Questions continue to surround a Merseyside council’s £100,000 grant to a tapas restaurant that failed to pay its business rates on time.
Knowsley’s Liberal Democrat leader, Cllr Carl Cashman, has accused the local council of wasting taxpayers’ money after an ECHO investigation revealed the local authority gave £98,600 to new Huyton restaurant El Pueblo at the end of 2019.
At the same time, Knowsley Council was taking the business to court for non-payment of £6,546 in business rates.
After the ECHO revealed the existence of the grant, Cllr Cashman issued a list of four questions to the council demanding to know why El Pueblo received such a large amount of public money.
He asked the council:
- Why was El Pueblo chosen to receive this grant, and what was the process for choosing it?
- What was the money spent on?
- Why did the money go to the business and not, for instance, council contractors as with other external renovations on Derby Road?
- What controls are in place to make sure the money is being spent correctly?
Cllr Cashman added: “Council Tax payers are outraged that their Council Tax is going up year on year and is being wasted by the council on things such as this.
“The council plan to use up to £100,000 again this year to invest in business. If there are no controls on the way that this money is spent then local residents can expect it to be wasted by the council again.”
Although the council is yet to explain why El Pueblo was given the money, or what it was spent on, council leader Graham Morgan has defended the grant in an exchange on Twitter.
Cllr Morgan tweeted: “For the record, £100k was not given to a ‘struggling’ Tapas Bar - a grant was given to improve the outside of a dilapidated building in Huyton Town Centre.
“This grant resulted in a lease being signed on an empty shop, the unit being fitted out by the operator AT HIS OWN COST and a new restaurant opening its doors in Huyton.”
However, council spending reports suggest El Pueblo was the only local business to receive a grant of this size.
Several other businesses in Derby Road had their shopfronts renovated last year, but El Pueblo appears to have been the only one to receive the money for this work directly.
In other cases, the council paid contractors Elis Williams Construction and Skyline Property Solutions to renovate the Derby Road shopfronts, rather than the individual businesses.
Knowsley Council is yet to respond to Cllr Cashman's questions.
