Why did Merseytravel spend £33,781.20 last year with Veale Wasbrough Vizards about its move to Mann Island?

Why did Merseytravel spend £33,781.20 last year with Veale Wasbrough Vizards about its move to Mann Island?

Why did Merseytravel spend £33,781.20 last year with Veale Wasbrough Vizards about its move to Mann Island?

                                                

I went to a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Audit Committee yesterday and if you wish you can view the video of that meeting below. The agenda and reports for that meeting is on Merseytravel’s website.

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Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Audit Committee meeting 12th May 2015

What did occur to me after the meeting finished was that since the Local Government Transparency Code applies to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, that Merseytravel (which is now part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) would be required to publish a list of payments made over £500 each month on its website.

Unlike Wirral Council and the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority, who also publish comma separated values files of the same information (which can then be sorted in a spreadsheet) Merseytravel just publish this information as PDF files.

Links to each of these files which cover the last financial year are below.

Merseytravel payments over £500 Period 1 – 01 April 2014 to 27 April 2014

Merseytravel payments over £500 Period 02 – 28 April 2014 to 25 May 2014

Ed – added on 22/5/2015 – see edit note below for why Merseytravel payments over £500 Period 03 26 May 2014 to 22 June 2014

Merseytravel payments over £500 Transactions Period 04 26-06-2014 To 20-07-2014

Merseytravel payments over £500 Transactions Period 05 21-07-2014 To 17-08-2014

Merseytravel payments over £500 Expenditure August September 2014

Merseytravel payments over £500 expenditure September October 2014

Merseytravel payments over £500 Expenditure October November 2014

Merseytravel payments over £500 Expenditure November to December 2014

Merseytravel payments over £500 expenditure December 2014 to January 2015

Merseytravel payments over £500 Expenditure 5th January to 1st February

Merseytravel payments over £500 Expenditure 2nd February to 1st March 2015

Merseytravel payments over £500 Expenditure 2nd March to 31st March 2015

If you’re observant, you’ll have noticed a gap for the month from the 26th May 2014 to the 25th June 2014. I’ve emailed Merseytravel to ask for the missing month of payments. Ed – 22/5/2015 – Merseytravel got back in touch with me on the 21st May informing me the missing month had now been put on their website, so it is now linked to above. The missing month includes another payment of £680 made to Veale Wasbrough Vizards for legal costs to do with the HQ relocation that was not available to me when originally writing this article.

However the other 11 months make for interesting reading.

There are a number of payments to a Veale Wasbrough Vizards (which is a Bristol based firm of solicitors) relating to Merseytravel’s controversial headquarters move from Hatton Gardens to Mann Island.

1 Mann Island (Liverpool City Region Combined Authority)
1 Mann Island (Merseytravel’s new headquarters)

Here’s a list of the payments made to Veale Wasbrough Vizards:

VEALE WASBROUGH VIZARDS 21/3/2014 Legal Fees S-7108- HQ Relocation £720
VEALE WASBROUGH VIZARDS 30/4/2014 Legal Fees S-7108- HQ Relocation £862.50
VEALE WASBROUGH VIZARDS 30/4/2014 Legal Fees S-7108- HQ Relocation £1,200
VEALE WASBROUGH VIZARDS 23/4/2014 Legal Fees S-7108- HQ Relocation £4,342.25
VEALE WASBROUGH VIZARDS 18/8/2014 Legal Fees S-7108- HQ Relocation £1,169.89
VEALE WASBROUGH VIZARDS 23/9/2014 Legal Fees S-7108- HQ Relocation £2,084.00
VEALE WASBROUGH VIZARDS 23/10/2014 Legal Fees S-7108- HQ Relocation £648
VEALE WASBROUGH VIZARDS 18/11/2014 Legal Fees S-7108- HQ Relocation £10,315.20
VEALE WASBROUGH VIZARDS 18/12/2014 Other Contractor 15 S-7116- HQ – Direct Costs £7,600
VEALE WASBROUGH VIZARDS 22/12/2014 Legal Fees S-7108- HQ Relocation £4,839.36
        Total £33,781.20
           

Payments are also still being made to Bircham Dyson Bell as you can see below. The Liverpool Echo reported back in 2012 how £1.7 million was paid by Merseytravel to Bircham Dyson Bell without the work being put out to tender.

BIRCHAM DYSON BELL 28/3/2014 Court Fees S-2031 Legal and Committee Team £1,050.90
BIRCHAM DYSON BELL 28/3/2014 Specialist Fees K-2501 L.A. Subscriptions etc. £754.70
BIRCHAM DYSON BELL 29/4/2014 Court Fees S-2031 Legal and Committee Team £1,362.10
BIRCHAM DYSON BELL 30/6/2014 Consultants Fees R-0200 Rolling Stock Programme £1,915.79
BIRCHAM DYSON BELL 19/2/2015 Consultants Fees K-2501 L.A. Subscriptions etc. £1,665.50
BIRCHAM DYSON BELL 27/11/2012 Consultants Fees K-2501 L.A. Subscriptions etc. £7,427.50
BIRCHAM DYSON BELL 20/5/2013 Consultants Fees K-2501 L.A. Subscriptions etc. £7,800.00
BIRCHAM DYSON BELL 25/2/2015 Consultants Fees R-0200 Rolling Stock Programme £5,210.89
        Total £27,187.38
           

Merseytravel also paid £977.50 to Sara Bradbury in October 2014 for “Counsels Fees”.

A number of insurance payments were made by Merseytravel with compensation given as the reason.

ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE 16/5/2014 Compensation – Public Liability S-2101 Ins – General £7,008
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE 18/7/2014 Compensation – Public Liability S-2101 Ins – General £2,717.00
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE 14/8/2014 Compensation Public Liability S-2101 Ins – General £8,500.00
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE 25/7/2014 Compensation Misc S-2101 Ins – General £11,575.00
THOMAS COOPER 8/8/2014 Compensation Misc S-2101 Ins – General £7,300.00
MERCURY LEGAL LLP 18/12/2014 Compensation Employers Liability S-2101 Ins – General £7,182.17
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE 18/12/2014 Compensation Public Liability S-2101 Ins – General £16,790.00
        Total £61,072.17
           

There was a payment for £507 to Weightmans LLP for an invoice dated 31st March 2014 for “specialist services”. Merseytravel also paid five amounts (£3,800, £2,600, £4,400, £750 and £2,145) to a firm of solicitors called Davies Wallis Foyster LLP for invoices in 2014 for the services of a solicitor.

Two payments of £15,115 and £15,590 were made to Royal & Sun Alliance for invoices dated 27th August 2014 and the 3rd December 2014 for the costs of external 3rd party solicitors.

Robert Jackson Solicitors charged £2,000 in an invoice dated 13th February 2015 for legal costs associated with an insurance claim, in the same month Merseytravel paid £4,812 to CS Cooper C/O Collins Long Solicitors which was again for legal costs to do with an insurance claim.

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