Liverpool City Council launched the legal challenge on Monday after Hoenig announced he intended to appoint an administrator and defer the September local government election while a months-long public inquiry probed serious and systemic issues detailed in the interim report.
The summons documents lodged by the council’s legal counsel,Megan Hawley,seek to address the “actual bias or apprehended bias” contained within the interim report,including deleting the publication in all available forms and gagging the minister.
As part of the claim,the council’s lawyers said the office “failed to observe the requirements of procedural fairness”,reflecting the claims of Liverpool Council Mayor Ned Mannoun and acting chief executive,Jason Breton,who said the report was error-riddled and denied procedural fairness.
In correspondence to staff,Breton said the interim report contained “untested allegations”,as he conveyed advice from the office “citing urgency” that no documents should be destroyed,removed or tampered with.
Several senior executives were named in the investigative report,alongside allegations the council engaged in a “frequent and repetitive pattern” of hiring family and associates of senior staff to lucrative jobs without proper processes.
The claim required the government “within 24 hours of this order to delete from all website,libraries and other record depositories the interim report”. It also called for report to be taken down from all websites the government did not control within seven days.
The hearing was adjourned until Friday afternoon. The Office of Local Government removed the interim report was at some point on Thursday.