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.
Here is a brief update on the meeting.
1. Declarations of Interest 00:00 to 01:30
The Mayor asked people to please sit down. She welcomed people to Wallasey Town Hall and pointed out that it is a formal meeting with an agenda. She asked the councillors for any declarations of interest. None was made.
2. Mayor’s Communications 01:30
She asked for any apologies for absence. A number of apologies for absence were made.
She then made a speech thanking people and talking about her year as Mayor and other matters. 01:30 to 08:50
Wirral’s Young Poet Laureate then read a poem entitled “I am the Wirral”.
*note video of poem not available due to copyright not obtained on performance*
08:58 to 10:48
There was applause for her poem.
3. Election of Mayor 2012/13 11:00
The Mayor asked for nominations for Mayor. 11:00 to 11:15
Cllr Jeff Green nominated Cllr Gerry Ellis. 11:15 to 15:11.
There was applause. The Mayor asked for it to be seconded.
Cllr Phil Davies seconded the nomination. 15:27 to 17:00.
There was applause. The Mayor invited Cllr Harney to speak.
Cllr Harney spoke. 17:12 to 18:06.
There was more applause.
The Mayor thanked Cllr Harney and asked for any other nominations. 18:14 to 18:18
None was made.
The Mayor declared Cllr Gerry Ellis the Mayor for the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. 18:20 to 18:30.
There was applause.
The Mayor and others left the room. 18:55
The Mayor’s return was announced. 28:38
The Mayor returned. 28:38.
I couldn’t see much as to what happened next as I had to sit down due to the standing making my broken arm bones worse.
Bill Norman invited Gerry Ellis to make his declaration of acceptance of office. 32:35 to 32:40
Cllr Gerry Ellis read out the declaration. 32:40 to 33:10
He invited the Mayor’s Chaplain to speak.
The Mayor’s Chaplain read a prayer. 33:40 to 36:24
The Mayor asked people to sit down.
The Mayor addressed people present with a witty speech. He was provided with an extra microphone during it. 36:21 to 57:01
There was applause. 57:01 to 57:20
4. Deputy Mayor 2012/13
Bill Norman announced item 4. 57:20 to 57:26
The Mayor asked for nominations. 57:26 to 57:31
Cllr Tom Harney asked if he could nominate Cllr Dave Mitchell. 57:34 to 57:44
The Mayor asked for it to be seconded.
Cllr Pat Williams seconded the nomination. 57:46 to 57:49
The Mayor declared Cllr Dave Mitchell as Deputy Mayor.
There was applause. End of tape 1.
Cllr Dave Mitchell was presented with the chain of office. 00:00 to 00:16
Bill Norman invited Cllr Dave Mitchell to make his declaration of acceptance of office. 00:17 to 00:22
Cllr Dave Mitchell made his declaration of acceptance of office. 00:24 to 00:46
5 Appointments to Outside Bodies – Merseyside Police Authority Appointments Committee
(2 Labour, 1 Conservative)
Bill Norman announced item 5. 1:08 to 1:28
People were proposed and seconded by councillors.
6. Adjournment
The Mayor asked for agreement to adjourn the meeting to 6.15pm on Monday 21st May 2012. The meeting was adjourned. 01:47 to 02:01
Present:
Cllr Mark Johnston (Chair)
Cllr Simon Mountney
Deputy Mayor Cllr Gerry Ellis
Cllr Tony Cox
Cllr Denise Realey
Cllr Pat Hackett
Cllr Stuart Wittingham
Cllr Steve Niblock
The agenda and reports for this meeting can be viewed by clicking on the link.
The Chair, Cllr Johnston started the meeting by telling everyone that Cllr Kelly had to go home as his daughter had banged her head. He asked for declarations of interest. Cllr Hackett declared a personal interest with regards to Reach Out. The minutes of the meeting held on the 5th September 2011 were agreed. Cllr Johnston said he wanted to raise a couple of things from page six, which would lead to the work program being amended.
Cllr George Davies (Cabinet member for Housing and Community Safety) arrived.
Cllr Johnston referred committee members to an email from Cllr Phil Davies and Cllr George Davies which he gave councillors a couple of minutes to read.
Once they had read the email, the Chair invited Paula Basnett, Head of Investment in the Department of Regeneration, Housing and Planning to give a presentation to the committee.
Earlier problems with the computer in Committee Room 1 meant a laptop had to be used instead for the Powerpoint presentation. Black and white paper copies of the presentation were handed out to councillors on the committee.
Paula Basnett, wearing something that reminded me of dazzle camouflage on ships, explained what the business support team does and that since September with more funding they had given extra business support they hadn’t previously. At the end of October Business Link North West had gone along with all its business advisers. Business support was given through five relationship managers. These managers had a target of contacting five businesses a week to make businesses aware of what support was available.
Here is the next part of Monday night’s meeting.
Present:
Cllr Gerry Ellis (Chair)
Cllr David Elderton
Cllr Geoffrey Watt
Cllr Eddie Boult
Cllr John Hale
Officers:
Dave Green (Director of Technical Services)
David Ball instead of Kevin Adderley (Lead Officer)
Tracey Smith (Area Forum co-ordinator)
Partners:
Merseyside Police (Sgt Andy Carter)
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (Paul Murphy)
On a very windy night, about fifty members of the public were present at the start of the meeting. Cllr Ellis said the attendance at the Leasowe, Moreton and Saughall Massie Area Forum the previous evening had only been two, so he thanked people for coming despite the bad weather. He said there were some interesting questions. He introduced himself as Gerry Ellis, councillor for Hoylake and Meols ward. He then asked those present to introduce themselves. They introduced themselves as listed above except for Paul Murphy who said he had taken over from Myles Platt.
Cllr Ellis gave an apology for Cllr Green who had told him he was on his way but not wearing a suit. He handed over to Tracey Smith for the minutes and then asked if there were any matters arising.
Bridget asked about Bridge Court on page 5 which had been demolished and asked if it was possible it would become a new health centre? Cllr Ellis said there was nobody from the Primary Care Trust, Wirral Partnership Homes had cleared the site as it was not to required standards. The GPs were looking for an alternative site.
Cllr Jeff Green arrived.
Cllr Ellis said he had talked to Patrick, who was deputy head of Wirral Partnership Homes who had told him they were at an advanced stage over negotiations about letting, however they still had a way to go. If it works it would be wonderful as the surgery at the Concourse was not up to modern standards.
The Chair, Brian Cummings said he wanted to consider an urgent request in respect of whistleblowing from Mr. Martin Morton.
Cllr Pat Williams declared a prejudicial interest in this matter as Mr. Martin Morton had made a complaint about her.
Cllr Denise Roberts declared a prejudicial interest in this matter as Mr. Martin Morton had made a complaint about her.
Cllr John Salter declared a prejudicial interest by virtue of being on the Initial Assessment Panel.
Cllr Gerry Ellis asked Surjit Tour a question which was answered.
Cllr Pat Williams, Cllr Denise Roberts and Cllr John Salter having declared a prejudicial interest in this matter left the room.
Cllr Dave Mitchell asked for clarification as he had been involved in a call-in.
Surjit Tour said there were no further conflicts of interest.
The Chair, Brian Cummings said something about it being “before his time”.
Surjit Tour said the letter regarding the standards matter and whether it should be urgent business had only been sent to the Chair [Brian Cummings]. There were issues involved. He suggested they consider representations this evening and make a decision. Surjit Tour said the complaint had been addressed and gone through true process. The level of detail, would require sufficient time for representations however there was not time limitation and would be more appropriate by the next meeting when the full range of issues could be discussed.
Deputy Mayor Cllr Gerry Ellis asked if it was the same letter from a West Kirby resident?
Cllr Les Rowlands said in his opinion it should be on the next committee’s agenda, it was not right to digest it all and make decisions.
Cllr John Salter said he would disagree for the first time [with the Deputy Mayor Cllr Gerry Ellis], he called regularly and calls were answered within three to four seconds. He though they were always excellent, but his local library was a bit untidy.
Cllr Dave Mitchell said that his local library was brilliant.
Cllr John Salter said he had a passport.
Cllr Bob Wilkins asked a question about mystery shoppers.
Malcolm Flanagan said their queries could not be person specific and they couldn’t make up a hole in the road. They were testing to see if they knew the information or were looking at the information. The mystery shoppers had the information in front of them.
Cllr Chris Blakeley said he agreed with [Cllr] John [Salter] and [Deputy Mayor Cllr] Gerry [Ellis] that it was a mixed bag. Streetscene three weeks ago had answered within three minutes. He said he thought it was a good service 90% of the time and bad service 10% of the time.
Stella Elliott asked about accessibility about disability, how was this evidenced?
Malcolm Flanagan said there was a minimum standard but it keeps being raised. They figured out which was worst and spoke to Asset Management. The One Stop Shops and libraries in some cases required minor adjustments. However the age of the buildings was a problem. He said all were at a minimum standard.
Cllr Pat Williams said it would be good to have more information.
The Chair Brian Cummings said the report was noted.
The Chair, Brian Cummings moved to the item entitled Mystery Shopping.
Malcolm Flanagan said that at the last meeting on the 4th July, committee members had asked for details on Mystery Shopping which had been done on the call centre, One Stop Shops and libraries. He said they don’t ask specific questions, but make up a case. There were a number of criteria which included the quality of responses. It was good to see things from the customer’s perspective especially the physical aspects. He went into the grades given to each service area. There had been some environmental concerns, signage and study areas. These would be added to the work program. Using the option of their own staff was cheaper rather than a commercial organisation.
The Chair, Brian Cummings asked if there were any questions and then asked what the concerns about libraries were.
Malcolm replied by saying they were aiming for greater linkage between the One Stop Shops and libraries. The concerns were around disabled access and signage.
Deputy Mayor Cllr Gerry Ellis said they needed more detailed figures and that it was meaningless and hard to understand. How could they call the call centres excellent when there were complaints from his residents about hanging on? Who’s wrong?
Malcolm said the good or excellent was assessed when they got through.
Deputy Mayor Cllr Gerry Ellis said that waiting doesn’t affect the excellence.
Malcolm said they do keep records of the number of people who give up. This was reported to the Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Cllr Chris Blakeley said the summary tells its own story and the “deploring way” in which there’d been delays, costs which he said “absolutely appalls me”. He said they don’t know the date of a complaint. A second complaint had taken twelve months, another had taken ten months, a third had taken sixteen months. He said a complaint submitted on the 4th November had been dealt with at an Initial Assessment Panel on the 25th January, which was 11 weeks! He asked why. Another had taken 12 months with a £6000 cost. He said another complaint made on the 30th March had gone to an IAP on the 29th July taking 4 months, with no final hearing date which he considered “unbelievable”.
He referred to another complaint with an Initial Assessment Panel of the 8th October. Cllr Blakeley said from the date of complaint this was 10 months, followed by another Initial Assessment Panel 12 months later. He said there was an Initial Assessment Panel on the 25th August and that there had been a “litany of failure”, an “absolute litany of failure” by the “Head of Law” [Bill Norman].
The Chair, Brian Cummings said that the figures speak for themselves and the cost and timetable was alarming.
Cllr Gerry Ellis said he was going to say the same thing, it was “staggering”. He wanted an explanation and asked “why”?
The Chair, Brian Cummings pointed out at 3.2 there was a recommendation for proper timescales and a monitoring regime.
Cllr Chris Blakeley said the “time for explanations and excuses was over”.
Yesterday evening the new Mayor was “installed”, in front of about two hundred and fifty people in the Civic Hall at Wallasey Town Hall. The annual meeting which decides the Mayor is always well attended as Wirral Council send out invites.
I took some photos (which unfortunately were rather blurred, I must start using a tripod) and video, the first half hour of which is below. Unfortunately I didn’t press the record button hard enough so I missed the first few minutes of Alan Jenning’s speech and the pun about filling up at a petrol station is lost. It is in low quality, as I didn’t know how long it’d last and am limited by battery life and memory card capacity. The rest of the footage is in HD (Mayor McLaughlin’s speech in two parts, the prayer of the chaplain and the installation of Cllr Ellis as Deputy Mayor). Sound quality is a little bad, but speakers such as Cllr Green could hardly be heard from the back row. There is a backup audio track recorded seperately on which the sound may be better quality.
Humour is subjective, but I found Alan Jenning’s jokes better than the ones attempted by others who made speeches.
Wirral’s Young Poet Laureate also read out a poem, Cllr Moira McLaughlin was made Mayor, Cllr Gerry Ellis was made Deputy Mayor. Strangely (as they haven’t done it at previous meetings where they install the Mayor) the three party leaders were appointed to the Merseyside Police Authority Appointments Committee (probably because it meets on the 27th so they need to send agendas out soon). After the annual council meeting was adjourned there was a light buffet and drinks for guests.
The whole thing had the formality of a wedding.
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