A politician has expressed anger after a video emerged which showed traffic marshals appearing to ignore students as they crossed a busy road.
Liverpool Council introduced marshals on the Byrom Street crossing after safety concerns emerged following the demolition of Churchill Flyover.
The demolition of the flyovers removed elevated walkways for pedestrians connecting a Liverpool John Moores University campus to the city centre. This meant large numbers of young people had to make their way across a busy city centre route.
READ MORE:Lime Street contract terminated as city braces for months of chaos
However, video footage recently emerged which showed the marshals appearing to ignore pedestrians as they crossed the road in rush hour traffic.
Some of the marshals, who work for a services company contracted by Liverpool City Council, appeared to be talking to each other with their backs to the students as they cross the road.
One of the marshals was filmed saying that he "does nothing all day and gets paid for it." He adds: "It's just boring, eight til six."
The marshals were first introduced in September 2019 and used until lockdown last year at a cost of around £300,000.
The ECHO understand they were reintroduced last month as students returned to the city for the new academic year.
The footage secured by the ECHO was filmed last week.
Councillor Richard Kemp, leader of Liverpool's Liberal Democrats, expressed anger that Liverpool Council did not appear to be getting value for money spent on the marshals.
Cllr Kemp said: "What I have seen in the videos is an absolute disgrace. The council seems to be paying money for nothing whilst employees of the security company are earning money for 'old rope'
"The council are clearly exercising no control of the contractor and the contractor is exercising no control over their staff.
"This contract is clearly an unnecessary waste of money and we should terminate it immediately and ask for our money back as clearly the contractor has not been undertaking the required work.
"Add the money being wasted here to the £13 million overspend on Lime Street and the £4.5 million interest that the overspend is going to cost as we borrow the money to pay for it and you realise just how far the council is having to withdraw money from vital front line services such as children's and adult care to fund incompetence".
A spokesperson for Liverpool Council: “Our City Watch service has spoken with the contractor regarding the public safety issues arising from the content of the videos.
"We will be seeking assurances over the levels of supervision at the site to ensure a high quality of service to the public and tax payer is maintained.”
The ECHO has approached the contractor for comment.
The council ordered the demolition of the Churchill Way flyovers in 2019 after finding that they were not structurally sound.
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