Bankrupt councillor urged to resign

THE CALL FOR HER RESIGNATION WAS MADE BY THE CITY'S OPPOSITION LEADER

- By DAN HAYGARTH ECHO Reporter

A Liverpool councillor linked to a troubled charity and business group is facing a call to resign after she was declared bankrupt.

Cllr Colette Goulding, a Labour representative for the West Derby Muirhead ward, was urged to resign by Liverpool's Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Carl Cashman after she was declared bankrupt at Liverpool's County Court on May 13, according to the government's Individual Insolvency Register.

In his call for her resignation, Cllr Cashman made reference to The Big Help Group, which Cllr Goulding was associated with.

The Big Help Group is understood to be a parent group containing a number of companies and organisations, designed to help communities and support charitable aims. Among them are the Big Help Project, an anti-poverty charity which has been the subject of an investigation by the Charity Commission, launched in 2023.

Following her bankruptcy and reporting from The Liverpool Post, which has published a number of articles about The Big Help Group, the city's opposition leader, Cllr Cashman wrote to council leader Liam Robinson to call for Cllr Goulding's resignation.

Cllr Cashman wrote: "I am writing to you after discovering that one of your Labour Councillors, Cllr Colette Goulding, has been declared bankrupt. More importantly, after reading the most recent revelations about the Big Help Project in The Post.

"As you will know depending on the type of bankruptcy order, Cllr Goulding may well not have to resign. Even if we leave that issue for the time being I believe that the most recent revelations in The Post are reason enough for Cllr Goulding to resign.

"The issues that Liverpool has faced under Labour leadership has left the city's reputation damaged. This further damages Labour and Liverpool's reputation.