Category Archives: Martin Morton

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An update on the political thinking at the time in the Lib Dems behind the Martin Morton saga


The below is information revealed by the court order granted by Deputy Disctict Judge Ireland in Mr. John Brace v Cllr Alan Brighouse on behalf of the Birkenhead and Mr. John Brace v Liberal Democrats (the Federal Party) on behalf of the Liberal Democrats.

It was written by former councillors Simon Holbrook and Ann Bridson in May 2011. It is published because of the public interest surrounding this issue and it was sent to me (John Brace) in May 2012.

This forms an attachment to an email (since deleted) between Simon Holbrook and Cllr Patricia Williams and Cllr Alan Brighouse sent around the 30th May 2011. Italics are my response to the issues raised.

It’s published under the provisions that surround court reporting. The publisher regards the publication of it as absolutely privileged under the publishing provisions that apply to court proceedings.

The outcome of the legal case was that Cllr Alan Brighouse on behalf of the Birkenhead Liberal Democrats and Liberal Democrats (the Federal Party) on behalf of the Liberal Democrats were found liable for not sharing it in response to the subject access request of John Brace made around the 4th June 2011.

Appendix – Case against John Brace

1. Smearing of Sitting Councillors

In an email to Cllr Gilchrist dated 19 May 2011 at 09:59, John Brace did link the Standards investigation into Cllr Williams’ and Cllr Bridson’s part in the “special charging policy” with that of the recent investigation into the way in which Martin Morton had been treated, despite the fact that these are two totally seperate matters.

Cllr Williams and Cllr Bridson are not and were not under investigation into the alleged bullying of Martin Morton. This investigation, which was instigated by former Cllr Holbrook has now concluded and reported. It never was and never had been a matter for the Standards Board of England.

At the time this matter was still being considered by the Standards Board for England, who according to Wirral Council’s website had instructed the IAP to be reconvened as the Martin Morton complaint relating to Cllr Bridson had “mysteriously vanished” from a filing cabinet (the first complaint of Martin Morton didn’t include Cllr Bridson). The Cabinet Member with democratic accountability for this area was former Cllr Simon Holbrook. Cllr Williams was the Lib Dem representative on the Charging Policy Working Group in 2005 that decided on the policy and during some of the period concerned Cllr Bridson was Cabinet Member for Social Care and Inclusion. The Charging Policy Working Group minutes formed an appendix to the Anna Klonowski report that wasn’t circulated in the public version, but known about internally at Wirral Council since the Audit and Risk Management Committee meeting.

2. Disclosure of Confidential Information

John Brace did disclose on the Wirral Globe website blog, discussions that took place within the Birkenhead Executive Committee. Meetings of the Birkenhead Executive Lib Dems are internal party matters and therefore as such confidential to members of the Liberal Democrats and not for general publication.

These disclosures resulted in a senior Councillor from outside Birkenhead (Phil Gilchrist) being sufficiently concerned to raise the matter with the Constituency Chair (Cllr Williams).

The information was not confidential as s.29 of the Data Protection Act 1998 would make the disclosure exempt from the first data protection principle. The conviction of Cllr Warren Bradley (former Lib Dem Leader on Liverpool City Council) for false statements in his nomination papers should show that making any false statement on a nomination paper is a criminal offence. See original comment here dated 9.08am 9th May 2011.
3. Making False Allegations in Public

The matters disclosed in point 2 above questioned the eligibility of Simon Holbrook to have stood as the Lib Dem Candidate in Prenton at the recent local elections. John Brace also questioned the appropriateness of Cllr Ann Bridson signing Simon Holbook’s nomination papers. The allegation is that this was a denial of the democratic process to Birkenhead party members.

This point of mine (although this part of the complaint was withdrawn by the complainant as were many other parts) was upheld by the panel, who stated “The Panel expressed their concern about the organisation of Wirral’s selection procedures and felt that the problems should be addressed and resolved.”

The same blog also contains a statement insulting to all Wirral Lib Dem Councillors which said that when Simon Holbrook says “do something, unfortunately his councillors do it.”

Well they were whipped to vote for the closure of a dozen libraries, some Lib Dem councillors voted against and found themselves subject to yes you guessed it party disciplinary procedures following a complaint. The resulting public inquiry headed by Sue Charteris proved they were right though. At the time Simon Holbrook said in public meetings that the Cabinet’s position (which he had been a part of in proposing the library closures) would be vindicated by the public inquiry. Unsurprisingly it wasn’t.

4. Making an Unsubstantiated Allegation of a Complaint

In an email to Cllr Pat Williams dated 19 May 2011 at 00:05, John Brace did allege that former Cllr Simon Holbrook had made a complaint about his conduct, when no such complaint had been made.

In the same email, he made reference to Simon Holbrook’s personal statement that he will not seek elected office in 2012 and concentrate on his professional career and seeks to link that with his own comment on website blogs with no factual justification.

So when drunk, calling me despicable in a party meeting in relation to the issues outlined in 8 is not complaining? That comment on the blog was based on Simon Holbrook’s press release yet has no factual justification?? Is the complainant saying their own press release has no factual justification?
5. Seeking to Attend a Civic Function without an Invitation

That together with Leonora Brace, John Brace did seek to attend the celebration party following the Mayor Making ceremony despite not having received an invitation to the event. When challenged, John Brace did inappropriately attempt to claim that his possession of a “Press Card” entitled him to attend this invitation only civic function.

Note: John and Leonora Brace did attend part 1 of the Annual Council meeting from the public gallery, which they are entitled to do so.

Completely untrue, part 1 of the Annual Council meeting is held in the Civic Hall and for years the gallery there has been out of use as it’s classed as “unsafe”. To be honest, nobody uses it any more. The public gallery is above the Council Chamber where part 2 was held. Both of us have special dietary requirements so we don’t attend parties and I certainly don’t gatecrash things.

6. Giving a False Impression of Holding Public Office

In a seperate blog John Brace did write, “Although in theory I hold the position of councillor, it’s not with Wirral Council and like the Mayoress of Wirral Mrs Jennings is unelected so am I, as like with the Mayoress it’s to do with who I’m married to.”

This remark appeared in a blog speculating about the future shape of the Council administration. Although its purpose is unclear, it does seek to give credibility to the comments through claiming an association with a public office.

My wife does hold a position with a government unit on a reservation in Canada, which means she’s on the Council of Elders, due to the nature of the position and being married to her I hold a position too. 

7. Did Make Allegations in his Blog of Irregularties in the Count

In a blog following the local elections, John Brace claimed that the votes had not been counted properly. He sought to compare the declared result with his own canvass returns to justify his claim that his own votes had not been counted properly. In the same blog, he inappropriately said that a large number of votes in Oxton changed hands on the recount.

There was a problem with how the votes were counted in Bidston & St. James, so the result was altered slightly before it was declared. The Labour candidate in Oxton asked for a recount and the majority of the Lib Dem candidate was reduced by about a eighty votes after a recount (which is pretty usual as recounts never give the same result).

8. Making an Unjustified Complaint against a Lib Dem Councillor to the Standards Board for England

John Brace did report Cllr Ann Bridson to the Standards Board over the seating arrangements for members of the public at a meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee. The complaint was investigated at significant public expense and dismissed as unfounded.

The complaint had the potential to be damaging to the reputation of a party colleague, yet at no time did John Brace seek to discuss the matter about which he felt aggreived with Cllr Bridson, or any other member of the Liberal Democrat Council Group.

Not true, the only complaint made in the last four years about Cllr Bridson that got referred to the Standards Board for England was made by Martin Morton. Members of the public couldn’t complain directly to the Standards Board for England following a change in legislation four years ago. The first paragraph is untrue as it was referred for alternative action, compared to other complaints investigated around the time it cost far less (on a per complainant cost), as mentioned in the witness statements the matter was raised with former councillor Ann Bridson who merely replied, “I’m not prepared to listen to arguments from members of the public”. This conversation was in fact witnessed by someone else. 

So there to summarise you have now the reasons the Lib Dems tried to suspend which were:-

1) Spin over Martin Morton and asking the wrong sort of questions.

2) Expecting party members to abide by the party’s constitution.

3) Party Members being denied the opportunity to choose their candidate and Simon Holbrook’s attitude towards others.

4) Basing a blog post on a Lib Dem press release, means it has “no factual justification”.

5) Completely made up as anyone who attended that meeting would know but relates to disabilty.

6) Confusion by Simon Holbrook but relates to me being married.

7) This happened and is documented.

8) I never made a complaint that was referred to Standards for England, the original complaint originated from the fact my wife and I are disabled. The covering report written by Surjit Tour that went to the Wirral Council Standards Committee panel that made the final decision, was for a completely different complaint made by someone else.

My wife was selected as the Claughton candidate that year, once Cllr Bridson found out about the complaint about her she asked her friend Margaret Teggin instead which bullied Leonora Brace into withdrawing. This part of the complaint was written by Ann Bridson, who managed to get the other co-complainant about her barred from “seeking any elected public office for the party for five years”.

So comments anyone or would you like to know more?

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Council (16th July 2012) Parts 1 to 7


I’ve finally uploaded the video footage from last Monday’s well attended Council to Youtube. Links to each part are below with part 7 being in HD.

Part 1 00:00 to 04:07
Part 2 04:08 to 06:34
Part 3 06:35 to 50:49
Part 4 50:50 to 53:43
Part 5 53:44 to 130:37
Part 6 130:38 to 136:00
Part 7 136:00 to 169:33

A playlist of all seven parts is below.

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Cabinet 12th January 2012 AOB – Urgent Business Approved by the Chair (Part 1) – Independent Review of Claims Made by Martin Morton (and others) Part 2


Before I write this up, I need to (to be ethical) state a raft of conflicts of interest as I have been overcharged by Wirral Council’s Social Services in the past in the time period around 2004-2005. However the money has since been refunded to me.

There are further many conflicts of interest I now have and to be ethical have to declare (what I can) about two of the four councillors named in the decision notices.

1) I am now a member of the Birkenhead Liberal Democrats and so are Cllrs Ann Bridson and Cllrs Pat Williams.
2) I have previously been a member of the Birkenhead Liberal Democrats and have are Cllrs Ann Bridson and Cllrs Pat Williams.
3) I am now a member of the North West Liberal Democrats and so are Cllrs Ann Bridson and Cllrs Pat Williams.
4) I have previously been a member of the North West Liberal Democrats and so have Cllrs Ann Bridson and Cllrs Pat Williams.
5) I am now a member of the Liberal Democrats and so are Cllrs Ann Bridson and Cllrs Pat Williams.
6) I have previously been a member of the Liberal Democrats and so have Cllrs Ann Bridson and Cllrs Pat Williams.
7) I have previously been a member of the Wirral West Liberal Democrats and so has Cllr Ann Bridson.
8) Although, not at the time of writing I have in the past been elected as a political party office holder for both the Birkenhead Local Party and Wirral West Liberal Democrats at the same time as Cllrs Ann Bridson with respect to Birkenhead and Wirral West and Cllrs Pat Williams with respect to Birkenhead. These positions were:-

a) past office holder of the Birkenhead Liberal Democrat Constituency Executive at the same time as Cllrs Bridson and Cllrs Williams
b) past office holder as Federal Conference representative (Birkenhead Local Party) at the same time as Cllrs Bridson and Cllrs Williams
c) past office holder as North West regional conference representative (Birkenhead Local Party) at the same time as Cllr Bridson
d) past office holder as North West regional conference representative (Wirral West Local Party) at the same time as Cllr Bridson

I am also have two further undisclosed interests of Cllr Bridson and one of Cllr Williams. I’m not willing at this point to declare what these are, just to state they exist. I have delayed writing this report of the Cabinet due to the need to read the report and appendices which total 529 pages.  The following documents were published on Wirral Council’s website for this agenda item.

Report of Chief Executive (14 A4 pages)

Appendix 1 AKA Final Report (249 A4 pages)

Appendix 2 Martin Smith report by North West Employers into claims made by Martin Morton (276 pages)

Appendix 4A (Standards for England Decision Notice) Cllr Pat Williams (1 A4 page)

Appendix 4B (Standards for England Decision Notice) Cllr Moira McLaughlin (1 A4 page)

Appendix 4C (Standards for England Decision Notice) Cllr Denise Roberts (1 A4 page)

Appendix 4D (Standards for England Decision Notice) Cllr Ann Bridson (1 A4 page)

There are also the draft minutes are on Wirral Council’s website. There is also more information that has been known to us for some time in this matter which involves some of the Appendices to the AKA Final Report.

I have previously written about Appendix 9 here.

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Wirral Globe letter – Cllr Steve Foulkes criticised


After my wife referred to something in this week’s Wirral Globe I happened to notice this letter on the letters page this week.

It reminded me of the question I put to Cllr Steve Foulkes on this topic a few weeks ago (my questions and his answers are in a Youtube video below). The advice given by Bill Norman was also reported here.

It seems this is a story that just won’t go away… although I’m sure some people would prefer it to stay out of the news.

P.S. As there is at least one councillor who stated in an email to me last year that Cllr Steve Foulkes is a member of the Liberal Democrat Party, I’d like to set the public record straight now and point out he’s a member of the Labour Party, in case anybody out there reading this has also got it wrong! Oh and in case the same councillor is reading this I’m not called Hugo or Martin either, my name is John…

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Cabinet 22/9/11 Item 19A Independent Review


There have been a number of searches to this blog (and one email request) for the Anna Klonowski report following media reports of last Thursday’s Cabinet.

Her (first) report is here with a covering report written by Jim Wilkie here.

I haven’t got around to typing up what happened at last Thursday’s Cabinet meeting (yet).

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Wirral Council Cabinet 22/9/11 Items 19A and 13


Here are copies of the resolutions passed at the first two business items at last night’s Cabinet. Click on the relevant image for a larger copy. These are now reduced to 10% original size.

Item 19A

Cabinet resolution Wirral Council 22/9/11 Item 19

Item 13

Cabinet resolution Wirral Council 22/9/11 Item 13 PACSPE

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Come on Labour; what do you stand for?


I read with interest Cllr Jeff Green’s letter to Cllr. Steve Foulkes (Leader of the Labour Group).

In the short time I have left as candidate in Bidston & St. James I will address some of the points it raises.

Firstly, what are Labour’s plans? Well, from a leaflet from my local Labour candidate, they plan (if they got elected locally and nationally) to reduce the number of people who can vote.

Personally, I agree with my party that everyone (with very few exceptions) should be allowed to vote. Currently the list of people who can/can’t vote in the referendum and local elections is different (which can get confusing). Lib Dem MPs did vote against prisoners getting the vote.

What else are they for? Well, judging by the picture of the Labour candidate on the Beechwood they quite happily respond to Lib Dem campaigns regarding speeding (which was a concern of many residents in this area).

This was as a result of Lib Dem councillors like Cllr Stuart Kelly and former Cllr Jean Quinn insisting that local people in all parts of the Wirral (and local councillors) have a say on tens of thousands of pounds spent in their area.

Strangely when their own party members on the Beechwood called for something to be done, why did nothing seem to happen until the Lib Dems got up a petition and campaigned for something to happen?

So what else is Labour for? Oh yes, taking credit for over a million pounds worth of investment in Cathcart Street Primary school that was decided by Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors (but no Labour councillors).

When you strip away the things Labour takes credit for (that are Lib Dem/Tory policies or decisions) it makes you wonder what they have achieved.

In the last year they have been in the opposition on Wirral Council Labour haven’t had to take many decisions. Going back to the letter I will address some of the points. If any candidate (or agent) wishes to have right of reply please leave a comment.

1) Who knows what Labour would do, yet would you trust the Labour councillors who left Social Services “the worst in the country” with fixing the problems there? Cllr. Moira McLaughlin often pointed out she was “friends” with the former Director of Adult Social Services, John Webb. I have no problem with councillors being friendly with directors, but if it gets to the stage you have to declare an interest, aren’t councillors (who are supposed to be scrutinising officers) too close to those the public expects them to scrutinise? Is anyone harshly critical of someone they consider a “friend”?

2) Martin Morton is a sign of something far more worrying in the culture of Wirral Council. A long time ago (November 2009) I left a comment on Cllr Chris Blakeley’s blog about bullying going on within groups of councillors at Wirral Council.

People of course remember Cllr. Knowles (in nearby Seacombe) leaving the Labour Group to join the Conservatives as well as other things that went on. My own councillor and Labour’s candidate Harry Smith was suspended for a week for what he said to some of the younger Conservative councillors at a public meeting.

He still is seen against the wall heckling and jeering at council meetings.

The problem has been is that some of the more senior officers at Wirral Council took on board the political culture of the Labour Group. Yet I feel sorry for Wirral Council employees forced into doing illegal and unethical things by councillors threatening them with the sack.

Yet with “jobs for life” and the public kept in the dark about what does go on, is there any reward for good behaviour by councillors? Will Labour apologise to Martin Morton? Considering it took a public inquiry to get a public apology regarding the library closure plans I’m not holding my breath on that one…

3) I’ve no idea to that one, other than to say they didn’t consult me!

4) People on the doorstep (whose budgets are stretched) have been telling me how they appreciate the Council Tax Freeze. Labour may say it’s “a gimmick” but if you look at Labour-run local authorities like Merseyside Police Authority Labour got millions in a Council Tax Freeze grant yet slashed the number of police officers.

Personally I feel Labour always want more money (and as a result increase our taxes, tunnel tolls etc), but yet don’t understand how to get value for money (when they seem to just want to get more jobs for their public sector union chums).

5) I don’t think libraries is a vote winner for Labour based on what happened. :D In Bidston & St. James many places (library, leisure centre, community centres etc) faced the axe and were voted to close by its local Labour councillors.

6) Labour in Liverpool funded an increase to the Labour leader’s allowance and a “jolly jaunt” to China by axing free swimming. Which of these benefits people more?

7) Allowances are an interesting issue Cllr Green as even those of us with qualifications in mathematics and a background in accounting and journalism couldn’t tell you before these elections exactly how much each councillor gets paid (including the amounts on outside bodies).

The system of allowances is basically subsidy of political parties by the taxpayer (in addition taxpayers money such as Short money, Cranbourne money going to the political parties etc). Labour also get amounts from the taxpayer from the public sector unions.

Course there are radical ways this could be changed:-

a) like MPs, publish details of all councillors expenses, allowances etc down to each invoice. This would save the public money as they’d be less likely to claim for frivolities. Until this is done the assumption by the public is that “they’re all on the “fiddle”.

b) in addition to the above details of tax and NI paid.

c) Cabinet Member’s allowances should be not a set amount each year but reflect the workload of each Cabinet member. For example an amount for each meeting they attend on Council business etc. Also there needs to be a system of deputies for Cabinet as a bug going round Wirral Council have been known to lead to half the Cabinet turning up to meetings.

d) Details each year (by each political group on Wirral Council) of what they spent the money they got from councillor’s donations on. Some of this goes on the elections, but shouldn’t the public get to know what their money is being spent on?

e) Each leader (Lib Dem, Labour, Tory) gets a secretary, each political group a research assistant. Should the public at least know who these people (paid for by the taxpayers) are? After all its six full-time salaries paid for by Wirral taxpayers, whose job at times seems to be to do the work councillors don’t want to do.

f) Have the above information published on a page where the Wirral public gets to leave comments as to whether the above is value for money and ways to improve things

8) Thank you for making less exempt, however most exempt reports of public interest have been leaked to the press. When you read the exempt ones, you often find the reasons officers are spurious. Mind you Wirral Council usually leaks like a sieve. The information on expenditure over £500 is useful, yet there needs to be a way for the public to feed back information and questions regarding this.

9) Liscard & Cllr Dodd & the bone of contention in this election between yourselves and Labour. Perhaps as a Lib Dem I will stand on the sidelines on this one. I realise it is hard at times to understand, but each party has a different strategy to winning elections.

Lib Dems – Focus leaflet/s detailing what Lib Dems have done locally. Explaining its a “two horse race”. Asking third party supporters to vote for them. Criticising the other two parties (mainly Labour).
Tories – Newsline leaflet/s detailing what Tories have done locally. Asking third party supporters to vote for them. Criticising the other two parties (but mainly Labour)
Labour – Take credit for Tory and Lib Dem policies. Criticise the policies of whatever party challenges them. Try and make Labour look different from the Tory and Lib Dem parties by saying how wonderful Labour is. Manipulate and bamboozle the voting public into not knowing really what the election is (many people in Bidston & St. James think they are voting Labour tomorrow to as they put it “get rid” of the Coalition government nationally despite there not being a General Election) about but as their former Labour MP Phil Woolas would put it “make the white folk angry” (with the Tories and the Lib Dems). Spread a few scare stories in the mix about people losing their benefits and other such things and you have a recipe for Labour success without telling anyone what you really stand for. Do the above well and if any party is within spitting distance of taking your seat you should see a 10% drop in support for the second place candidate and a boost to your own votes. Congratulations you are now elected a Labour councillor. Nobody who voted for you knows what your plans are so you can’t be accused of breaking any pledges or promises!

If you “bent” a few election laws along the way (eg spent more on the campaign than you’re allowed, left out an imprint or three), 99% of the time you’ll get away with it. Even if you do get taken to court and convicted, another party member will happily get reelected in your place.

10) This was discussed at the Area Forum last year. From what I recall Cllr Foulkes had concerns (as did I) over potential conflicts of interest between the people writing the report for Cabinet (as a result of the consultation) and no mechanism for such conflicts of interest to be declared.

Personally (although Labour can speak for themselves), I don’t think the Labour party is against the public sharing their views, just they’d rather the public share their views with Labour councillors rather than Lib Dem or Tory ones. Some members of the public bring up the same thing with all parties.

11) I’ve no idea, although last time this was discussed what at the Area Forum for Birkenhead over the SAR (closure of libraries etc). Cllr Foulkes made a comment about “Chiefs and Indians” which my wife took offence to as she was born on a reservation in Canada. From memory he said at the time (along with a lot of other things that didn’t go down well) that the Audit Commission would be highly critical of them if they got the balance between managers and staff incorrect.

Personally my own view is that with leadership from councillors the need for many managers is less. Labour tended to rely on officer support more when they were in charge of Wirral Council.

John Brace
Bidston & St. James candidate

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Social Services & Martin Morton


It’s good to see some local press coverage in the Wirral Globe (with 37 comments) and other local papers about this issue, which I wrote about on the 19th in relation to the Cabinet meeting of the 14th.

Changing an entire culture of an organisation and how councillors do scrutiny in the future is always difficult. Wirral Council will need to bring people like Mr. Morton on board if things are to change. The public call for people who didn’t do their job to be fired and the finger of blame pointed at certain named councillors of various political parties as well as the full story as to what happened and why and will be clearer once the report is published. However Wirral Council needs to move on from the past and embrace change.

As pointed out in previous reports, it was not just the Cabinet Member’s responsibility but at the time of the special charging policy there was a separate Social Services committee with a Chair and party spokespersons whose role was scrutiny of Social Services. People involved in political parties at the time of the special charging policy do know who was involved in these at the time, but (perhaps as many are still serving councillors) these names haven’t been released to the general public.

Although weaknesses were exposed at the political/councillor level there were also massive failings within Social Services management and internal confusion regarding its policies and procedures.

In politics, only certain things are taken up and campaigned on (and this partly depends on the numbers that want something). The rest, councillors, MPs etc and others in political parties do their best about. Mr. Morton was standing up for disabled adults (many of which sadly at times encounter prejudice or in some cases due to their disability have difficulties in communicating). Many councillors have a very good understanding of physical disability (eg glasses, walking sticks, wheelchair users etc) but don’t fully understand the nuances (and differing severities) of adults with learning difficulties or learning disabilities.

Yet what is the employee body of Wirral Council as a whole like? Wirral Council itself was named joint “Scrooge Employer of the Year” for 2008 for poor staff morale and where staff felt their efforts went unappreciated. If you read the Council’s Workforce monitoring report for 2009/2010, that you were more likely to get a job if you were female or disabled. Yet if you were from a non-white ethnic background or male you were less likely to get from shortlisting to the job.

As the report points out “The success rate of disabled applicants is marginally above the norm. The high
percentage of shortlisted disabled applicants is due in the main to the Council’s guaranteed interview policy. This policy guarantees that a disabled applicant who meets the essential criteria is shortlisted and is interviewed. The most significant trend is that whilst non-white ethnic background applicants have a greater chance of being short listed they appear to be less successful at interview stage.”

A quarter of its employees choose not to answer the question on disability. I hope Wirral Council working in the future with organisations such as Operation Black Vote will move things forward on race and by working through the issues flagged up by Mr. Morton Wirral Council will start getting things right for disabled people, rather than being branded the worst Social Services department in the country.

The author is a former student representative on the Disability SubGroup of University of Liverpool.

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Cabinet 14th April 2011 – Department of Adult Social Services – Report of the Independent Investigator


Although the covering report about the independent investigator’s report into Social Services (despite multiple requests by myself) was not circulated to those present at the meeting, it has since been published on on Wirral Council’s website.

It makes interesting reading. A few quotes about how Wirral Council treated its former employee Martin Morton:-

“Mr Smith concludes that there were three examples of personal behaviour which he believed were inappropriate and which resulted in Martin Morton being bullied.”

“Mr Smith concludes that there were seven examples of collective behaviour which he believes were inappropriate; and which resulted in Martin Morton receiving detrimental treatment.”

“Mr Smith concludes that there were three examples of what he believes to be inappropriate behaviour/abuse of power at the departmental level in DASS; and which resulted in a denial of due process by the Council as an organisation.”

“Lastly, Mr Smith finds that there were three examples of inappropriate behaviour/abuse of power at corporate level, which he believes resulted in a denial of due process by the Council, as an organisation, in its consideration of
Martin Morton’s grievance claims.”

By my count that’s 16 examples of where things went wrong. There are many recommendations including:-

“Mr Smith’s final recommendation, Recommendation 6, is that, in the light of the investigation findings, the Council should consider its obligations to Martin Morton; and determine whether it should consider an appropriate remedy for the manner in which the Council has treated him.”

Basically things need to change at Wirral Council and although what’s in the 270 page report of Mr. Smith can be guessed at and will be made public there are various questions this raises:-

a) What role did individual councillors have in this? Are there lessons to be learnt on a political level (for all political parties)?
b) What role did individual officers have in this? Are the failings within Social Services part of what led to it being scored by the Care Quality Commission as one of the worst Social Services department in the country?
c) Although Wirral Council have apologised, what is an “appropriate remedy” for Martin Morton?

The whole thing comes across as confirming some things in political parties that people knew already about:-

problems in councillor/employee relations (or Member/Officer relations as its usually referred to)
management failings within Social Services
confusion by its employees over internal policies
prejudice towards the client group (vulnerable adults with a disability)
workplace issues
what role council employees play in the political process

I could write a very, very long list and await the publication of the report with interest! I admire Martin Morton for the principled stand he took (and was ultimately victimised and hounded out of a job for doing the right thing).

Some of those involved have left DASS, but some are still working there.