Bolton Council Members Stand By Asons Grant

Last week we reported that Bolton County Council had awarded a ‘secret’ emergency grant of £300,000 to Bolton based claimant solicitors firm Asons Solicitors Ltd. The award was made by Bolton Labour leader, Cliff Morris, under the Emergency Powers Procedure (EPP). The grant was met with widespread criticism from the claimant solicitor community in Bolton and members of opposing political parties. In particular, opposition leader and Tory Councillor, David Greenhalgh, insisted that he was unaware of the Asons grant decision and put a motion forward for a named vote to be held at the next council’s meeting so that each member could announce publicly whether they agreed with the grant. The suspicion surrounding the grant increased greatly towards the end of last week when it was revealed that HMRC had made a claim against Asons for exactly £300,000 relating to unpaid PAYE/NI contributions.

The council’s meeting was held earlier this week and it has been reported that council leader, Cliff Morris, faced further calls for his resignation. As encouraged by opposing party, UKIP, residents had turned out to protest outside the town hall and throughout the meeting chants of ‘out, out, out’ could be heard with a staged walk-out half way through the meeting.[i]

As promised, Mr Greenhalgh held a named voted whereby each member of the council stated publicly whether they agreed with the following statement:

‘This council disagrees and disapproves with (sic) the decision made by the leader of this council, made under Emergency Powers, to award a grant of £300,000 to Asons Solicitors towards refurbishment and occupation of their offices at 40 Churchgate, and agrees to issue a public statement to the residents of Bolton stating thus’.

The ruling group’s Labour councillors backed the grant and disagreed with the above statement whilst the minority Conservative, UKIP and Liberal Democrat councillors agreed, publicly stating their disapproval. One Liberal Democrat councillor abstained.

Greenhalgh put several questions to Morris throughout the meeting. Most notable was his questioning of the timing of the grant. He pointed out that, Land Registry documents showed that Asons purchased its new premises in March for £902,000, with refurbishment work being completed on the building in September. So the question was posed – why was there the need for emergency funding, so soon after this purchase and was it really necessary in order for the firm to stay in Bolton?

In response to this Morris claimed that the negotiations with Asons had started nine months before the firm moved.

According to the Order Paper, published on the council’s website after the meeting, Mr Roger Hayes, Liberal Democrat leader, queried why the grant was made in favour of Asons over other law firms in Bolton and also why it was made at a time when cuts were being made to public services. Additionally, he challenged the media’s reports of the number of individuals employed at Asons (reported to be 400-500), which he claimed his sources told him was actually 150 or less.

To this, Morris, pointed out that other businesses had been approached and helped by the Council in the past, meaning that Asons had not in fact been favoured.

Finally, Mr Hornby, Conservative member of the council asked whether the necessary due diligence had been carried out on Asons’ accounts and whether or not the council had considered the effect of the planned reforms in the PI sector.

Morris insisted that there was an independent audit being carried out by the council which would provide full transparency. There has been no indication of when the results of this audit will be announced or made available but we will continue to keep readers informed of any developments.