£300K law firm grant should ‘probably not’ have been made under emergency powers

THE chief executive of Bolton Council has admitted the controversial award of a £300,000 grant to a personal injury law firm which sparked a wave of protest in the town should “probably not” have been made under the authority’s emergency powers procedure.

Ever since the award of grant to Asons following its move to the former offices of The Bolton News newspaper council chiefs have been under pressure and there have been calls for leader Cllr Cliff Morris to resign.

At a fiery corporate and external issues scrutiny meeting in front of members of the public and opposition councillors (Bolton is Labour controlled) held in the town, chief executive Margaret Asquith said: “With a lot of hindsight this probably would have been better if officers had taken this to the next executive member meeting rather than using emergency powers.

“If we do not encourage businesses and maintain businesses in Bolton we will not have the income to continue to run services for some very vulnerable people.

“It is absolutely the case that emergency powers will be used in the future and they are set out in this council’s constitution for very specific purposes.”

Cllr David Greenhalgh, leader of the Conservative opposition in Bolton, told the Law Society Gazette: “Finally an admission from Bolton Council’s chief executive that the use of emergency powers to grant £300,000 to Asons Solicitors was ‘probably’ not the right way to have awarded the grant.

“And a further admission that meetings behind closed doors took place that guaranteed the grant pending State Aid approval; a guarantee of £300,000 of public money given a nod and a wink without going through any official council process. This is a disgraceful abuse of power.”

The grant, signed off under the council’s emergency powers procedure, was intended for Asons to refurbish its town centre offices.

But the firm’s accounts show report a dispute with the tax authorities also quantified at £300,000 and a loss of more than £1m for the year to May 2015.

However, there is no evidence linking the £300,000 dispute referred to in the accounts with the same sum handed to Asons for the building development work.