What were the 4 extra proposed planning conditions about trees on the controversial Saughall Massie fire station planning application?

What were the 4 extra proposed planning conditions about trees on the controversial Saughall Massie fire station planning application?

What were the 4 extra proposed planning conditions about trees on the controversial Saughall Massie fire station planning application?

photo 15 Land off Saughall Massie Road Saughall Massie 13th December 2016 SAVE OUR GREEN BELT SAY NO TO THE FIRE STATION banner
Land off Saughall Massie Road, Saughall Massie 13th December 2016 SAVE OUR GREEN BELT SAY NO TO THE FIRE STATION banner

Ed – 4.7.17 to clarify time of site visit

In an update to 13 councillors on Wirral Council’s Planning Committee agree to site visit over controversial Saughall Massie fire station planning application (APP/17/00306) I thought it would be a good idea to report on an aspect of this planning application that has so far been unreported.

After the agenda for the Planning Committee was published, an extra petition (in support) of the planning application for a fire station in Saughall Massie has been received by Wirral Council of 27 signatures.

There are also four extra conditions proposed (numbers 18-21) if the planning application is approved that relate to trees. These tie in to an EIR request I made to Wirral Council for the response from Wirral Council’s Trees section in reference to being consulted on the planning application.

I include scans of the late list for the last Planning Committee meeting that also includes extra information on APP/17/00126 (which was refused) and APP/17/00401 (which was approved).

Planning Committee late list Wirral Council 22nd June 2017 Page 1 of 3
Planning Committee late list Wirral Council 22nd June 2017 Page 1 of 3
Planning Committee late list Wirral Council 22nd June 2017 Page 2 of 3
Planning Committee late list Wirral Council 22nd June 2017 Page 2 of 3
Planning Committee late list Wirral Council 22nd June 2017 Page 3 of 3
Planning Committee late list Wirral Council 22nd June 2017 Page 3 of 3

Wirral Council’s Planning Committee agreed at its meeting on the 22nd June 2017 to visit the site on the 18th July 2017. The Planning Committee will leave Wallasey Town Hall at 10.00 am and the site visit is expected to start on site approximately around 10.15 am (or possibly a bit later depending on traffic). The planning application is expected to be decided at a public meeting of the Planning Committee starting at 6.00 pm on the 20th July 2017 in the Civic Hall at Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED.

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Why was I stopped from going to room GA-25 for a public meeting of Wirral Council’s Local Pension Board (about Merseyside Pension Fund)?

Why was I stopped from going to room GA-25 for a public meeting of Wirral Council’s Local Pension Board (about Merseyside Pension Fund)?

Why was I stopped from going to room GA-25 for a public meeting of Wirral Council’s Local Pension Board (about Merseyside Pension Fund)?

Local Pensions Board (Wirral Council) 27th June 2017 L Peter Wallach R John Raisin (Independent Chair)
Local Pensions Board (Wirral Council) 27th June 2017 L Peter Wallach R John Raisin (Independent Chair)

I’ll declare at the outset an interest, in that my father is paid a pension by the Merseyside Pension Fund administered by Wirral Council.

Around a year ago, I wrote about how Wirral Council employees barricaded a fire door with a bin to prevent the public exercising their legal right to attend a public meeting. The most senior Wirral Council employee involved in that fiasco was Joe Blott (in his capacity as Deputy Monitoring Officer).

Yesterday, there was a public meeting of Wirral Council”s Local Pension Board scheduled to start at noon. The Local Pension Board is part of the governance of the Merseyside Pension Fund that Wirral Council administer and has hundreds of thousands of people in the pension fund (mainly public sector workers) and a £multi-billion Pension Fund.

This time however the meeting wasn’t on Wirral Council premises, but on premises owned by Commerz Real Investmentgesellschaft mbH (a German company) as part of its Hausinvest Open Real Estate Fund, leased to Merseytravel, then hired out to Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council.

I am making an educated guess that either Commerz Real Investmentgesellschaft mbH contract out (or Merseytravel does) the reception staff at the building the public meeting was to be held in, which is done by I think Carlisle Security Services Limited (which is a subsidiary company of Carlisle Support Services Group Limited).

If you are confused by reading that so far, then so am I!

We arrived first at reception at Mann Island and they had been told we were coming to the meeting. So we were issued with visitors passes.

However we were told we couldn’t go in because no-one from Wirral Council was there yet.

Reception told us that we couldn’t go in (although they knew we were there for the meeting) until someone from Wirral Council told them it was ok for reception to allow us into the building to attend a public meeting. So we waited.

First to arrive was Pat Phillips (the Committee Clerk and point of contact for the meeting). Standing in front of reception we asked her to confirm we were there for the meeting. She said she would have to go ask someone (despite nobody else but us being there for the meeting).

So they let her through (and she didn’t come back as there was no-one else but her).

Then Joe Blott arrived, who is at Deputy Chief Executive level at Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council and therefore part of the political element of his job such as dealing with people like myself.

Again, Joe Blott insisted he could not tell reception staff at Mann Island that we could come in through the gate as it wasn’t a “Wirral Council building” and he needed to first consult with the Chair of the Local Pensions Board (who actually hadn’t arrived in the building yet).

However, reception staff let Joe Blott through too.

Reception staff then told us they couldn’t let us in because of “terrorism” training and that they had “orders”. They pointed it wasn’t a “public building”.

Apparently now terrorism is used as a reason to avoid legal responsibilities!

The public meeting was scheduled to start at noon and we were still there at reception when more people arrived for the meeting, Peter Wallach, John Raisin, Mike Hornby, Kerry Beirne, Donna Ridland, Pat Maloney and Roger Irvine to name but seven.

I also briefly talked around this time to the Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Merseytravel Committee Cllr Liam Robinson about the problem.

Reception staff are then busy handing out visitors passes and bizarrely trying to determine when the Local Pensions Board plus myself and Leonora should be allowed through the gate on the ground floor to room GA-25.

Finally (at the third time of asking) we found a Wirral Council employee (Peter Wallach) who was willing to tell reception we were allowed into the building!

Eventually by the time we’re all let in, I come through the door to the meeting room (GA-25 on the ground floor) at about 11:59:30, most of the rest of the people behind me came in late.

Then of course, the room needs to be set up and surprisingly the lights turned on (as neither Joe Blott or Pat Phillips had turned the lights on). One Wirral Council officer introducing one of the reports arrived even later even though there was a delayed start to the meeting (which caused a further delay).

However allowing the press into the public meeting half a minute before its scheduled to start is not Wirral Council in my view complying with its legal responsibilities. Specifically reasonable facilities for the purposes of filming the meeting does not mean allow press in seconds before its supposed to start. In fact it’s in breach of their own agreed filming policy specifically paragraphs 1.6, 1.7, 2.3 and 5.1.

Common sense means letting the press in at least fifteen minutes before so that a safe space to film can be determined, a tripod put up, seating arranged, agendas and reports requested etc.

But I feel that since this legal requirement came into effect in August 2014 various parts of Wirral Council have tried to try my patience over it at various public meetings.

Delayed starts to meetings cost the public sector money in lost time.

Terrorism can not be used as an excuse to delay or prevent democracy happening or the press reporting. The legal right to attend public meetings of local councils has been in its current form since 1972 and in another form since 1960. It’s not new legislation!

Nearly every other meeting of Wirral Council’s committees has one of their solicitors present but this one does not!

This is sadly a recurring problem when attending to report and film public meetings at Mann Island. There have been public meetings that have started before we’re allowed in.

Merseytravel’s own Head of Internal Audit (Merseytravel lease room GA-25) has stated at a public meeting in 2014 that people should not talk to the press about whistleblowing concerns.

However who do the press blow the whistle to when there’s no point in blowing it internally? Write an article about it? Embarrass people into changing? Or does it just end up being like the film Groundhog Day with a public sector seemingly unable to stick to its own policy, the legislation and just full of excuses?

What it has shown me, that is of wider concern is that at Wirral Council some senior managers are frightened to make decisions. The culture of not making a decision, just in case it’s the wrong one or the manager may be criticised can be just as damaging to Wirral Council’s reputation as the myriad of other scandals (on subjects ranging from child protection, complaints about councillors, how requests for information are handled and so on and so on).

So below is footage of the Local Pensions Board which turned out to be an interesting meeting (albeit hard to hear due to the lack of microphones).

I had to skip ten minutes of checks to film it and had no chair to sit on (there was literally no time to get a chair before it started).

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Wirral Council’s Local Pensions Board (Merseyside Pension Fund) 27th June 2017 Part 1 of 2

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Wirral Council’s Local Pensions Board (Merseyside Pension Fund) 27th June 2017 Part 2 of 2

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13 councillors on Wirral Council’s Planning Committee agree to site visit over controversial Saughall Massie fire station planning application (APP/17/00306)

13 councillors on Wirral Council’s Planning Committee agree to site visit over controversial Saughall Massie fire station planning application (APP/17/00306)

13 councillors on Wirral Council’s Planning Committee agree to site visit over controversial Saughall Massie fire station planning application (APP/17/00306)

                                                 

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Wirral Council’s Planning Committee 22nd June 2017 (the site visits item starts at 2:38)

Cllr David Elderton (right) proposing a site visit for-planning application APP/17/00306 at Wirral Council's Planning Committee meeting on the 22nd June 2017
Cllr David Elderton (right) proposing a site visit for-planning application APP/17/00306 at Wirral Council’s Planning Committee meeting on the 22nd June 2017

ED – updated 26.6.17 to include time of site visit

Prior to Wirral Council’s Planning Committee meeting starting yesterday evening, the sprung floor bounced as over a hundred people came through the doors into the Civic Hall at Wallasey Town Hall.

Most were there to see what would happen to planning application
APP/17/00306
(which was an amended planning application following the refusal of application APP/16/00985). Application APP/17/00306 was a revised planning application for a new fire station in Saughall Massie on greenbelt land owned by Wirral Council.

Those present patiently sat through the Chair’s regular speech about procedure, followed by approval of the minutes of the last Planning Committee meeting and a request for any declarations of interest to be made.

Finally, nearly three minutes into the meeting came the moment many were waiting for.

Councillor David Elderton (Conservative spokesperson) pictured above requested that the Planning Committee agree a site visit for planning application APP/17/00306 before a decision was made on it.

He explained that the layout and size had changed since the previous application.

The Planning Committee agreed for a site visit to be held on the 18th July 2017 starting at some point after 10.15 am (the minibus is scheduled to leave Wallasey Town Hall at around 10.00 am).

So what is a site visit?

It’s an opportunity for the Planning Committee to visit the site and see for themselves the site that the planning application is about.

Below is what happened at the site visit for the previous planning application (that was refused) that is related to this one held on the same site on the 13th December 2016.

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Planning Committee (Wirral Council) Site Visit (APP/16/00985).

A time of day for the site visit has not yet been finalised now been given as 10.30 am, but Wirral Council will request that the applicant Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service “peg out” the proposed outline of the building and site.

The planning application is then expected to be determined at a Planning Committee meeting scheduled to start at 6.00 pm on the 20th July 2017 in the Civic Hall at Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED.

Related to this matter, ward councillor Councillor Blakeley has also proposed a notice of motion on the green belt that will be discussed at the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on the 5th July 2017 in Committee Room 1 at Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED starting at 6.00 pm. His notice of motion calls upon Wirral Council to “confirm its unconditional guarantee to protect Wirral’s green belt and further resolves that it will not release or allow Council owned green belt land to be developed under any circumstances.”

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Councillors vote 2:1 to hold meeting about complaint about Cllr Reecejones in private

Councillors vote 2:1 to hold meeting about complaint about Cllr Reecejones in private

Councillors vote 2:1 to hold meeting about complaint about Cllr Reecejones in private

                                      

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Standards Panel (Wirral Council) 15th June 2017

Standards Panel (Wirral Council) 15th June 2017 L to R Cllr Reecejones, Shirley Hudspeth and Surjit Tour
Standards Panel (Wirral Council) 15th June 2017 L to R Cllr Reecejones, Shirley Hudspeth and Surjit Tour

After the bizarre scenes last year at a public meeting of the Standards Panel where the press were barred from the meeting there was another meeting of Wirral Council’s Standards Panel yesterday.
Continue reading “Councillors vote 2:1 to hold meeting about complaint about Cllr Reecejones in private”

Will Wirral Council receive £300,000 windfall for greenbelt Saughall Massie Fire Station site if planning application APP/17/00306 is approved?

Will Wirral Council receive £300,000 windfall for greenbelt Saughall Massie Fire Station site if planning application APP/17/00306 is approved?

Will Wirral Council receive £300,000 windfall for greenbelt Saughall Massie Fire Station site if planning application APP/17/00306 is approved?

                                            

Dan Stephens (Chief Fire Officer) (left) answers questions at a public consultation meeting in Saughall Massie to discuss proposals for a new fire station
Dan Stephens (Chief Fire Officer, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service) (left) answers questions at a public consultation meeting in Saughall Massie in 2015 to discuss proposals for a new fire station

In a 20 page planning report on a revised planning application for a fire station in Saughall Massie, councillors on the Planning Committee have been recommended to approve the application.

The report fails to mention that Wirral Council owns the land, and following a First-tier Tribunal case between myself and the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority, it was revealed that Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority had set aside £300,000* to pay Wirral Council for the land as part of the project. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority also predict they will receive £200,000* from the sale of West Kirby Fire Station and £350,000* from the sale of Upton Fire Station.

*estimates of sale prices for Upton Fire Station, West Kirby Fire Station and the land at Saughall Massie owned by Wirral Council were made by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority based on prices in October 2014 (Upton Fire Station and West Kirby Fire Station), see Appendix H to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority report CFO/101/14) and January 2015 (Upton Fire Station, West Kirby Fire Station and land at Saughall Massie, see Appendix F to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority report CFO/003/15).

A previous application for a fire station was refused by Wirral Council’s Planning Committee on a 7:6 vote last year. An appeal of this planning application refusal to the Planning Inspectorate was considered but abandoned.

Wirral Council’s Planning Committee meets next week on Thursday 22nd June 2017, starting at 6.00 pm to consider the revised planning application in Committee Room 1 at Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe. It is expected that a site visit will be requested at this meeting which if agreed will delay a final decision on the planning application to a later meeting of the Planning Committee (expected to be on the 20th July 2017).

As the planning report states, the petition of objection to the planning application has grown to 4,034 signatures and there have been 324 objections to the new application at the time the report was written.

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