“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 was treated, despite the fact these are two separate 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 for England.”

As is detailed here it was considered twice by the Standards Board for England, as initially the complaint about Cllr Bridson hadn’t been sent to them. The complaint (or complaints as a second was submitted) were made by Martin Morton and had already been reported in the Wirral Globe under the headline Town hall blunder: Wrong paperwork sent to local government watchdog inquiry prior to Simon’s complaint about me.

The decision notice of Standards Board for England with regards to Cllr Williams and Cllr Bridson back me up as to what the complaint was about. As it was re referred back to Standards for England following the paperwork mixup, there are earlier decision notices regarding Cllr Williams, Roberts and McLaughlin too.

Present
Cllr Harry Smith
Cllr Don McCubbin
Cllr Denise Roberts
Cllr Bill Davies (Chair)
Cllr Steve Niblock
Cllr Andrew Hodson
Cllr George Davies
Cllr Pat Williams
Other councillors

The Chair, Cllr Bill Davies asked councillors present to introduce themselves. The following councillors did, Cllr Andrew Hodson, Cllr Don McCubbin, Cllr Mike Hornby, Cllr Harry Smith, Cllr Robert Gregson, Cllr ??? (Labour), Cllr Steve Niblock, Cllr Dave Mitchell, Cllr George Davies and Cllr Pat Williams.

The officers introduced themselves as Ken Abraham, Anne Beauchamp and Margaret O’Donnell.

The Chair asked for declarations of interest. No declarations of interest were made.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 25th May 2011 were agreed.

Cllr Denise Roberts proposed, seconded by another Labour councillor that Cllr Steve Niblock be Vice-Chair. There were no other nominations so Cllr Niblock became Vice-Chair.

Apologies were given for Cllr John Salter who couldn’t make it due to a prior engagement.

The Chair asked if a half hour presentation was ok? He thanked people for the hard work at last year’s hearings, some of which had lasted over three hours. He said he was keen that the two new members of the committee take part in training, which he hoped all the committee would take part because of changes to the legislation.

Margaret O’Donnell had a Powerpoint presentation to show the Committee. She didn’t know how to start a slide show in Powerpoint, received some prompting from the Vice-Chair and somebody else assisted her and was then able to progress to the next slide. Cllr Harry Smith said that the Vice-Chair was showing off.

She went into detail about representations, changes happening as a result of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 and how representations by ward councillors had changed. She detailed what the four licensing objectives are and how representations had to be linked to one or more of these. Margaret O’Donnell also referred to the statutory guidance and Wirral Council’s licensing policy.

The Chair asked if they all had a copy? Margaret offered to put one in their pigeon holes. Cllr Williams asked if it had changed. Margaret O’Donnell answered yes. She said previously they had to review the Council’s policy every three years, now it was five, she would review it and bring a draft to the committee for consultation. Once it had been consulted on, it required the approval of the full Council, so she would start reviewing and redrafting it.

A councillor asked when? She said she was not certain as they did not meet until November and there were further legislative changes in October, plus things could change before then.

Ian Coleman is Deputy Chief Executive/Acting Chief Executive in Jim’s absence/Director of Finance.
David Taylor-Smith is Acting Chief Finance Officer while Ian Coleman is Acting Chief Executive.
Tom Sault is Acting Deputy Chief Finance Officer while Ian Coleman is Acting Chief Executive.

The committee places and outside body places have been carved up between the three parties in the proportion of seats they hold. The representation on many outside bodies, which mean councillors from Wirral Council receive greater allowances (Merseytravel, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority and Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority) now are just made up of Labour and Conservative councillors.

He announced the following Cabinet portfolios:

Improvement and Governance/ Deputy Leader Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour)
Public Health & Social Care Cllr Anne McArdle (Labour)
Housing and Community Safety Cllr George Davies (Labour)
Children Services and Lifelong Learning Cllr Tony Smith (Labour)
Corporate Resources Cllr Adrian Jones (Labour)
Environment Cllr Brian Kenny (Labour)
Culture, Tourism & Leisure Cllr Chris Meaden (Labour)
Regeneration Cllr Pat Hackett (Labour)
Streetscene and Transport Cllr Harry Smith (Labour)

There won’t be a Community and Customer Engagement Cabinet position.

The committee places and representation on outside bodies was also agreed. I’ll blog about the details day after tomorrow.

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

At Arrowe Park Hospital I was taken to Accident & Emergency where I was seen to, sent to X-ray, sent back, got twelve stitches on my head and a plaster cast, then admitted to ward 11 for an operation.

Sadly an operation couldn’t be arranged for Thursday, due to various reasons one of which being other patients with a higher clinical priority.

I was given a provisional date of 12th May 2012 (Saturday), however this:-

a) could be changed and

b) was provisional on the hospital having a spare bed on Saturday

So, I discharged myself on Thursday morning and returned by arrangement as a day case on Saturday morning. After three other people had had their operation in the morning, I was operated on under general anaesthetic, then taken back to ward 11 about 1.30pm.

After the required time and tests I was then discharged early evening. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the doctors, nurses especially the ever patient nurse Julie on Ward 11 and medical students from the University of Liverpool involved with my care. I thought I recognised at least one of the 5th year medical students from my time at UoL.

I’d also like to thank my wife too for her care, as I realise it’s a lot of upheaval for her and being a former NHS employee she had a few differences of opinion with the staff at the hospital.

She did get asked to leave by the staff on a number of occasions, but I wanted her there, and to be honest, on each time this happened (except once) they weren’t justified in asking her to leave and the problems were caused by factors outside our control, such as the strike on Thursday causing the staff to be stressed, poor communication between some of those involved in my care (and with her) and the fact that I didn’t repeat to her everything told to me by the staff when she was only a few feet away and other things. Certainly some staff aren’t fully aware of current hospital policies and internal communication within the hospital (between staff) could be improved, which would lead to increased efficiencies and shorter patient stays (and less cost to the taxpayer).

Sadly the day I had my accident many hospital staff were on strike. The main service affected during my stay on Thursday was the hospital porters. This job was done by managers, who weren’t as familiar with the role (or layout of the hospital) as the porters are. Things ran more smoothly on the Saturday when they were not on strike.

During my stay on Thursday and Saturday there were some minor errors made by staff, most of which were sorted out, but considering the disruption and stress caused due to the strike some of this was understandable on the Thursday. The hospital ran much more smoothly when the staff weren’t on strike.

However I cannot type or write effectively with my right arm in plaster and it’ll be a while before I’m back to 100%.

Casework brought to my attention during the election will take longer and I will be doing the election expenses return later than planned and relying on my agent to do most of it.

If you do email me it may take me longer to reply than normal and updates to this blog will be less frequent until I am fully recovered.

This is a former public house called “Grand Trunk Hotel” on the corner of Duke Street and Old Bidston Road, which was sold last year for £42,000. Wirral Churches’ Ark Project’s proposal is to change its use to six bedsits on the first and second floor with offices on the ground floor. A qualifying petition of signatures from sixty different addresses has been submitted against it.

The committee report on it can be read here.

It’s starting at Tam O’Shanter Urban Farm and will be all day and will include the RIGS Geodiversity trail. There’s no need to book and it’s free. For further details phone 0151 653 9332 or email tamoshan@wirral.gov.uk .

Application No.: APP/11/00650 Application Type: Full Planning Permission
Decision Level: Delegated
Ward: Bidston and St James
Decision Date: 05/04/2012 Decision: Approve
Case Officer: Mr M Rushton
Applicant: Agent: Higham & Co
Location: Halfords, BIDSTON MOSS, LEASOWE, CH44 2HE
Proposal: Elevational alterations to existing retail unit including recladding and new entrance features.

Application No.: APP/11/00704 Application Type: Full Planning Permission
Decision Level: Delegated
Ward: Bidston and St James
Decision Date: 05/04/2012 Decision: Approve
Case Officer: Mr M Rushton
Applicant: Agent: Higham & Co
Location: Junction 1 Retail Park, Bidston Moss, Leasowe, CH44 2HE
Proposal: Reconfiguration and refurbishment of existing non-food retail unit including partial demolition, construction of extension and external alterations including recladding and new entrance features together with new car parking spaces.

Application No.: APP/12/00089 Application Type: Full Planning Permission
Decision Level: Delegated
Ward: Bidston and St James
Decision Date: 22/03/2012 Decision: Approve
Case Officer: Mr M Rushton
Applicant: Agent: Paddock Johnson Partnership
Location: Vittoria Court, BECKWITH STREET, BIRKENHEAD
Proposal: Proposed two storey side extension, entrance & internal alterations to update existing residential accommodations to current decency standards and to provide additional office accommodation for disaster & recovery suite and training facilities.