WARRINGTON Borough Council has been labelled as a hybrid of a local council and hedge fund because of its level of debt totalling £1.6 billion.

Cllr Kenneth Critchley (CON – Appleton) asked when the two independent, qualified members will be recruited to the audit and corporate governance committee during its meeting at the Town Hall on Thursday.

Matthew Cumberbatch, the council’s director of law and governance, said he does not know when that will happen.

But he stated he will look into the matter to ‘see where we are with it’.

Cllr Critchley highlighted the matter was probably the key issue out of a PwC report of the council and emphasised the importance of making sure there are independent members of the committee who are ‘capable of understanding what is going on’ with the council.

He added: “This is not a normal council, with £1.6 billion of debt.

“It’s become a hybrid of some sort of local council and a hedge fund.”

He also called for the issue of the independent members to be rectified urgently.

But committee chair Cllr John Kerr-Brown (LAB – Poplars and Hulme) said he ‘took exception’ with the claim that the council is a hybrid of a local council and a hedge fund.

Mr Cumberbatch then spoke again. He said: “Of course, it is incredibly important that we have independent members, as per the recommendations.

“Obviously, it’s a political debate as to what the most important issues were in that report – and all I can say is we work within the resources that we have.”

Council chief executive Steven Broomhead has labelled the authority’s investments as being diverse.

He said: “All of what we’ve done, it’s all been done very carefully, it’s been done with a lot of due diligence, legal advice and with the full knowledge and engagement of our auditors.

“This year, the total amount of income coming into the council is £22 million, which we would not have had if we had not made the investments.

“If we hadn’t had that £22 million, where would those £22 million worth of savings have been made?”