THE Labour group in the now-defunct Copeland Council used its penultimate meeting to attack the legacy of the borough's Conservative mayor.

At a meeting on Wednesday, March 28, Labour councillors spoke of Whitehaven's empty retail units, a 'lack of audited accounts' and the authority's financial difficulties in a direct criticism of the outgoing mayor Mike Starkie.

A vote of no confidence in the mayor was moved by Cllr Mike Hawkins and seconded by Cllr Graham Calvin.

The motion was supported by Labour councillor Joseph Ghayouba who told the meeting: "Councils are here to deliver public services for residents and make our community a better place, it is not a vehicle for one man’s ego.

"Whitehaven town centre is a ghost town, there are some great local businesses, but the mayor promised to reverse the fortunes of the town centre."

He added that Copeland has been one of a few councils in the country to be issued with a section 24 notice providing extra government funding, and challenged the mayor on three years of accounts which he said remain outstanding.

"If this council was indeed a business it would be on the verge of bankruptcy," he said.

"The government's own accountants say, 'we are not assured that Copeland council will balance its medium-term financial position'."

Speaking after the meeting, David Moore, leader of the Conservative group on Copeland council, said: "When the Mayor took office eight years ago, the first action was to organise a government bail out of £2.9m to avoid bankruptcy.

"And eight years later, the council has increased its revenues by millions of pounds per annum, increased its assets by multi millions, paid off Labour's legacy of £13.2m overspend and bought out the crippling PFI, invested millions in services and increased our staffing levels.

"We have brought in unprecedented investment right across Copeland and done all this without borrowing a single penny and massively reducing financial liabilities.

"Despite a large Labour majority for the entire term, every single policy has gone through, so has every single budget without them making a single amendment.

"The overview and scrutiny committee, which is chaired by Labour and with a Labour majority, and is the constitutional forum for scrutinising and challenging policies, has not challenged a single thing or made a single call-in since the election."

He claimed that Labour had used the final meeting to 'flex their majority' and 'whip a vote on a pointless motion'.