, had several key aims. First, he wanted to build an active travel network of high quality cycle and pedestrian routes throughout the town. Over 21,000 new homes would be built, moving an additional 46,000 people into Birkenhead. Over 900,0000 sqm of commercial space would also be created, and the historic Birkenhead Market would be regenerated. The concrete flyovers behind Hind Street Urban Village would be demolished, and new primary schools, public squares and offices would open. All this regeneration would make use of brownfield land across the town — much to the relief of residents, who had been campaigning against the development of the greenbelt. 

According to one insider who worked at the council at this time, Evans’s plan was “very convincing”, and helped the council win various regeneration funds from the government — including £25m from the Town Deal fund in July 2021. In part, they attribute this success to Evans being a "charismatic leader” who was “well respected” by council officers. “He worked hard and always made an effort to communicate with [councillors],” they add. 

However in August 2022, Evans resigned from his role to take up a job with Homes England. His interim replacement was assistant regeneration director Sally Shah, before a new full-time head of regeneration, David Hughes, stepped into the position in January 2023. 

“When Alan Evans left, it was like a switch just went off,” one former council official says. Immediately, plans to regenerate Birkenhead began to unravel, with one councillor describing the differences between Evans and Hughes’s approach as “chalk and cheese”. 

While Hughes had previously held esteemed roles at both Liverpool Council and Newham Council in London, those who worked closely with him said they felt “there was no real understanding of what regeneration was about”. 

Perhaps these types of unspecific potshots don’t carry a huge amount of weight. Given the popularity of Evans following on from him was going to be a difficult ask for anyone, and it's also telling that those voicing grievances aren’t willing to go on-record. Nonetheless, one specific complaint about Hughes’s approach does crop up multiple times.

In statements made to the press, Hughes said he was “not convinced” a brownfield-first strategy would work for Wirral, and privately told council officers he thought Evans’s plans were too expensive. Behind the scenes Hughes was busy organising the council’s purchase of the Pyramids and Grange shopping centres for £10.5m. He hoped their income could support wider regeneration schemes across the peninsula, and in private emails to colleagues he proposed plans to relocate Birkenhead Market to one of these sites. 

According to three insiders who worked at the council at the time, Hughes began planning this “secretly”, without seeking the opinion of the regeneration committee. “It was very anti-democratic, and that kind of set the tone [for the rest of his tenure],” they add.

This wasn’t the only example of a lack of transparency during Hughes’s tenure. According to council sources, “meetings were often shut down or moved into private sessions” without “real discussion allowed”, so even regeneration committee members were uncertain of the details of major developments. 

Feelings further soured towards Hughes when, in March last year, he publicly unveiled his plans to move Birkenhead Market into the former Argos building in the Pyramids — reducing its size from 17,000 sq ft to 2,000 sq ft. By this point, multiple council officers had resigned from their posts under Hughes, with one referring to the culture in the regeneration department as “traumatic for everybody”.

Around this time, Hughes signed a contract with developer Graham for the regeneration works in Birkenhead town centre. While these works — which included a revamp of Grange Road, the installation of new cycle lanes and new green spaces — were initially approved by the regeneration committee at a cost of £12m, Hughes signed a contract nearly £3m over budget. The following month, he resigned from his role.

We attempted to contact David Hughes for comment, but he did not respond. We also asked Wirral Council to comment on Hughes’s tenure. They did not provide a direct response.

With Hughes gone, Wirral Council found itself in an increasingly familiar position: scrambling around for a new director of regeneration. They found an interim option in Marc Cole, a former regeneration advisor for Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. However at this point, council insiders paint a picture of an already “fractious environment”, and a department of regeneration that was “chaotic” with “no joined-up thinking”. 

Green Party councillors began to sound the alarm publicly about the regeneration department’s decisions and culture of secrecy, raising concerns about both Birkenhead town centre’s regeneration and the proposed relocation of the market. Speaking to the Wirral Globe in April 2024, Jo Bird — the Green representative for Bromborough — said there was a “huge disconnect” between the information being provided to councillors and the actions of the council, adding that members of the regeneration committee were consistently “kept in the dark”.

Despite these growing concerns, those at the top of Wirral Council remained in denial. One council insider recalls a meeting in July last year with the council’s chief executive, Paul Satoor. Satoor pushed back on criticism that the council was failing its promises of regeneration, instead claiming the authority was on a path to success with “spades in the ground”. That same day, the council was dealt yet another blow: regeneration director Marc Cole resigned due to “ill health” — just three months into his tenure. The Post asked chief executive Paul Satoor for a comment, but he did not provide us with one. We also attempted to speak with Marc Cole, but he did not return our call.

Cole’s resignation caused discontent among business leaders who had been given no notice of his departure. As one councillor put it: “[Marc] Cole went home from work one evening and just never came back”. The next day, councillors unanimously voted to pull out of plans to develop the Maritime Knowledge Hub in Birkenhead, which had been in progress since March 2023.

In response to this decision and the shock resignation of Cole, then Birkenhead MP Mick Whitley said the council was “in danger of condemning Birkenhead to a spiral of decline instead of the ambitious programme of regeneration that it previously championed”.

It was at this stage that Marcus Shaw entered the fray. Formerly an assistant director of asset management, Shaw took on the role of Wirral Council’s director of regeneration on an interim basis. He was the fifth person to do the job in just three years.

His election proved to be the most controversial yet — described as “the officer that did the heavy lifting” around the decisions on Birkenhead Market, Shaw was considered to be the right-hand man of David Hughes, and thus was unpopular. He also had a reputation for giving inaccurate information to cabinet members, and a reluctance to work collaboratively with them on major projects, according to two opposition councillors.

The council sources we speak to highlight one particular incident at a cabinet meeting, while he was still acting as deputy director of asset management. In it, Shaw informed councillors that Birkenhead Market could not stay in its current location because the concrete in the roof was “made of asbestos”. A Freedom of Information request for the asbestos report for Birkenhead Market later revealed this to be untrue.

In addition to this, Shaw was, according to three councillors we speak to, not the best man for the job. There were other council staffers who had more regeneration experience and were better suited to the role — including assistant director for regeneration Rebekah Lowry, and assistant director in planning Mandy Lewis. Neither were offered an interview — a decision now described as “an act of vandalism” towards the council by those that ran it.

Shortly after Shaw was given the role, an internal review was launched into the decisions made around the relocation and rent levels of Birkenhead Market. By January this year, the review had found that council officers — including Marcus Shaw — had “misled traders” and failed to be transparent. Auditors urged the council to review their rent levels for the market within a month and make rates public going forward. 

Since then, the council has been blighted with yet more bad press — this time over the regeneration works in Birkenhead, initially signed off by David Hughes in March last year. Despite promises the works would be complete by this summer, large swathes of Birkenhead town centre remain dug up, with local businesses complaining they are losing customers because of “dangerous” pathways and unsightly building works. 

On top of this, a recent review of the works found that costs had spiralled — from the £11.9m set aside in 2024, to over £24m estimated in July this year. 

This, coupled with Shaw’s decisions to cut millions of pounds of funding for a number of major projects across the Wirral — including the Transport Museum, Woodside Ferry Village and Birkenhead Priory — has led to increased feelings of discontent within the council, with one councillor telling The Post they feel the council has “put a bullet in the head” of regeneration. Defending the cuts, Shaw said the money would be reallocated to help fund Birkenhead town centre’s works, as well as go towards moving Birkenhead Market. The decision, he claimed, was “to ensure [regeneration] is delivered effectively and provides value for money”.

We asked Marcus Shaw for a comment for this story, but he did not provide one. Wirral Council would also not comment directly on Shaw's appointment.

In June this year, Paula Basnett —former head of Wirral’s Chamber of Commerce — was appointed as council leader in a bid to rectify much of the mess left behind over the past three years. Weeks after starting the role, she announced there would be a formal inquiry into the regeneration department — focusing on how costs for Birkenhead had increased by over £12m with little oversight.

In a public statement on 11 July, Basnett said she would not be “brushing anything under the carpet”, adding the investigation would be “open and transparent”, and “hold officers to account”. That same day, the council revealed that director of regeneration Marcus Shaw was to be “absent” from his role until further notice. The Post understands that behind the scenes, there are ongoing discussions about replacing him, with a new director of regeneration set to be announced in the coming weeks. Since Basnett’s appointment to leader, council chief executive Paul Satoor has also been away from his role, and cryptically told the BBC earlier this month he would “share further information when I am able to”. 

We asked Wirral Council about the future of the regeneration department, and about the employment of both Shaw and Satoor. They did not directly respond but did issue a statement. It read: “Many of these issues are currently being looked at as part of an internal audit and an external regeneration review. We won’t comment while these pieces of work are ongoing. Once they have concluded, the findings will be made public.”

Reflecting on the current situation, many council sources we speak to struggle to explain exactly why what was once a successful local authority has descended into such chaos. “The whole thing, it was dystopian,” one councillor, describing the state of regeneration in the peninsula, says. While no single event or decision is blamed, they surmise that a loss of experienced council officers, partnered with the turnover of regeneration directors and the silencing of opposition has created a “toxic” culture that allowed bad decisions to go unchallenged. 

“It’s not the middle managers that are to blame, it’s the senior decision makers — the leader and the chief executive and director of regeneration,” they say. “They’re in powerful positions that they’ve chosen to be in, and that they take money for. And they’ve made the wrong decisions.”