WIRRAL'S minority Labour administration came under attack last night as it laid out how it plans to set its budget for 2012.

The council's leader Steve Foulkes appealed to councillors of all parties to "to show the outside world we can work together on a joint vision".

His comments came at the start of a meeting of full council as councillors discussed the corporate plan – which outlines the authority's priorities and is key to setting its budget.

Labour had last week pledged there will be no increase in council tax next year, but in the meeting last night at Wallasey town hall they faced criticism over lack of consultation.

Lib-Dem leader, Cllr Tom Harney, had accused Labour of introducing its changes to the corporate plan "at the last minute" and said "if we are in a mess it's not our mess".

Speaking ahead of the meeting Cllr Harney had said he thought the three parties "seem to be moving further apart".

Leader of the Conservative group Cllr Jeff Green described Labour's corporate plan as "13 pages of commentary, 75 wishes and a complete lack of specific activities to be undertaken".

Cllr Foulkes said: "I understand the other parties would like to see the corporate plan go through scrutiny committees, but that has never happened before."

But he said the plan could be put to a scrutiny committee with a full council on January 9.

The council was also faced with the awkward decision of whether to publish the long awaited report by consultant Anna Klonowski, widely understood to contain damning criticisms of the council.

Earlier Wirral Council's head of law, Bill Norman, had warned councillors by email that publication of that "draft" report could put the authority at risk of legal action for defamation and possibly an injunction until those named in it had a right to reply.