Wirral Council is to wage war against petty rules and regulations.

Council leader Jeff Green says he plans to sweep away barriers preventing employers taking on new staff and has set up a special "jobs commission" to drive the initiative forward.

He said: “The barriers might be something the council puts up. If they are I want to see what we can do to remove them.”

Cllr Green insisted that good regulation was a good thing to protect consumers, employees and the environment.

“It helps build a more fair society and can even save lives,” he said.

“But over the years regulations – and the inspections and bureaucracy that goes with them – have piled up.

“This has hurt businesses, doing real damage to the economy.

"And it’s done harm to our society; when people are confronted by a raft of regulations whenever they try to volunteer or play a bigger part in their neighbourhood, they begin to think they shouldn’t bother”

The coalition Government has announced a Red Tape Challenge to study the 21,000 regulations existing in the UK today.

They will publish regulations affecting different sectors of the economy. A start has been made on regulations on the retail sector.

Cllr Green added: “This is a really important part of Wirral’s economy and the new council is doing more than ever before to help our local shopping districts.”

And he invited traders to get in touch if they felt they were snowed under by red tape.

He said: “If you work in retail and are driven made by a daft rule or piece of red tape, now is your chance to do something about it.”

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