Exclusive: Ex-deputy mayor went on council-funded trip with charity, then recommended that charity get thousands in council money

The latest twist in the Nelson Mandela bridge saga

Dear members — A few weeks ago, we published a story detailing the controversy around a £250,000 bridge and memorial to Nelson Mandela being built in Princes Park. After discovering that the council appears to have misled us about one key detail — one which puts into question whether this bridge should be built — we’re returning to that story today.

Councils have a responsibility to be transparent, and we think being economical with the truth contravenes this responsibility. This story raises serious questions about whether Liverpool City Council is capable of serving its constituents with the honesty and accountability that politics (done well) demands. 

Editor’s note: We think stories like this are crucial — if we don’t hold the council to account, who will? But they also take a lot of work, involving building a network of contacts, chasing up (often tedious) documents and asking difficult questions in the face of evasive answers over and over. Please do join up if you haven’t already — a membership costs just 23p a day. 

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Your Post briefing

The Echo’s big story from earlier in the year about councillors having car parking fines quashed, which resulted in two high-profile figures stepping down, came about as a result of Merseyside Police’s corruption investigations. Operation Aloft — the name of the ongoing investigation into corruption in Liverpool, which has seen the arrests of former mayor Joe Anderson and others (though Anderson has never been charged) — first uncovered the practice, according to city solicitor Dan Fenwick. In an email to Liverpool Community Independents councillor Alan Gibbons, Fenwick stated that the cancelled tickets “were recovered by police and then passed to the council's internal auditors after the police concluded their investigation into the parking tickets,” reports the Echo.

Government plans to house asylum seekers on cruise ships have taken a set back, after two vessels were unable to find anywhere to dock. Wirral, alongside Edinburgh and London, was shortlisted as a possible location for a ship, which met with backlash from local politicians. In response to the backlash, the port operators Peel Ports declined permission for the ship to dock. Protestors gathered outside a hotel meeting of Peel Ports staff last month, calling on the company to reject the plans. Both ships have been returned to their respective owners after acquisition by the government. Meanwhile, the arrival of the Bibby Stockholm — owned by Liverpool company Bibby Marine — in Dorset caused angry scenes. Two sets of protestors gathered at Dorest’s Portland Harbour: those who believe the ships are inhumane for the migrants on board and those who fear local communities will be endangered and resources depleted by their arrival. The Home Office intends to “continue to look at all available options for using this type of accommodation with suppliers, ports and local authorities.”

Warrington North Labour MP Charlotte Nichols has revealed herself to be one of the women who has made a sexual harassment complaint against fellow MP Geraint Davies. Davies, who represents Swansea West also for Labour, was suspended amid allegations in June but “totally denies the allegations of sexual harassment”. Nichols told BBC Panorama that Davies put his hand on her waist while she was working late. Nichols added that colleagues provided her with the names of around 30 people to avoid in Westminster over sexual harassment concerns. "One of the first MPs she had been warned about when entering Westminster was Mr Davies," she told Panorama. Labour Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield added: “Everyone in the Labour Party knew about this man.”

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Post picks

🖊️To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Windrush ship’s arrival in the UK, a literary festival is taking place this Saturday at the International Slavery Museum. Titled In Our Own Words, the event will share communities’ stories of the UK Windrush movement, inspired by the annual Calabash Bay Literature Festival in Treasure Beach, Jamaica. Find out more here.

🎸Mexican rock band Margaritas Podridas head to the Quarry on Friday, bringing an eclectic mix of grunge and shoegaze to Liverpool. The band recently did a live session with KEXP and have toured with the likes of the Smashing Pumpkins. Find tickets here.

🎭Award-winning comedian and actor Ricky Gervais performs at the M&S Bank Arena tonight as part of his world tour, Armageddon. Grab a last minute ticket here — or watch the show as a Netflix special in early 2024. 

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Exclusive: Ex-deputy mayor went on council-funded trip with charity, then recommended that charity get thousands in council money

By Jack Walton

Has Liverpool City Council been honest with us about the circumstances leading up to the construction of the Nelson Mandela bridge and memorial? We’ve now seen documents which suggest they have misled us. A few weeks ago, we revealed that former deputy mayor Wendy Simon went on a trip to South Africa with the charity Mandela8 in 2018, then proceeded to recommend thousands of pounds be allocated to a project Mandela8 were spearheading, a new bridge in Princes Park. At the time, we wanted to know who funded that trip. We now know that the council’s answer failed to disclose the full truth.

That story — Bridge over troubled water — detailed the anger from the local community surrounding the building of a £250,000 bridge and memorial in the park. But just a few days after publication, my phone sounded: it was a text from an anonymous tipster. They’d read the story with interest, but thought we’d been misled. “For anyone to say ‘Wendy Simon’s jolly to South Africa was not funded by the council' is a lie,” they wrote.

A brief recap for those who missed our weekend read: we were prompted to investigate the situation surrounding the bridge after hearing there were concerns. The lion’s share of those raised were environmental: given the bridge was being built to an island ringed by a lake in the park, many local residents who were actively involved in protecting the park’s wildlife expressed concern that allowing access to habitats could lead to their destruction.

But we also looked into how the bridge had been funded, discovering that the bulk of the funding had come from the council via Section 106 payments, handed out in three chunks. Two of these chunks (£100,000 on 2 August 2019 and £70,000 on 24 April 2021) raised alarm bells, because one of the councillors who’d recommended them, former deputy mayor Wendy Simon, had been on a trip to South Africa with the charity behind the project — Mandela8 — before giving her approval. She was also a patron of the charity. Simon told us she recalled declaring an interest at the time. There were no minutes available to prove that she had, but the council argued it wasn’t common practice prior to the Caller Report to minute non-pecuniary interests.

Councillor Wendy Simon. Photo: Wendy Simon via Twitter.

We also wanted to know who had paid for her trip to South Africa. There were concerns among Princes Park residents that the council had done so, and many didn’t believe it was good form for a council to fund its members to go on trips with a charity, then for those members to recommend the same charity be allocated thousands of pounds. So we asked.

In response to the question “Who funded the visit undertaken by Cllr Wendy Simon, alongside Mandela8, in 2018 to South Africa to meet the relatives of Nelson Mandela”, Liverpool City Council wrote: “Cllr Simon attended on behalf of the Mayor, as a guest of Mandela 8.” For clarity, we replied: “are you saying the charity paid then?” To which they replied: “We were there [sic] guest…..”

We then put the same question to Mandela8 founder Sonia Bassey, and she responded: “It was Mayor Joe Anderson who was originally invited to South Africa and he could not go so Councillor Wendy Simon attended in his place as a representative of Liverpool City Council. Mayor Joe Anderson was invited to South Africa by representatives from South Africa and all costs for the Councillor were covered by the South African representatives.”

But since we published, it’s become clear that neither of these answers contain the full truth. A few days after publication a tipster sent us flight logs — obtained by Freedom of Information — documenting all flights paid for by Liverpool City Council. The logs clearly show that “Ms Wendy Simon” travelled from Manchester International to Johannesburg via Frankfurt on 18/03/18, funded by the council (after all, the spreadsheet only listed council-funded flights), and by extension, the taxpayer. I then wrote to the council raising this with them, and they finally confirmed they had indeed paid for this flight. Just as a reminder: this contradicts the initial answers they gave us, in which Liverpool City Council argued that Simon was the guest of the charity and Bassey argued all costs were covered by the South African representatives.

Wendy Simon’s flight to South Africa. Image: Screenshot.

We’ve since asked the council to explain why they chose to omit this detail originally. Here’s what we said: 

“I asked ‘who funded the visit’ and was told ‘Cllr Simon attended on behalf of the Mayor, as a guest of Mandela 8’. While technically that's true, she did attend as a guest, it omits to mention that the council had indeed funded a chunk of the trip, which is what I was asking...it would be good to know why I wasn't told about the flight cost originally, as I do think it clearly falls under the remit of my question.”

We have yet to receive a response to this question. So has the council lied to us? It certainly appears they’ve been very economical with the truth. Responding to a question about the funding of the trip with “We were there [sic] guest….” can surely only be read to imply that the entire trip was a gift? Meanwhile, Mandela8’s assertion that “all costs for the Councillor were covered by the South African representatives” is factually inaccurate. Mandela8 has not responded to a request for comment. There also appears to be a further crucial detail we missed the first time we covered this story.