Simon joined Weightmans in February 2013 to head up the Local Government team. Formerly head of legal and democratic services at Cheshire West and Cheshire Council, Simon Goacher has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in local government law spanning almost two decades.
He has led on significant projects including an innovative housing stock transfer at Wirral Council and on the promotion of a private Act of Parliament. He was awarded the title of Local Government Young Solicitor of the year in 2006. As Head of Legal Services and Monitoring Officer at Wirral Council, Simon was the lead legal adviser for key projects including regeneration schemes in New Brighton and Birkenhead.
In 2009, he was appointed Head of Legal Services and Monitoring Officer of the newly created Cheshire West and Chester Council. This involved the creation of a single authority from four councils. Simon has been a member of the projects boards for a number of major projects including the creation of Council-owned companies, as well as significant outsourcing and regeneration projects.
Simon is a go to adviser for authorities on significant governance and vires issues throughout the country including carrying out independent reviews on sensitive and high profile issues.
He Is a leading practitioner on member conduct and has carried out a number of significant investigations on behalf of local authorities in to the behaviour of elected members.
Published
Devolution has been a key feature of the government’s agenda to promote growth and to develop strategy and infrastructure on a regional footprint.
In the summer holidays, CLG evidently have nothing better to do than rewrite the rules for local authority meetings and decisions. August 2012 saw…
The new SEN regime is now upon us. The key provisions in Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 commenced on 1 September 2014.
One of the fascinations of administrative law is the number of different rules you can break with a single flawed decision.
We have now experienced four years of cuts to local government funding. The signs are that austerity is here to stay for the foreseeable future.