Why did Wirral Council spend £637.06 on refreshments for Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub briefings?
Why did Wirral Council spend £637.06 on refreshments for Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub briefings?
At the last public meeting of all of Wirral Council’s councillors, Cllr Bernie Mooney pictured above (Cabinet Member for Children and Families) said, “The most criminal thing out of all of this is the people who are suffering are the poorest people in society.”
Last year Wirral Council, which was paid for its Children Services section, paid £637.06 for “refreshments” for a series of briefings to partner agencies to do with the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).
The “refreshments” were bought at Costco (Liverpool), Marks and Spencer (Cheshire Oaks) and Marks and Spencer (Croft Retail Leisure Park) and included tea, coffee, biscuits, quiche, sausage rolls, apples, bananas, seedless grapes, platters, caramel crispies, flapjacks, Rocky Road mini bites, hummus, chive dip, a maple & pecan Danish pastry, sour cream, plums, chocolate brownies, mini rolls, a chocolate orange, teacakes, pitta chips, disposable plates, disposable cutlery and other items of food that are detailed on the receipts below.
In the same speech, Cllr Mooney asked for a further £25 million to be spent on services for children at Wirral Council and she was also concerned about the rise in the use of foodbanks.
Who’s leaving Wirral Council and what is a 20,085 signature petition against?
Who’s leaving Wirral Council and what is a 20,085 signature petition against?
Yesterday’s email from Mr Tour, ended with “you are required to return to the public gallery”.
However when I did return to the entrance to the public gallery above the Council Chamber, after asking my question, Wirral Council’s Community Patrol unsuccessfully tried to stop me re-entering.
I have however sadly learnt in life to ignore a lot of Wirral Council employee’s more bizarre requests and slipped past him. The guy from Community Patrol tried to grab my arm to stop me but lost his grip.
Ironically as I had had a stand up protest downstairs over the nonsense over the seating arrangements, typing away notes on my iPad, in the hot weather my bare arm was so sweaty by then that his hand couldn’t grip on to me.
So I thank Surjit Tour for putting into place a chain of events that thwarted another Wirral Council employee.
As I’d forgotten to turn my tape recorder off downstairs there’s a tape of the whole matter and conversation.
Maybe Community Patrol will have better luck at the next Planning Committee?
Indeed Wirral Council losing its grip seemed to be a running theme of the evening.
The petition against the planning application for a fire station (on Council owned land) in Saughall Massie presented by Cllr Chris Blakeley has reached 4,034 signatures. The report from Wirral Council’s planning department recommends it for approval. The matter will be decided at the Planning Committee on the 20th July 2017, after a site visit on the 18th July 2017.
Another large petition, of a mere 20,805 signatures, submitted by Cllr Chris Blakeley on behalf of Cllr Jeff Green opposed the introduction of car parking charges in the country parks (which goes to a call-in meeting on the 18th July 2017).
Cllr Phil Davies (Leader) and the Labour councillors however does not agree with Cllr Chris Blakeley on many policy matters.
After questions for Cabinet Members from various councillors, there were general questions, followed by just over half an hour of debate about senior managers’ employment status.
A quick summary is Julia Hassall (Director of Children’s Services) resigned, Tom Sault (Assistant Director: Finance) is entering a “phased retirement”, Surjit Tour (Assistant Director: Law and Governance, Monitoring Officer and Senior Information Risk Officer) has resigned and Clare Fish (Executive Director for Strategy) has requested early retirement.
The Chief Executive, Eric Robinson also wants to regrade the Director for Children post to the £140-£155k band and create a new post for a senior manager (Director of Strategy and Partnerships) on a salary range of £103k-£115k. He also wants to increase the salary range for the Assistant Director: Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer post to a maximum of £93k. Those are most of the changes (there are some other ones too).
The changes to the senior management team that were recommended in a private meeting of the Employment and Appointments Committee were agreed by Council yesterday evening on a 35:25:1 vote (for:against:abstain). The 1 is the Labour councillor who is the Mayor abstaining. The other 35 are Labour councillors and the 25 were a combination of opposition councillors.
The effect is that Surjit Tour remains serving out his notice (until some point in September 2017), Clare Fish’s early retirement request is agreed, Tom Sault retires (but phased) and Penna (the external recruitment consultants) have a massive pay-day from advising Wirral Council on recruitment to all these posts (estimated by one councillor at ~£12k a post).
The senior management team was restructured last in November 2016 and at least one councillor suggested that changing again so soon implies that the previous model hadn’t worked.
Cllr Bernie Mooney referred to people being paid, “too bloody much”.
Certainly the senior management team hasn’t been changed this much since 2012, when a large number of them were suspended, then paid large sums to leave as the suspension wasn’t done properly.
There was also a short debate on wildlife sites.
Most people however were there in the public gallery (patiently waiting around two hours before the meeting got to that point) to hear debate on a Notice of Motion about the New Ferry explosion.
Cllr Warren Ward received cross-party plaudits for his work as a ward councillor for this area.
Labour councillors blamed it on the government.
Conservative councillors said that part of the response was the responsibility of Wirral Council.
In the end though, after just over 30 minutes of debate, councillors of all parties agreed a notice of motion that will result in Wirral Council writing a letter to the Prime Minister and a letter to the government minister for Communities and Local Government.
After that agreement, the Mayor called for a ten minute adjournment (which turned into a fifteen minute adjournment).
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What are 10 invoices paid by Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority totalling £4,758,470.23 for?
What are 10 invoices paid by Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority totalling £4,758,470.23 for?
Below are ten A4 images of invoices I requested during the 2015-16 audit of Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority (that goes by the name of Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority).
They are in order from Mersey Waste Holdings Ltd, Veolia ES Merseyside & Halton Limited, FCC Recycling (UK) Limited, Wirral Council, JLT Speciality Limited and Liverpool City Council.
Some are for payments made to do with contracts, the one with Wirral Council is to do with a loan (MRDF stands for Merseyside Residual Debt Fund which MWDA’s share of the former Merseyside County Council’s debts), insurance and business rates to Liverpool City Council for the Gilmoss Waste Transfer Station in Stonebridge Lane.
Amounts for these invoices are for £2,136,797.83, £1,253,141.93, £650,990.21, £472,906.96, £182,600, £37,741.30 and £24,892 (total £4,758,470.23).
I will point however that the costs of dealing with waste on these invoices is at the county level of Merseyside (possibly with Halton added too). Wirral Council’s share will be a fraction of what the total costs are).
Matters involving the current consultation by Wirral Council on food waste and changes to the green bin collection were recently the subject of a call in public meeting (26th July 2016) when opposition councillors requested that the Cabinet decision be reviewed. You can watch footage from that meeting below which discusses the proposed changes to the green bin collections and proposed new food waste collection.
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Councillors on Wirral Council’s Labour Cabinet to make decision today on public consultation over changes to green bin collection and food waste collection from Wirral’s residents
Councillors on Wirral Council’s Labour Cabinet to make decision today on public consultation over changes to green bin collection and food waste collection from Wirral’s residents
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Councillors on the Merseyside Recycling & Waste Authority (Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority) discussed the upcoming decision by Wirral Council’s Cabinet on Friday afternoon (24th June 2016) at item 14 (Waste Composition Analysis) which starts at 14 minutes 30 seconds into the meeting.
A meeting of Wirral Council’s Labour Cabinet this morning (if you are reading this on the 27th June 2016) will (amongst other matters) decide on whether to consult on two options to changes to how waste is collected in the future on the Wirral.
These are the two shortlisted options that look likely to be consulted on.
Who are the 20 Pledge Champions and how has Wirral Council’s Cabinet changed?
Who are the 20 Pledge Champions and how has Wirral Council’s Cabinet changed?
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Wirral Council’s Cabinet meeting held on the 5th November 2015
Yesterday’s Cabinet meeting agreed changes to which area each councillor on the Cabinet covers and some minor changes to how each Cabinet portfolio’s description.
Instead of two Deputy Leaders at Wirral Council (Cllr George Davies and Cllr Ann McLachlan) there will now be only one Deputy Leader (Cllr Ann McLachlan).
I thought it would be useful to explicitly state each Cabinet’s former title and its new title (along with the councillor that now holds that role). Old titles are in italics. New titles are in bold. None of the councillors on the Cabinet have changed.
Councillor Phil DaviesLeader of the CouncilFinance Leader of the CouncilStrategic and Policy Oversight
Councillor Ann McLachlanJoint Deputy Leader of the CouncilGovernance, Commissioning and Improvement Deputy Leader of the CouncilTransformation and Improvement
Councillor George DaviesJoint Deputy Leader of the CouncilNeighbourhoods, Housing and Engagement Housing and Communities
Councillor Adrian JonesSupport Services Resources: Finance, Assets and Technology
Councillor Christine JonesAdult Social Care and Public Health Adult Care and Public Health
Councillor Tony SmithChildren and Family Services Children and Families
Councillor Pat HackettEconomy Business and Tourism
Councillor Bernie MooneyEnvironment and Sustainability Environmental Protection
Councillor Chris MeadenLeisure, Sport and Culture Leisure and Culture
Councillor Stuart WhittinghamHighways and Transport Transport, Technology Strategy and Infrastructure
In addition to those changes, Cabinet will now meet on Monday mornings at 10.00am starting in 2016.
Also decided were a number of Pledge Champions. The role of each Pledge Champion will be to make sure there is action on a specific pledge in the Wirral Council Plan: a 2020 Vision (formerly called the Corporate Plan).
Twenty councillors (all from the ruling Labour Group) were appointed as Pledge Champions (a role that Cllr Phil Davies pointed out at the Cabinet meeting doesn’t mean these councillors receive increased allowances). A list of who the Pledge Champions are (along with which pledge they are the champion for) was handed out at the Cabinet meeting and is below (but without the bullet points next to each pledge which was on the original). The pledges are in three broad themes of people, business and the environment.
20 PLEDGES
PEOPLE
CHAMPION
Older People Live Well
Irene Williams
Children are ready for school
Walter Smith
Young people are ready for work and adulthood
Phillip Brightmore
Vulnerable children reach their full potential
Treena Johnson
Reduce child and family poverty
Angela Davies
People with disabilities live independently
Rob Gregson
Zero tolerance to domestic violence
Janette Williamson
BUSINESS
Greater job opportunities in Wirral
Joe Walsh
Workforce skills match business needs
Jean Stapleton
Increase inward investment
Matthew Patrick
Thriving small businesses
Denise Realey
Vibrant Tourism economy
Matt Daniel
Transport & Technology infrastructure fit for the future
Ron Abbey
Assets and buildings are fit for purpose for Wirral’s businesses
Denise Roberts
ENVIRONMENT
Leisure and cultural opportunities for all
Christine Spriggs
Wirral residents live healthier lives
Steve Foulkes
Community services are joined up and accessible
Christina Muspratt
Good quality housing that meets the needs of residents
Steve Niblock
Wirral’s Neighbourhood are safe
Brian Kenny
Attractive local environment for Wirral residents
John Salter
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