Tag Archives: Bill Norman

by

Labour ban filming at public meeting of Wirral Council’s Pensions Committee


In extraordinary scenes tonight, Labour councillors at Wirral Council (where else?) chose to ban filming during a public meeting of the Pension Committee. The Pension Committee has eleven Wirral Council councillors on it, along with a councillor from each other Merseyside local authority and a trade union representative. Wirral Council are the administering authority for the £4.7 billion Merseyside Pension Fund, which at its last valuation had a £1.3 billion deficit. Quite what are the real reasons behind this move we’re not entirely sure, although it makes the public wonder what they’ve got to hide (agenda and reports on Wirral Council’s website here)?

I quote from this letter from their previous Director of Law, Bill Norman dated 22nd July 2011 “Finally, I can confirm that, since Monday 28 February 2011, blogging, Tweeting and the use of video cameras have all been permitted during meetings of the Council. Indeed, a number of people were using some of these technologies in the meeting on 1 March. Wirral Council was the first local authority in Merseyside to respond to the request by the Government to take this step to allow greater public scrutiny of meetings and decisions.”

The below was also agreed as Wirral Council policy (agreed unanimously on 12th December 2011),

(2) Reaffirms its commitment, made last year by the previous Conservative Liberal Democrat administration, to ensure that any member of the public who wishes to film or broadcast from a public Council meeting is encouraged to do so.

However since taking over in May, some Labour councillors seem determined to make decisions that ride roughshod over agreed policy or decisions they don’t agree with (such as the Budget for 2012/2013 agreed by the former Conservative/Lib Dem administration). Certainly the last time the former Chair of the Planning Committee, Cllr David Elderton tried this just over a year ago, there was a U-turn within a few days.

It’ll be interesting to see (pun intended) what happens next.

About these ads
by

Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (21st September 2012) (Wirral Council)


Investigation and Disciplinary Committee
Date: 21st September 2012
Time: 9.30pm

Committee Room 3

Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (6/7 present)

Cllr Ann McLachlan, (Chair), Labour
Cllr Adrian Jones, Labour
Cllr Ann McArdle, Labour
Cllr Leslie Rennie, Conservative
Cllr Mike Hornby, Conservative
Cllr Dave Mitchell, Liberal Democrat

Wirral Council Officers
Surjit Tour, Acting Head of Law, HR and Asset Management
Shirley Hudspeth, Committee Services Officer
Chris Hyams, Head of HR & Organisational Development
Tony Williams, Acting Employee Relations Manager
David Armstrong, Deputy Chief Executive?
Unknown officer (male)

In attendance
Cllr Paul Doughty, Labour, Chair of Employment and Appointments Committee
Two members of the public (John Brace, Leonora Brace) (items 1 to 3)

The Chair, Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour) apologised for starting the meeting late.

1. Declarations of Interest

The Chair, Cllr Ann McLachlan Labour asked for any declarations of interest. None of the six councillors (including the Chair, Cllr McLachlan Labour) made any declarations of interest.

2. Minutes of the meeting held on the 20th August 2012

The minutes of the Investigation & Disciplinary Committee on the 20th August 2012 had been published on Wirral Council’s website.

The Chair, Cllr Ann McLachlan asked if the minutes were agreed?

Cllr Leslie Rennie disputed the minutes and stated they were missing that she had said at the last meeting that she wanted it minuted that she wanted Richard Penn to be invited to the meeting.

"Richard

She pointed out that this was missing from the minutes.

The Chair, Cllr Ann McLachlan said it was fine as Mr. Penn was “in the building” [see above photo of Richard Penn waiting in lobby, Ground Floor, during agenda item 4 (not the room the meeting was being held in)]. She thanked Cllr Leslie Rennie for pointing this out. There were no more comments on the minutes of the meeting held on the 20th August 2012, so the Chair moved the meeting onto agenda item 3.

3. Exclusion of the Press and Public

The Chair expressed her opinion that the press and public should be excluded from the meeting for agenda item 4. She expected the two members of the public to leave, however a member of the public waited for the Committee to agree with this opinion. The reason she gave was that it related to “staff”.

The two members of the public left.

4.  Statutory Officers Preliminary Investigation – Preliminary Report/Report from the Independent Investigator

The Committee received the reports from Chris Hyams (Proper Officer), Tony Williams (Acting Employee Relations Manager) and Richard Penn (Independent Investigator).

Only Chris Hyams and Tony Williams were present at the start of this item.

The reports were about the suspensions of Bill Norman, Ian Coleman and David Taylor-Smith, following the decision made at the Investigation and Disciplinary Committee meeting of the 20th August 2012 (agenda item 4).

Decision:

David Green (Director of Technical Services): Unknown outcome
David Taylor-Smith (Deputy Director of Finance): Unknown outcome

Ian Coleman (Acting Chief Executive):
Outcome: request made to Employment and Appointments Committee (3/10/2012) for Early Voluntary Retirement (£82,528.50) effective from 5th October 2012.

Bill Norman (Director of Law, HR and Asset Management): “no case to answer”
Outcome:  ”no case to answer” “no further advice appropriate”
Compromise Contract (£155,416) (agreed by Employment and Appointments Subcommittee (Compromise Contracts) of 20th September 2012. Made redundant as of 30th September 2012. 

by

Investigation and Disciplinary Committee | 20th August 2012 | Item 1 – Appointment of Chair | Item 2 – Declarations of Interest | Item 3 – Exempt Information – Exclusion of the Press and Public | Agenda Item 4 – Update in Relation to the Suspension of Council Officers


Investigation and Disciplinary Committee
Date: 20th August 2012
Time: 4.00pm

Committee Room 2

Investigation and Disciplinary Committee minutes (20th August 2012) (approved 21st September 2012)
Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (20/8/2012) Agenda

Present

Councillors (7/7)
Cllr Dave Mitchell Liberal Democrat
Cllr Adrian Jones Labour
Cllr Lesley Rennie Conservative
Cllr Mike Hornby Conservative
Cllr Ann McLachlan Labour
Cllr Brian Kenny Labour
Cllr Anne McArdle Labour

Wirral Council Officers
Shirley Hudspeth (Committee Services Officer)
Chris Hyams, Human Resources (Head)
Tony Williams, Human Resources (Acting Employee Relations Manager)
Surjit Tour, Acting Head of Law, Human Resources and Asset Management
David Armstrong
Unknown female
Unknown male

Also
Items 1-3 Two members of the press/public

The agenda for this meeting can be found here.

Agenda Item 1 – Appointment of Chair

Cllr Brian Kenny and Cllr Adrian Jones proposed Cllr Ann McLachlan as Chair.
There were no other nominations so Cllr McLachlan was made Chair.

Cllr Dave Mitchell proposed Cllr Adrian Jones as Vice-Chair, however it wasn’t seconded. There was a second valid nomination as Vice-Chair so Cllr Brian Kenny was made Vice-Chair.

Agenda Item 2 – Members’ Code of Conduct – Declarations of Interest
Councillors present made no declarations of interest.

Agenda Item 3 – Exempt Information – Exclusion of the Press and Public

The Chair suggested that the public and press were excluded from the rest of the meeting for agenda item 4 (Update in Relation to the Suspension of Council Officers) (reason given – Information relating to any individual and agenda item 5 (Any Other Urgent Business Approved by the Chair) (although there was no AOB).

Agenda Item 4 – Update in Relation to the Suspension of Council Officers

The Investigation and Disciplinary Committee received an update in a 16-page preliminary investigation report about the matters that led to the suspensions of Bill Norman, Ian Coleman and David Taylor-Smith (but also relate in part to the earlier suspension of David Green).

It related in part to:-

1) This public interest report published by the Audit Commission on 8th June 2012 entitled Highways and engineering services contract award and management.

2) The Council’s policies on senior officers declaring interests and whether these had been followed.

3) Various other matters relating to the above four suspended individuals.

The following resolution was then agreed,

“(1) the progress being made in respect of the preliminary investigation be noted; and

(2) the way forward in relation to the three Statutory Officers, as outlined in paragraph 5.6 of the report, be agreed.”

Agenda Item 5 Any Other Business 
It has been confirmed by Wirral Council that there were no items of Any Other Business agreed by the Chair tabled at the meeting.

Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (Wirral Council) Photo 1

Left (L to R): Unknown officer (male), Shirley Hudspeth (officer)

Right (Left to Right)
Cllr Dave Mitchell (Lab)
Cllr Adrian Jones (Lab)
Cllr Brian Kenny (Lab)
Cllr Ann McLachlan (Lab)
Cllr Mike Hornby (Con)
Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (Wirral Council) Photo 2

Left: Shirley Hudspeth

Right Foreground
L to R Cllr Mike Hornby (Con), Cllr Lesley Rennie (Con)

Right Background
Cllr Dave Mitchell (Lib Dem), Cllr Adrian Jones (Labour)
Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (Wirral Council) Photo 3

Background: Shirley Hudspeth

Foreground: Left to Right
Tony Williams (Officer), HR
Unknown Officer? (female)
Chris Hyams (Officer), HR
Unknown Officer? (male)

by

Wirral Council Recruiting Solicitors


 

Wirral Council are recruiting a Senior Solicitor (Child/Adult Social Care), Senior Solicitor (Litigation/Governance) and Solicitor Child Care – Wallasey Town Hall.

Part of the reason I’d guess that Wirral Council is recruiting the Senior Solicitor (Litigation/Governance) is because the current Head of Legal and Member Services, Shirley Hudspeth isn’t a practising solicitor or barrister. When Wirral Council concentrates on internal promotions to fill posts, this is why you end up with anomalies like the Head of Legal and Member Services not being a practising solicitor or barrister.

Certainly there seems to be a cultural drive away from the past (subcontracting for external legal advice) to dealing with legal matters in-house. Bill Norman, Head of Law, HR & Asset Management did make the point in public meetings that he wanted more solicitors in house at Wirral Council (well just before he had to leave the room as the Tory councillors tried unsuccessfully to remove him as Monitoring Officer). It certainly would’ve led to a saving to the taxpayer as Wirral Council was at the time spending £millions/year in external legal advice. Yet for whatever reason the politicians at the time wouldn’t authorise the creation of the new posts required as corporate governance issues at Wirral Council weren’t once seen as the priority they are now.

Certainly some councillors prefer to rely on in house advisers employed by Wirral Council rather than have to spend months putting out a contract to tender before external adviser/s are agreed and appointed (and the delays can cause increased costs).

 

by

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.

by

Wirral Council’s DASS: “The Airing of Grievances (Part 2)” Appeals SubCommittee 3/7/2012


I notice the delayed grievance appeal from the 5th March 2012 (adjourned for a whopping 17 weeks (119 days) is going ahead tomorrow afternoon (as I write this on the 2nd July 2012).

It seems there is a delayed grievance appeal from a Mr/Miss/Mrs/Ms Firstname Lastname of Wirral Council’s Department of Adult Social Services. Representing the historically dysfunctional Department of Adult Social Services at the March meeting was none other than Employee 19 of the AKA report, dramatic drum roll Mr. Richard O’Brien.

No, it’s not the famous Richard O’Brien who used to present the Crystal Maze on Channel 4 in the 90s, and yes I invite you in the comments to state the similarities between Wirral Council and The Crystal Maze, but a guy that goes by the shorter moniker of Rick O’Brien. Who’s Rick you may ask? He is the Head of Branch, Personal Assessment and Planning (whatever that is!?).

Basically he lines managers the managers (that manage the social work teams) for Wallasey, Birkenhead, West Wirral etc… so it must be to do with an employee in that branch of DASS (which doesn’t narrow it down much!)

Brenda Hall is representing the other side, as she’s a branch negotiator for Wirral Council’s UNISON.

Getting out my handy “Who’s Who at DASS”, I find Rick O’Brien’s email address is richardobrien@wirral.gov.uk, which is interesting as Rick O’Brien (as reported as an exclusive on this blog last year) was one of the people who Bill Norman emailed on the 12th December 2011 about not publishing AK’s preliminary draft report.

Wasn’t he the same Rick O’Brien getting criticism in the comments section of the Wirral Globe and mentioned by name in a response to a FOI request involving four week delays in care packages?

Oh and also mentioned in this Wirral Leaks post about the Commissioning conference in London?

Hmm, well he certainly manages to get himself mentioned a lot (and it seems sometimes for all the wrong reasons)! But then it seems, a Pete Sheffield is just met with stony silence over a FOI request for Rick O’Brien’s job description.

But if memory serves correct he was also “Employee 19” in the now infamous “Anna Klonowski Associates Ltd (AKA) Independent Review of the Council’s Response to Claims Made by Martin Morton (and Others)”.

Ahh yes, that Rick. Oh well, apart from my frivolous uses of the <A HREF></a> tags, it’s nice to see there are still people at DASS with grievances to air. I had high hopes for the new Director of DASS, Graham Hodkinson, but it seems that he’s inherited a lot of problems from his predecessor in the role, Howard Cooper. How long will it before the public and employees again trust Social Services/Wirral Council to do the right thing and have a bit more accountability?

I feel at times writing about Wirral Council that it would be so much easier if getting information out of it wasn’t about as painful as pulling teeth, but it’s getting late so I will bring this to a close.

by

Employment and Appointments Committee 22/3/2012 Wirral Council


As it was a short meeting I’ve already uploaded it to Youtube. It’s in two parts, part 1 (the first twelve minutes) and part 2 (the last eight minutes), which are also below.

The agenda and reports can be found on Wirral Council’s website except at the time of writing this, the AOB item entitled “Proposed Change to Senior Management Position”. It’s four pages which I’ve scanned in, Page 1, Page 2, Page 3 and Page 4.

The result of these changes will be that:-

(a) David Armstrong is appointed Acting Deputy Chief Executive,
(b) Surjit Tour becomes Deputy Monitoring Officer and stops being Scrutiny Officer (Head of Legal and Member Services) and
(c) Shirley Hudspeth, Democratic Services Manager stops being Democratic Services Manager and becomes Scrutiny Officer (Head of Legal and Member Services).

The Committee agreed to recommend (a) and (c) to Council and noted (b).

Items 5 (Chief Executives Office) and 7 (Department of Regeneration, Housing and Planning: Senior Management Structure) were deferred to a future meeting.

by

Budget night at Wirral Council & Off licence application for 46 Hoylake Road, Bidston turned down


Well tonight councillors at Wallasey Town Hall meet to decide among other things Wirral Council’s Budget for 2012-2013.

So far we have had the surprise Labour Budget at its last Cabinet meeting on the 13th February, which was then rescinded by the new Conservative/Lib Dem Cabinet on the 21st February.

Labour councillors then “called-in” the decision by the Conservative/Lib Dem Cabinet of the 21st February to rescind their earlier Labour Budget recommendation to Council and the Budget procedure chosen by the Conservative/Lib Dem Cabinet. This call-in was decided at the Council Excellence meeting on Tuesday 28th February. This call-in failed mainly because Bill Norman said that Cabinet recommendations to Council from Cabinet weren’t subject to call-in as in his view it wasn’t an Executive decision, just a recommendation so Labour have tabled an amendment to the Budget procedure tonight.

Confused yet?

However in more local news the Licensing Act 2003 subcommittee of Cllr Steve Niblock, Cllr Mike Hornby and Cllr Don McCubbin decided yesterday to turn down an application for an off-licence at 46 Hoylake Road. The reasons given were the objections of Merseyside Police (both Sgt Jenkins and Inspector McGregor were against it as they thought it would lead to increased crime and disorder).

The committee also had serious concerns about the integrity of the person who’d made the application for the licence and his alleged association with criminal activities. Trading Standards also spoke during the meeting about how they had seized counterfeit goods from the person applying for a premises licence.

The Subcommittee also felt the person applying displayed no understanding of the licensing objectives, despite previous involvement with other licensed premises, one of which had had its licence revoked due to violent crime. The issue of under age sales was also given as a reason by the subcommittee.

If you’d like to come to the Budget meeting tonight (1st March) it starts at 6.15pm in the Council Chamber at Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Wallasey, Wirral, CH44 8ED .

by

A series of popular Youtube videos of adjourned meetings at Wirral Council.


First we have the ever popular Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting of the 6th February 2012 which was (after recording stopped due to running out of tape adjourned). Now with subtitles it has been viewed (at the time of writing) 228 times, has been embedded in an article on Wirral Leaks and a blog post here.

The Chair herself of the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Patricia Glasman even talked to me about it on the 13th February 2012! After she’d talked to me I realised I needed to put subtitles on it.

Now with subtitles, this video has been viewed by many viewers in the UK and a viewer from Finland who watched it twice! Speakers in it are Cllr Patricia Glasman, Cllr Cherry Povall, Cllr Simon R Mountney and Bill Norman.

Secondly another adjourned meeting on the same subject (although this time the entire meeting and not just a segment). This one is the Council meeting from Monday 13th February, again on the AKA report.

The Council meeting from Monday 13th February is adjourned to Monday 20th February at 7pm.
The Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee from Monday 6th February is adjourned to (date unknown to be decided by Chair and spokespersons).