Council (Extraordinary) (Wirral Council) 30th April 2013 | Revisions to the Constitution | Cllr John Hale “these proposals should be consigned to the dustbin where they belong”
Cllr Hale thanked Cllr Tom Harney for his kind remarks. He referred to the Chief Executive’s report to Cabinet of the 18th April, page 46 (page 8 on the file that’s linked to) and quoted from 5.3 “The views of the Democracy Working Party which has met on a number of occasions have helped inform these proposals.”
He considered it to be misleading as it could be read that there was general support for the proposals, in fact a majority of the Democracy Working Party were opposed to the proposals. The Democracy Working Party had only met on five or six occasions for one and a half hours at a time, although it did overrun by ten minutes at its last meeting. Cllr Hale said that this was to review a constitution of one hundred and ninety-nine pages. He said, “I don’t believe this to be anything else except a cynical exercise carried out in order to claim full cross-party consideration and consultation when nothing could be further from the truth.”
Cllr Hale said the result would be to give greater power to Cabinet and the Chief Officers. Fourteen months ago over 70% of councillors voted for a return to the committee system. He said even if they assumed that the new councillors were against a return to the committee system that there would still be a majority in favour of it. Cllr Hale said that this had been the result of a secret ballot.
He said democracy was best served when all parties in proportion to their numbers were represented in the decision making process at all levels of the Council. Cllr Hale referred to the freedom that overview and scrutiny committees have and that no new powers were given to them, just their names were changed.
Cllr Hale said the coordinating committee would have ample opportunity to interfere with and constrain the overview and scrutiny committees. He felt the changes to the Council meeting procedures would reduce the time for opposition councillors whilst increasing the time for the majority party councillors. Cllr Hale said “any third world dictator would be proud” and that “these proposals should be consigned to the dustbin where they belong”.
Council (Extraordinary) (Wirral Council) 30th April 2013 | Revisions to the Constitution | Cllr Blakeley “Where will it end, what next? Will Wirral be twinned with Pyongyang?”
The Mayor thanked Cllr Harney, he asked councillors to keep their speeches to three minutes so that everyone who wanted to could have a say.
Cllr Blakeley said he would stick to three minutes. He said that twelve years ago when the Cabinet form of local government had been started, there was a select committee for each portfolio. This was so there would be no overlap and Cabinet Members were invited along to be asked questions, he said “everything seemed to work ok”.
These were deemed to be “too unwieldy” and “taking too much of officer’s time” so they were reduced to six, although there were some overlapping responsibilities it “was in the main manageable and workable”. Now they [the Labour administration] wanted to cut six committees to three, which Cllr Blakeley regarded as “extremely dangerous”. Cllr Blakeley referred to the Children and Young Peoples Overview and Scrutiny Committee and high-profile cases that had happened in other Boroughs such as Victoria Climbié and Baby P.
He asked them not to forget the overcharging of vulnerable adults on Wirral. He said the new committee would have to “scrutinise these two vast departments”. Cllr Blakeley said, “This is typical of Labour’s control freak dictatorial ‘We know what’s best’ capacity”.
He said that Area Forums made a difference by “giving local people a real opportunity to have a say”, “yet here we have Labour wanting to grab power back to the centre” and that the new constituency committees would be given a “token amount of funding” far less than the funding to the Area Forums they replaced. Cllr Blakeley said it was a “failure to understand what people of this Borough want”.
On the changes to Council meeting procedures, he said if it went through it would “effectively gag councillors from debate in the Council Chamber and put even greater power in Labour’s hands”. Cllr Blakeley said, “Sadly tonight Mr. Mayor, we are witnessing the destruction of the last vestiges of democracy in Wirral and the residents of this Borough will be ruled by a controlling, tyrannical Labour Group”.
He referred to the refusal of the £1.3 million Council Tax Freeze Grant, increases to car parking charges, the brown bin charges and asked “Where will it end, what next? Will Wirral be twinned with Pyongyang?”
Present:
Cllr Phil Davies
Cllr Brian Kenny
Cllr Ann McLachlan
Cllr Chris Meaden
Cllr Chris Jones
Cllr Pat Hackett
Cllr Tony Smith
Cllr George Davies
Cllr Adrian Jones
The Chair (Cllr Phil Davies) welcomed people to the special meeting of Cabinet and asked for any declarations of interest. No declarations of interest were made, but apologies were given for Cllr Harry Smith by Cllr Chris Meaden.
The Chair said he would ask the Cabinet Member for Improvement and Governance to talk to this report (on revisions to Wirral Council’s constitution) after he said a few words himself. He thanked Stephen Gerrard for his work on the report.
Cllr Davies said the changes to the Council’s Constitution were “a key issue with the Improvement Board”, a “key action area in the Improvement Plan” and “an issue the Corporate Peer Challenge raised with us last Autumn”.
He continued by saying, “I want to stress at the outset that the Administration intend to continue to operate the Cabinet and Leader model, that’s very clear. We are not persuaded that it is time to depart from that model and we’re certainly not persuaded to go back to the old Committee system and I know that’s an issue of contention with the Opposition, but I want to make it absolutely crystal clear that that is the Administration’s position for the avoidance of doubt and I do personally believe that the Cabinet and Leader model is the best model for us at present and actually will enable us to work in the most efficient and effective way in which we make decisions. So I think it’s important to put that on record.”
He talked about the aims behind the changes and how their “big hope is the new arrangements will lead to greater engagement by local residents”. Cllr Davies said the new procedure for Council meetings was “designed to focus on things we are actually responsible for rather than things we’re not responsible for” and “we need to move away from the kind of too often I think all of us have been guilty about engaging in the kind of Punch and Judy aspect of debating the issues in the Council Chamber”.
Wirral Council: Trade Unions Agree to Labour Cabinet’s Decision to Change Severance Scheme
Wirral Council’s Cabinet decided to reject Chief Executive Graham Burgess’ advice that Wirral Council’s severance scheme should be reduced to the minimum required by law. Councillors opted instead for a multiplier of 1.8 (uncapped) compared to the previous scheme’s multiplier of 2.2 (reports for this agenda item).
A trade union representative gave councillors credit for not going for the statutory scheme. He said the enhanced scheme would help to bring forward volunteers for redundancy. Joe Taylor that had the Cabinet followed the advice to move to just fulfilling their legal requirements then they would’ve balloted their members for strike action.
Prior to the Cabinet (which was rearranged from Committee Room 1 to the Civic Hall) there was a union protest outside the Town Hall and many of the hundreds of people stayed on for the meeting itself which lasted about an hour. When the Cabinet Members arrived they were booed.
No Cabinet Members declared any interests. The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed and Cllr Phil Davies asked the Interim Chief Executive Graham Burgess to talk about the proposals on the Council’s Budget from 2013 to 2016. Graham Burgess spoke for about five minutes about the issues.
Joe Taylor (the branch secretary of the local Wirral UNISON branch) then was asked to speak to the meeting. Before Mr. Taylor had even sat down, he received loud applause as well as whistling and cheering which continued even after he sat down. He started off by thanking Cllr Phil Davies for the opportunity to make a number of points. He said he would try to keep within the five minutes but not to hold him to that (he actually ended up speaking for eleven minutes).
He said after the Cabinet meeting of the 8th November the Labour Group had agreed to extend the consultation on the terms and conditions [of employment] which was welcomed, however he made it clear that UNISON was against any reduction in pay as a result of changed terms and conditions. He said it had been rumoured that the unions had agreed some savings, but that no savings had been agreed between the trade unions and Wirral Council.
Mr. Taylor said that during the ninety day consultation period they would work with the Authority [Wirral Council] to find alternatives. He said that they also welcomed the extension of the consultation on the voluntary redundancy scheme. He said that if Wirral Council did go for compulsory redundancies that UNISON and UNITE would ballot their members.
Joe Taylor then referred to the proposed senior management restructure and the budget consultation. He said they’d asked a national union officer to come down from London on the 16th January 2013 to go through the books so that the unions could come up with alternatives.
He said there should be no compulsory redundancies, but he said that the officer’s proposed savings “devastate services to the people of the Wirral”. Joe Taylor then said that the service losses would lead to job losses, that he didn’t want services to be slashed and asked the Labour Group to work with the trade unions and get something “viable for this Authority”. He told the Labour councillors “don’t smash the communities and the people who voted you in”.
The next items Mr. Taylor referred to were the special Scrutiny Committee meetings specifically the Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting [of the 5th December]. He said, “I was appalled, I was appalled and I was alarmed. I was alarmed on the basis that the person who came forward couldn’t quote some of the factual information that affects our members”, he went on to give three examples. The first job referred was a part-time receptionist which he claimed would lose out on £3,163 if the new terms and conditions were agreed which he said would equate to a 34% loss of pay. This prompted heckling from the audience.
The next job he referred to was an Emergency Duty Team Social Worker on £40,234, who would lose out on £8,098 if the revised terms and conditions were agreed followed by a part-time cleaner on £6,256 who he claimed would lose out on £4,175 under the revised terms and conditions. He said that those were the real facts that should be quoted and scrutinised by councillors and asked councillors to “delve into the detail”.
He said that if the revised terms and conditions were accepted that it would equate to a pay cut over the next three years. He next referred to the statement that changes to the essential car allowance in other authorities had caused a short disruption. He said, “If that’s the type of consultation that you study other authorities about car allowances and how much the disruption will be for the Authority, I can tell you now, we met with our Members, we’ve had six general meetings around the Borough and they were packed to the rafters. Packed to the rafters and they were quite clearly telling us they won’t use their cars. Social workers were saying they won’t use their cars.”
As explained on the website the options are about 25% more than the savings required (so the consultation is really about the 25% of things Wirral Council does in the options the public would like to save). Despite stating on their website that the consultation lasts until January 31st 2013, some decisions will be have to be made at the special Cabinet meetings on December 20th 2012 to comply with legal requirements on consultation with the workforce.
There will be more unspecified “consultation events” and of course staff/trade union consultation too. What does this mean for staff working in service areas identified as a budget option? It means basically one of two things if you’re an employee in a service area that’s become an “option”:-
(a) you’ll could be lucky this year and end up in the 25% of options that aren’t cut, due to public/staff support in this current consultation or other reasons (but this doesn’t rule out your post being cut in future years),
(b) once the special Cabinet meeting (followed by the Employment and Appointments Committee) of 20th December 2012 meets your job could be at risk under the new (recently approved) less generous redundancy scheme
How many jobs will go at Wirral Council as a result of this? Well the law requires this kind of consultation for over twenty redundancies, the real figure partly depends on a bunch of decisions yet to be made, however if you add the predicted shortfall of £25.4 million next year to the current required in-year savings of £13.2 million, you get £38.6 million.
Obviously not all the £38.6 million will be staff’s salaries and some staff are directly employed by schools. These figures are based on full-time equivalents, as Wirral Council employs a lot of part-time workers, the real figures could be higher than this estimate.
However by my rough estimates it would be around 154 to 1,026 FT employees that will need to go to balance the books. With those types of numbers involved it won’t just the normal reasons people leave and there will have to be redundancies. The specifics of who, how many and which service areas has yet to be decided (apart from some Executive Team decisions on the current in year savings).
Wirral Council: Trade Unions Protest at Labour Cabinet’s Decision to Consult on Future Job Cuts and Changes to Terms and Conditions
Last night’s Cabinet meeting was so well attended, that the room venue had to change at the last-minute from the Council Chamber (capacity fifty) to the Civic Hall (capacity hundreds). Its usual venue of Committee Room 1 is being used for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections.
Unusually both the Civic Hall and the balcony were packed following a picket at 5pm outside Wallasey Town Hall.
In scenes that haven’t been seen at a Cabinet meeting since the Labour/Lib Dem Cabinet tried to close Wirral’s libraries (which led to the public inquiry led by Sue Charteris), the Labour Cabinet Members were booed on entering the Civic Hall. The first video (part of a longer playlist of the meeting) shows the first three items of the meeting, which are Declarations of Interest, Minutes and Workforce Change and Consultation and the report for this last item can be found on Wirral Council’s website.
There was a change to the original recommendation proposed and seconded by the Labour Group which was circulated to those at the meeting. This amendment (which was agreed) is below:
Proposed amendment
Agenda Item 10 12.1 a) 4. The potential impact on staff of the officer budget options including redundancy
b) Immediately suspend applications to the council’s existing employee enhanced Voluntary Severance Scheme
3. The terms upon which to implement the final stages of Job Evaluation, under the 1997 National joint agreement.
4. The potential impact on staff of the officer budget options including redundancy.
b) Immediately suspend of the council’s existing employee enhanced Voluntary Severance Scheme.
12.2 To recommend to the Employment and Appointments Committee that this report is considered and the Chief Executive is authorised to open consultation as outlined in Recommendation 12.1 (a) and that Recommendation 12 (b) is implemented.
The Chief Executive will report back on the progress of consultation the special budget Cabinet on 20 December 2012.
Below are links to the various videos of this Cabinet meeting.
Cllr Phil Davies (Chair)
Cllr Adrian Jones
Cllr Harry Smith
Cllr Tony Smith
Cllr Ann McLachlan
Cllr George Davies
Cllr Brian Kenny
Cllr Pat Hackett
Cllr Chris Meaden
Part 1 of 2
Welcome | 00:01 to 00:39
1) Declarations of Interest | 00:39 to 01:46
Cllr Phil Davies Item 14 (School Funding Formula) Wirral Metropolitan College Governor
Cllr Phil Davies Item 14 (School Funding Formula) Gillbrook Primary School Governor
Cllr Phil Davies Item 14 (School Funding Formula) Woodlands Primary School Governor
Cllr George Davies Item 14 (School Funding Formula) Bidston Avenue Primary School Governor
Cllr George Davies Item 14 (School Funding Formula) St Anselms School Governor
Cllr Adrian Jones Item 14 (School Funding Formula) Oldershaw School Governor
Cllr Brian Kenny Item 14 (School Funding Formula) Mersey Park Primary School Governor
Cllr Brian Kenny Item 14 (School Funding Formula) St Werburghs RC Primary School Governor
Cllr Ann McLachlan Item 14 (School Funding Formula) Wirral Metropolitan College Governor
Cllr Ann McLachlan Item 14 (School Funding Formula) Priory Primary School Governor
Cllr Chris Meaden Item 14 (School Funding Formula) Bedford Drive School Governor
Cllr Pat Hackett Item 14 (School Funding Formula)
Cllr Brian Kenny Item 14 (School Funding Formula)
Cllr Harry Smith Item 15 (Fees for residential and nursing homes) by virtue of his brother-in-law
The Chair (Cllr Phil Davies) asked Graham Hodkinson, Director of Adult Social Services to introduce the report. Graham Hodkinson introduced the report and mentioned the current oversupply of two hundred beds across the 111 care homes.
The Chair (Cllr Phil Davies) gave apologies for the absent Cabinet Member for Public Health and Social Care, Cllr Anne McArdle who was “poorly”. He said she had read the report and had a “keen interest in it”. He said that they would consult on option 2, with a further report on the 29th November 2012. He said that Cabinet Members had received a communication from WCA Limited about their feelings on the work so far. The recommendations at 14 were agreed which were as follows:
14.1 It is recommended that:
i) the fee framework reflecting actual cost as set out in Option 2, is presented to providers for consultation with a further report presented to Cabinet on 29 November taking account of the views of providers prior to final agreement and implementation.
ii) all old contracts based on 2010/2011 to be terminated by giving the required 3 months written termination notice and that all payments following this period are made at the fee level set for 2012/2013.
iii) the Council only contract for residential and nursing care using the current contract.
iv) once residential and nursing rates are agreed it is proposed that further work will be undertaken to establish variations to the model for specialist providers.
v) the revised fees are back dated to 9 April 2012 and that financial contingencies are explored to allow this to be achieved within the Council’s budget; as a consequence of this work it is proposed to build the agreed fee levels into the budget 2013/2014.
The Cabinet (after meeting for just under fifteen minutes) adjourned to allow members of the public who were there for agenda item 15 to leave the room.
ADJOURNMENT
When the adjournment finished, the Cabinet meeting resumed.
David Armstrong spoke on the Annual Governance Statement. Cllr Phil Davies spoke about the Annual Governance Statement. The recommendation at 12.1 was agreed.
That the revised Annual Governance Statement for 2011/12 be agreed.
David Armstrong spoke on the Statement of Accounts 2011/2012 and referred to the “one small variation”. Cllr Phil Davies said it had been discussed in previous meetings. The recommendation (below) was agreed.
That Cabinet agrees the Statement of Accounts for 2011/12 and the Annual Governance Report.
David Armstrong said that the Annual Governance Report had already been to the Audit and Risk Management Committee. He referred to the public interest report. Cllr Phil Davies asked Cllr Ann McLachlan to make some comments. Cllr Ann McLachlan referred to the Improvement Plan. Cllr Phil Davies asked if it was agreed. It was agreed.
David Armstrong referred to the “unqualified opinion” on the 2011/2012 Statement of Accounts for the Merseyside Pension Fund. Cllr Phil Davies said this was “excellent” and the recommendation (below) at 12.1 was agreed.
That Cabinet agrees the Statement of Accounts for 2011/12 and the Annual Governance Report.
1. Declarations of Interest 00:01
2. Minutes of the last meeting
CHILDREN’S SERVICES AND LIFELONG LEARNING
3. Child and Family Poverty Budget Option
STREETSCENE AND TRANSPORT SERVICES
4. Highway and Engineering Services Contract – Value for Money and Annual Review
5. Highway and Engineering Services Contract – 2014 and Beyond
6. The Flood and Water Act 2010 – Ordinary Watercourse Consenting and Enforcement
7. West Kirby Marine Lake Refurbishment, Consultant Appointments – Contract Price Increase
REGENERATION AND PLANNING STRATEGY
8. Local Development Framework – Core Strategy – Publication of Proposed Submission Draft
HOUSING AND COMMUNITY SAFETY
9. Implementation of Local Authority Mortgage Scheme in Wirral
IMPROVEMENT AND GOVERNANCE
10. Recommendations from the Improvement Board
11. Any Other Urgent Business
12. Exempt Information – Exclusion of the Press and Public
STREETSCENE AND TRANSPORT SERVICES
13. Exempt Appendices – Agenda Item 4 Highway and Engineering Services Contract — Value for Money and Annual Review
14. Exempt Appendices – Agenda Item 5 Highway and Engineering Services Contract – 2014 and Beyond
15. Any Other Urgent Business Approved by the Chair (Part 2)
Present:
Cllr Steve Foulkes (Chair) (Finance and Best Value)
Cllr Chris Meaden (Culture, Tourism and Leisure)
Cllr Harry Smith (Streetscene & Transport Services)
Cllr Ann McLachlan (Children’s Services & Lifelong Learning)
Cllr Anne McArdle (Social Care & Inclusion)
Cllr Jean Stapleton (Community & Customer Engagement)
Cllr Adrian Jones (Corporate Resources)
Cllr Phil Davies (Regeneration & Planning Strategy)
Cllr George Davies (Housing & Community Safety)
Cllr Brian Kenny (Environment)
Cllr Steve Foulkes started the meeting at 6.15pm saying he was going to take three items of Any Other Business first as they were urgent. He was pre-warning people. He wanted a verbal update on the one day strike. Cllr George Davies had an announcement to make on housing funding and he wanted a quick verbal on issues about gas supplies in Leasowe and Moreton East, as well as a further future report on the lessons learnt.
Cllr Jeff Green said there was speculation surrounding the Serious Fraud Office investigation.
Cllr Steve Foulkes said he had not been informed that the situation had changed, although he was aware of some things.
He asked for declarations of interest.
Cllr Phil Davies declared an interest in item 12 as he was a trustee of the Wirral Food bank, however as he was not a Council appointed trustee, he asked Bill Norman for advice as to whether the interest was personal or prejudicial.
Bill Norman replied that in his opinion it was personal, not prejudicial.
Cllr Chris Meaden declared an interest in item 5 (Annual Children’s Services Assessment 2011) because of her daughter’s employment.
