Last week a report carried out by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy heavily criticised Wirral's elected councillors and officers and warned the struggling authority was close to financial crisis.

The report said the 'prevailing culture' at the council prior to the pandemic had been to avoid difficult financial decisions.

This meant that the council's emergency reserves have been dramatically reduced in recent years.

The report came after Wirral Council requested exceptional financial support of more than £10m from the government in order to try and balance its budget, a sum which has now been reduced to £7.2m after the authority received additional Covid-19 support from the government.

The government has now told the council to consider selling its libraries, leisure centres and even its two town halls.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Janette Williamson, the Labour leader of the council, said cuts in central government funding, which have seen the authority lose almost £225m over the last 10 years, and the COVID-19 pandemic, were mostly to blame for the council's money problems.

But the Liscard councillor said the politics of the council has harmed its ability to make quick, tough decisions.

Since May 2019, Wirral Council has been in No Overall Control, but with Labour as by far the biggest party.

This means that some opposition votes are needed to get key decisions across the line.

Cllr Williamson said: "It's been key that opposition parties step-up and work collaboratively and in all honesty I haven't seen evidence of that from some parties."

She added: "We're all responsible for the decisions taken for our residents and I do think there's been a toxic culture in Wirral where the temptation [has been] to make cheap points and get a leaflet out rather than make tough decisions."

Cllr Williamson herself was the cabinet member for finance from 2016 until September 2020, when the cabinet was abolished in favour of a committee system which spreads power more broadly around the council.

At the same time, Cllr Williamson was appointed as leader of the council.

The Labour leader insisted she was not blaming the report completely on anyone, and did not want to comment on previous administrations, but added that the move to a committee system and the No Overall Control situation had slowed down decision making in the council.

In particular, Cllr Williamson mentioned the Conservative and Lib Dem decision to 'call in' a vote which went through with the agreement of all parties in March 2021 as part of the budget.

The decision, to bring in £1m from raising parking charges and introducing new ones across Wirral, was first made in March, but did not get through the 'call in' process until August.

She said this "undermined the integrity of the council" and that although parking charges were not popular, avoiding this kind of decision was exactly what the report was criticising in her view.

Given this, Cllr Williamson suggested there may have to be a "streamlining of processes" so that decisions can be made more quickly, something which goes against the thrust of the committee system which was designed to increase the scrutiny council decisions face.

While she insisted that austerity and the pandemic were mainly to blame for Wirral's budget crisis, Cllr Williamson acknowledged that the council's own financial management was part of the picture.

She added: "It's not a secret to say that other council's used reserves, ours certainly are not in the shape [that other council's are], that's something we've got to look at going forward."

But she said she believes the authority has done its best in challenging times.

She said: "[The report comes] against the backdrop of 10 years of austerity.

"We've lost nearly £225 from our budget. Then we've had COVID for the past 18 months. The government told us to do whatever it takes, which we did, but we haven't been properly reimbursed.

"We've done our level best under extremely difficult circumstances to keep our services open and accessible for all of our residents. We've fought to keep essential workers in a job. That's at the heart of my approach."

The report said Wirral Council needed to consider selling libraries, leisure services and Wallasey and Birkenhead Town Halls.

While Cllr Williamson was not able to declare exactly what, if anything, will be sold, she said: "Our first priority will always be to deliver services to our residents.

"We're not going to enter into some kind of firesale on our assets. That would be a short-term approach anyway, it's just a one-off, when it's gone it's gone.

"I think the report highlighted the fact we have assets which we can do more with as opposed to being overly prescriptive about what we actually have to do with them."

But the Labour leader did suggest that the authority will end its £5m investment in the North West Mutual, a project involving Wirral Council, Liverpool Council and Preston Council, targeted at helping the poorest to access bank accounts and helping businesses to access loans to support their growth.

She said there was a "moral imperative" in favour of setting up the bank and that she was "really disappointed" it was singled out in the report.

Cllr Williamson did stop short of confirming that Wirral Council's involvement in the project was over.

The Labour leader added that there was optimism going forward in Wirral, with major plans for towns such as Birkenhead, Seacombe, New Brighton and Liscard all in progress.

Speaking last week, Wirral's Tory group leader Tom Anderson blamed Labour for a "decade of failure of the council's political culture".

He said: "[The report] is a damning indictment of Labour's inability to manage Wirral Council's finances responsibly and prudently.

"Despite repeated warnings from Conservative councillors and external auditors, Labour's reckless policy of raiding the council's reserves to fund vanity projects including the Hoylake Golf Resort, the Vue Cinema and the Community Bank, has finally caught up with the Labour administration.

"Scrapping the one-party cabinet has laid bare the poor financial mismanagement of the previous decade. While other councils were making the necessary changes Wirral was left in the slow lane.

"I would hope, even at this late stage, that all parties will now work to ensure best value for the Council Tax payer while protecting the services that we exist to provide."