Category: Election Expenses

Candidate (James Crabtree) Ward: Bidston & St. James Year: 2012 Council: Metropolitan Borough of Wirral

Interest declarations: The author of this blog post was a candidate in the same election. The author of this blog post had a right of audience in the High Courts of Justice in The Queen on the Application of Mr. John Michael Brace v Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Permission for judicial review was denied. Agent … Continue reading “Candidate (James Crabtree) Ward: Bidston & St. James Year: 2012 Council: Metropolitan Borough of Wirral”

Interest declarations:
The author of this blog post was a candidate in the same election.
The author of this blog post had a right of audience in the High Courts of Justice in The Queen on the Application of Mr. John Michael Brace v Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Permission for judicial review was denied.

Agent declaration

Candidate Declaration

Election Expenses Return page 1 of 11

Election Expenses Return page 2 of 11

Election Expenses Return page 3 of 11

Election Expenses Return page 4 of 11

Election Expenses Return page 5 of 11

Election Expenses Return page 6 of 11

Election Expenses Return page 7 of 11

Election Expenses Return page 8 of 11

Election Expenses Return page 9 of 11

Election Expenses Return page 10 of 11

Election Expenses Return page 11 of 11

Wirral Council Overcharges (again) Department of Law, HR and Asset Management

Interest Declaration: The writer was a candidate in the 2012 elections for the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.
Interest Declaration: The writer sued the Birkenhead Liberal Democrats in the Birkenhead County Court over an alleged breach of s.7 of the Data Protection Act 1998. Deputy District Judge Ireland found in favour of the author in April 2012 and issued a court order in the author’s favour against the Birkenhead Liberal Democrats.
Interest Declaration: The writer is once again involved with litigation against the Birkenhead Liberal Democrats.

So there I was at work and I got handed 56 pages of election expenses returns from candidates in Birkenhead (cost to where I work was £11.20 (20p*56)).

It turns out though that Wirral Council however loves:

a) to cover things up,
b) doesn’t know what an individual is,
c) to overcharge and
d) has a very vague understanding of the law.

Hmm, doesn’t that all seem familiar? First however, a little bit of history. The Returning Officer for this election was Bill Norman. He got suspended on the 28th June 2012 shortly after the elections, to be replaced as Returning Officer on the 16th July 2012 by Mr. Surjit Tour.

However the day-to-day running of the electoral services is done by staff in the department that Mr. Surjit Tour is the Acting Head of (Department of Law, HR and Asset Management).

Last month I made a request to see various candidates election expenses returns, which include a donations page detailed where the money came from. I went to see them on Friday 31st August), I queried why the names, addresses and status of all donors had been “blacked out” from the copies I was inspecting. When I queried it I was told by an employee (who I won’t embarrass by naming here) that it was the law to do so. So I requested copies anyway.

I queried this “interpretation” with the Electoral Commission and I quote below from their response this afternoon:

“Hi John,

I’ve had a look into this and, although the addresses should be redacted for data protection reasons, the names of the donors should be made available. Paragraph 2.18 on page 6 of our guidance to Returning Officers explains this http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/141985/Part-F-After-the-declaration-of-result-LGEW.pdf

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any further questions.”

So I read the link, and sure enough on page 6 at 2.18 it states:-

“The addresses of individuals who have made donations to candidates, must by law, be removed from all inspection copies and copies supplied on request.”

Odd, I thought considering this candidate didn’t receive any donations from individuals, but from a political party (which is an unincorporated association not a living, air-breathing person like the individual writing this article). Then I remembered something, this candidate got herself elected, so the information on who donated the £984.33 to her campaign, is already in her published Register of Interests on Wirral Council’s website as Birkenhead Liberal Democrats. So Wirral Council in irony worthy of a Greek tragedy are ironically covering up some information already available on their website!

Sadly this only applies to twenty-two out of the hundred and nine candidates though. Ahh them, the Birkenhead Liberal Democrats, who lost to me in a lawsuit earlier on this year in the Birkenhead County Court. As agreed by all sides in that case (defendant and plantiff alike), they’re an unincorporated association, not an individual, but let’s move on.

Oh well, that’s 20p that Wirral Council owe me back then, plus an apology. However now somebody is going to have to re photocopy (from the originals) the donations pages of 109 candidates and I’ll have to rearrange another appointment to inspect them. Well at least this mistake costs them about £22 in photocopies and perhaps £20 in staff time and on the plus side it’s not as high as the extra £440,000 Wirral Council’s is having to pay back people it overcharged, but I’m hoping the refund of 20 pence won’t take twelve years to process! Perhaps I’d better not tell them I have a disability then. 🙂 Don’t worry Wirral Council I won’t charge you interest.

As promised in a conversation with Cllr Foulkes Election Expenses Return Part 2/2

Here are the missing six pages I didn’t have time to upload last night. The first part of this blog post can be found here.

Page 1
(Section 1 – Details of candidate and election)
(Section 2 – Details of election agent)

Page 2
(Section 3 – Summary of Spending)

Page 3
(Section 3a – Types of Payment)

Page 4
(Section 4 – Donations)

Page 6
(B. Unsolicited material to electors)

Page 7
(C. Transport)

As promised in a conversation with Cllr Foulkes Election Expenses Return Part 1/2

After I published Cllr Foulkes’ election expenses return last year I agreed with him to publish mine too. Sadly as I had a broken arm, much of it was done (as are most people’s) by their election agent. However, it seems ok with me, but if anyone has any queries, please contact me or Leonora. They’re also on a public register at Wallasey Town Hall for the next two years too. As you can see from my signature on the candidate declaration you can see how bad my handwriting was two weeks after I broke my arm. Then there’s the agent declaration. Leonora actually made a mistake here as she put “Leonora Brace” instead of “John Brace” for the candidate’s name (TBH the forms do get confusing and she was stressed out caring for me), so it had to be redone. However she used blue ink the second time instead of black. Links to the first half of the rest is below. If I number them from 1-14, the following are blank or contain £NIL figures, but I’m sure you wish to see them anyway:- Page 5 (A ADVERTISING) Page 8 (C TRANSPORT) Page 9 (D PUBLIC MEETINGS) Page 10 (E AGENT AND OTHER COSTS) Page 11 (F ACCOMMODATION AND ADMINISTRATION) Page 12 (Unpaid Claims) Page 13 (Disputed Claims) Page 14 (Donations you have received) For the exciting other six pages I will upload another day as 9 A4 sides is enough for one day and it’s time for bed. It’s mainly very dull anyway covering factual stuff such as the ward name, candidate name, agent name, number of people who could vote etc….   The second part of this blog post is here.

Licensing, Health & Safety and General Purposes Committee (Wirral Council) Part 1 19/3/2012 Agenda items 1(Declarations of Interest), 2 (Minutes), 3 (Sex Establishment fees) & 5 (Local Election fees 2012/2013)

Well on the 19th March 2012, I attended the well-attended Licensing, Health & Safety & General Purposes Committee in Committee Room 1. There were the usual people there such as taxi drivers and union reps and a few new faces from Merseytravel, as well as the committee of councillors and officers.

The committee composed of the following councillors (Cllr Ian Lewis (Conservative) was absent):-

Labour (5)
Cllr Bill Davies (Chair)
Cllr Patricia Glasman
Cllr Chris Jones
Cllr Steve Niblock
Cllr Irene Williams

Conservative (3)
Cllr Sue Taylor (Conservative spokesperson)
Cllr Kate Wood
Cllr Tom Anderson

Liberal Democrats (1)
Cllr Bob Wilkins (Lib Dem spokesperson)

The following Wirral Council officers were there to support the committee:-
Committee clerk: Anne Beauchamp
Legal adviser: Mr. Ken Abraham
Others: Margaret O’Donnell, Mr. Robert Beresford + others I don’t know the name of

The meeting started late with the Chair apologising for the wait as they were waiting for their legal team in regards to item 3 (Proposed election fees 2012/2013). He apologised again for the wait and said they would skip item 3 until Surjit Tour arrived.

He started the meeting with item 1 and asked for any declarations of interest.

Cllr Sue Taylor (Conservative spokesperson) apologised for Cllr Ian Lewis who was not present.

No declarations of interest were made, so they moved to item 2, which was the minutes of the last meeting.

Cllr Steve Niblock objected to the list of people attending the last meeting as he had not been at the last meeting due to being at the Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting which was also held on the 8th March.

He said he couldn’t be in two places at the same time, so he had sent Cllr Salter in his place as deputy. Therefore he asked for the minutes to be changed and his name replaced with Cllr Salter. The Chair said they would make sure it was changed. With the amendment to the minutes, the minutes (item 2) were agreed and the Committee skipped item 3 to item 4 (Hackney Carriage Vehicle Licences).

The Chair explained they would also skip item 4 and deal with it at the end.

At this point a councillor’s mobile phone started ringing and the Committee moved to item 5 sex establishment fees. Margaret O’Donnell introduced this report about the licensing of sex establishments and referred to various pieces of legislation including section 27 of the “Police and Crime Act 2009”, although she actually meant the Policing and Crime Act 2009. She asked the Committee to consider what fees should be charged by Wirral Council for receiving applications. She suggested £1,200 per an application based on an estimate of what costs would be incurred.

At this point 6.15pm Surjit Tour arrived fifteen minutes late and sat down.

Cllr Niblock asked if the £1,200 was just for a new one or the same for a renewal too?

Margaret replied that yes, she suggested £1,200 for both.

Item 5 was agreed that Wirral Council would charge £1,200 for new applications and £1,200 for renewals of sex establishment licences.

The Chair asked Surjit Tour to explain to the meeting his report,item 3 (proposed election fees for 2012/2013).

Surjit Tour asked the Chair if he wanted him to go ahead so they could agree the suggestions? The Chair agreed. Surjit Tour apologised for being late, he had thought the meeting started at 6.15pm, Ed – it was supposed to start at 6.00pm, he apologised again for his late arrival.

He explained that the election fees were proposed fees and were payments made to staff by the Returning Officer. There was no specific guidance or formula used as this was a local issue. According to scientists, the results of the study indicate that at https://summitps.org/accutane-isotretinoin/ accutane isotretinoin creates the necessary conditions for useful populations of Propionibacteria and other bacteria that reduce the likelihood of acne. The way it had previously been arrived at by the previous Chief Executive/Returning Office Steve Maddox was a yearly increase to take into account inflation. The increase for this year was therefore 3.9%, however it was calculated on the basis of individual wards. Neighbouring authorities fees were included in the report for comparison.

The Merseyside Electoral Administration team also discussed such matters at a meeting. However because of difficulties facing staff he proposed the following changes to those figures in the report.

(a) polling station inspector increased from £190 to £565.

(b) Deputy Returning Officer fee increased from a flat fee of £459.42 (per ward)  to 50% of the Returning Officer’s fee (£5,127.98 * 50%) = £2,563.99 (per ward)

The Chair thanked him for the report. The committee agreed the recommendations and changes. He thanked Surjit Tour again.

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