10 more pages of MFRA councillors’ expense claims for car mileage, taxis and a meal

10 more pages of MFRA councillors’ expense claims for car mileage, taxis and a meal

10 more pages of MFRA councillors’ expense claims for car mileage, taxis and a meal

                                                

Earlier this month I published pages eleven to twenty of the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority councillor’s expense claims for claims where councillors were claiming the money back. This continues from 10 more pages of MFRA councillors’ expense claims for car mileage, taxis and parking.

Below are ten more A4 pages of expense claims submitted by councillors on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority for the 2014/15 financial year. It’s pages twenty-one to thirty of eighty-nine pages and each thumbnail below should link to a more high-definition (and therefore readable) image for each page.

The councillors these pages are for are Cllr Dave Hanratty, Cllr Leslie Byrom, Cllr Linda Maloney and Cllr Ted Grannell.

HQ stand for headquarters, LGA means Local Government Association, FIG (also known as FIGUK) means Fire Information Group and I’ve no idea what SRB refers to.

Cllr Dave Hanratty October November 2014 car mileage taxis page 1 of 2
Cllr Dave Hanratty October November 2014 car mileage taxis page 1 of 2
Cllr Dave Hanratty taxi receipt £13 page 2 of 2
Cllr Dave Hanratty taxi receipt £13 page 2 of 2
Cllr Leslie Byrom October 2014 car mileage taxi train
Cllr Leslie Byrom October 2014 car mileage taxi train
Cllr Leslie Byrom Virgin Trains receipt £8 page 1 of 3
Cllr Leslie Byrom Virgin Trains receipt £8 page 1 of 3
Cllr Leslie Byrom Virgin Trains receipt £12 page 2 of 3
Cllr Leslie Byrom Virgin Trains receipt £12 page 2 of 3
Cllr Leslie Byrom receipt taxi £20 page 3 of 3
Cllr Leslie Byrom receipt taxi £20 page 3 of 3
Cllr Linda Maloney October November 2014 car mileage taxis and meal page 1 of 3
Cllr Linda Maloney October November 2014 car mileage taxis and meal page 1 of 3
Cllr Linda Maloney taxi receipt £23 page 2 of 3
Cllr Linda Maloney taxi receipt £23 page 2 of 3
Cllr Linda Maloney Jacques Wine Bar receipt £12.50 page 3 of 3
Cllr Linda Maloney Jacques Wine Bar receipt £12.50 page 3 of 3
Cllr Ted Grannell taxi September to November 2014 £63
Cllr Ted Grannell taxi September to November 2014 £63

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Police and Fire Collaboration Committee agree to joint review for collaboration between Merseyside Police & Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service

Police and Fire Collaboration Committee agree to joint review for collaboration between Merseyside Police & Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service

Police and Fire Collaboration Committee agree to joint review for collaboration between Merseyside Police & Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service

                                                           

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority Police and Fire Collaboration Committee 1st September 2015 Left Jane Kennedy (Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside) Right Sir John Murphy (Chief Constable, Merseyside Police)
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority Police and Fire Collaboration Committee 1st September 2015 Left Jane Kennedy (Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside) Right Sir John Murphy (Chief Constable, Merseyside Police)

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Video of the Police and Fire Collaboration Committee (Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority) meeting held on the 1st of September 2015.

The Police and Fire Collaboration Committee met for the first time on the 1st of September 2015. Papers for the meeting are on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority’s website.

The first meeting of the Police and Fire Collaboration Committee elected Councillor Dave Hanratty as Chair.

The other members of the Police and Fire Collaboration Committee are:

Councillor Linda Maloney (Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority)
Councillor Leslie Byron (Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority)
Jane Kennedy (Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside)
Sue Murphy (Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside)
 

The Police and Fire Collaboration Committee agreed the terms of reference.

Most of the rest of the meeting was discussion of the Fire and Police Collaboration Programme. There was a 5 page covering report and 8 page appendix detailing the “Collaboration/Shared Services Guiding Principles between Merseyside Police and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.

Chief Fire Officer Dan Stephens presented the report, as did Sir Jon Murphy (Chief Constable, Merseyside Police). Chief Fire Officer Dan Stephens drew the Committee’s attention to the list of possible areas for shared services in the report at part 6. The areas detailed in the report are:

  • Human Resources
  • Occupational Health
  • Finance
  • Procurement
  • Vehicle Fleet Management
  • Estates/Facilities
  • Press Office
  • Communication and Marketing
  • Performance/Corporate Development
  • Legal Services
  • ICT

He gave an example of shared working in the shared estates area as the Joint Control Centre in the building where the public meeting was being held. Dan Stephens highlighted the staffing implications in the report (section 16-17 on page 10). He stated, “Just to reassure members of the Committee that a Communications Strategy is being developed to ensure that all of our staff can be fully informed. As you can appreciate there will be a fair degree of interest in the work as it progresses.” Dan Stephens also referred to the legal implications, financial implications and other implications in sections 18-24 in the report.

Chief Constable Sir John Murphy added, “Everything that the Chief has just laid out there has been drawn up in complete collaboration with ourselves”.

Jane Kennedy, Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside said “That’s a good and comprehensive list of potential quick gains. For knowing what I know of the potential cliff edge that the Force is facing in terms of its funding and the particular threat in particular to community policing, for me B Ways of Working is absolutely crucial to the future benefit to the community of our two services working together. I can’t, my waking nightmare is the loss of what we currently know of as community style policing.

If we lose community policing altogether then there would still be neighbourhood policing, but we are, we are very close to that now. There is potential gain from us working very closely together with your people and the Force’s people on the ground in communities which I think is probably the greatest benefit.”

Councillor Hanratty (Chair) said that they needed to have conversations with the North West Ambulance Service to see “how they could work better together with them”. He suggested inviting the Chief Executive and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the North West Ambulance Service to a future meeting. Cllr Hanratty suggested that when they got to the last agenda item adjourning the meeting.

Jane Kennedy agreed with Councillor Hanratty but that it had taken her six months to get a meeting with North West Ambulance Service but, “I completely agree with what you’re saying David”.

Cllr Hanratty referred to both Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and Merseyside Police’s independence. He commented that both organisations do “fantastic work”.

Chief Constable Sir John Murphy said, “Just to endorse what the Commissioner’s said there, the great strength of what we’re embarking on here is the MFRS [Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service] and Merseyside Police are under the same pressures, we share the same footprint and there’s a real joint will amongst the Chief Officer Teams and the people in this room to get things done.

Our experience with working with North West Ambulance and the North West is a problem to start with is that it’s not quite that straightforward and the experience of the JCC [Joint Control Centre] here and they’re in, they’re out, they’re in, they’re out, I would not like to see North West Ambulance Service get in the way of what we’re trying to achieve, but the principle of what you’re suggesting and the commenced approach towards that I agree.”

Councillor Leslie Byrom added, “I mean I agree with everything that’s been said, what we’re going to have in the next few months of business other than the budget stuff which is going to have a real major impact on how we’re going to plan for the future. This is the first step.

We’be got the overlay also that’s emerging of the Police Reform and Criminal Justice draft Bill. That mentions fire and police collaboration. It may mean that it’s more intended to affect non-metropolitan areas, there may be a separate solution anticipated for metropolitan areas but there is so much happening I think we are going to have to be fleet of foot for the next few months, adjourning this meeting is absolutely right.

Err, enabling us to call a meeting at you know legally short notice, errm and deal with changes that are being presented to us as they happen because you know we are on a bit of a roller coaster.

NWAS [North West Ambulance Service], obviously that’s another part, that’s another facet, another side of the entire blue light issue isn’t it? And I don’t think you know, I know we have difficulty sitting round and meeting with them, but actually I think we can’t leave that as an excuse can we?

We have to, they can not participate yes, but we have to be making the, giving leadership on this issue and showing that you know there is that overlay of blue light and the cross issues. Both the money and the way that they operate are quite different to us, I understand that, but we’re all in the area of public expenditure at this time.

So you know we just try our best with NWAS [North West Ambulance Service] to move things forward.”

The Chair thanked the officers for their work and referred to it as “a culture change for both of our organisations and the way they’ve worked together so far has been tremendous as well”

The recommendations contained within the report were agreed which are:

“That members:

a. Approve the draft Guiding Principles for the Collaboration Programme attached at Appendix A

b. Instruct the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) and Chief Constable (CC) to undertake a joint review of existing and potential opportunities for collaboration in line with the methodology detailed within the Guiding Principles.”

The Chair then agreed to adjourn the meeting, so that they could “call the meeting as and when required” but that the next meeting should be within the next couple of months.

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10 pages of MFRA councillors’ expense claims for car mileage, tolls, parking and taxis

10 pages of MFRA councillors’ expense claims for car mileage, tolls, parking and taxis

10 pages of MFRA councillors’ expense claims for car mileage, tolls, parking and taxis

                                          

Below are ten A4 pages of expense claims submitted by councillors on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority for the 2014/15 financial year. It’s the first ten of eighty-nine pages and each thumbnail below should link to a more high-definition (and therefore readable) image for each page.

The councillors these pages are for are Cllr Lesley Rennie, Cllr Dave Hanratty, Cllr Leslie T Byrom, Cllr Robbie Ayres. The expense claims are for car mileage, parking, tolls on the M6 toll road and taxis.

The four page expense claim of Cllr Leslie T Byrom is because receipts for the M6 toll road weren’t submitted with the original claim but submitted later. The Midland Expressway Limited receipts for the M6 toll road although they look similar at first are for travel on different days (one for the 11th December 2014 and the other for the 12th December 2014).

FOA stands for Fire Officers Association, HQ is headquarters, FSMC is Fire Safety Management Committee, NW for North West, FSN for Fire Support Network and TDA for Training and Development Academy. I’ve no idea what SRB or C&N stand for. If you know, please leave a comment.

This is continued at 10 more pages of MFRA councillors’ expense claims for car mileage, taxis and parking.

Cllr Lesley Rennie car mileage expenses September 2014 October 2014 November 2014 January 2015 thumbnail
Cllr Lesley Rennie car mileage expenses September 2014 October 2014 November 2014 January 2015 thumbnail
Cllr Dave Hanratty expenses claim thumbnail
Cllr Dave Hanratty expenses claim thumbnail
Cllr Byrom car mileage toll road December 2014 page 1 of 4 thumbnail
Cllr Byrom car mileage toll road December 2014 page 1 of 4 thumbnail
Cllr Byrom car mileage toll road December 2014 page 2 of 4 thumbnail
Cllr Byrom car mileage toll road December 2014 page 2 of 4 thumbnail
Cllr Byrom toll road receipt December 2014 page 3 of 4 thumbnail
Cllr Byrom toll road receipt December 2014 page 3 of 4 thumbnail
Cllr Byrom toll road receipt December 2014 page 4 of 4 thumbnail
Cllr Byrom toll road receipt December 2014 page 4 of 4 thumbnail
Cllr Byrom car mileage claim parking January 2015 thumbnail
Cllr Byrom car mileage claim parking January 2015 thumbnail
Cllr Byrom car mileage claim February 2015 thumbnail
Cllr Byrom car mileage claim February 2015 thumbnail
Cllr Ayres car mileage expenses December 2014 thumbnail
Cllr Ayres car mileage expenses December 2014 thumbnail
Cllr Ayres car mileage claim January 2015 thumbnail
Cllr Ayres car mileage claim January 2015 thumbnail

Continues at 10 more pages of MFRA councillors’ expense claims for car mileage, taxis and parking.

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49 pages of secret expenses on fruit cake, stays at the Hilton, first class travel & taxis for councillors

49 pages of secret expenses on fruit cake, stays at the Hilton, first class travel & taxis for councillors

49 pages of secret expenses on fruit cake, stays at the Hilton, first class travel & taxis for councillors

                                                

At the end of this piece are 49 pages of invoices paid directly by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority. If a councillor pays for a meal or a taxi fare but claims the money back, it’s included in the annual totals for each councillor. You can view the table of annual totals for each councillor that was on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority on the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority website.

The pages of expenses below that cover stays in hotels, train fares and meals (which would usually be in the travel and subsistence or overnight categories of expenditure of that table) aren’t included. Below is what Regulation 15(3) of the Local Authorities (Members’ Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003 states what should be included. Recipient refers to a recipient of a payment under the allowances scheme.

15. Records of Allowances
….
(3) As soon as reasonably practicable after the end of a year to which the scheme relates, an authority shall make arrangements for the publication within the authority’s area of the total sum paid by it in the year under the scheme to each recipient in respect of each of the following—

(a) basic allowance;
(b) special responsibility allowance;
(c) dependants’ carers’ allowance;
(d) travelling and subsistence allowance; and
(e) co-optees’ allowance.

 

The blog post Which Wirral councillor claimed £50 on taxis to and from a public meeting? includes a letter explaining why Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority doesn’t do this.

In that letter Janet Henshaw (Monitoring Officer for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service) writing on behalf of the Wirral councillors wrote:

“It was not possible to show travel & event bookings made directly by MFRA [Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority] (as opposed to members paying and then claiming back their allowances) due to the fact that this Authority uses an electronic software system to make each booking at the cheapest possible price for both members and officers. We were invoiced monthly in the last year for both Officers and Members without differentiation. Thus it would have been a wholly unreasonable use of scare resources to break this down each month between the two groups and then each and every individual.”
 

CFO on one of the receipts refers to the Chief Fire Officer Dan Stephens. DCFO refers to the Deputy Chief Fire Officer Phil Garrigan. As some of the names of the councillors below will be unfamiliar to readers I include a key below. The key has the name of the councillor, political party, which local authority they represent (or represented as Cllr Ted Grannell and Cllr Tony Newman are no longer on the Fire Authority) and whether they hold the position of Chair or Vice-Chair on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority.

Cllr Dave Hanratty, Labour, Liverpool, Chair
Cllr Linda Maloney, Labour, St Helens, Vice-Chair
Cllr Leslie T Byrom, Labour, Sefton, Vice-Chair
Cllr Ted Grannell (down on invoice as Ted Grenell), Labour, Knowsley
Cllr Tony Newman, Labour, Knowsley
Cllr Steve Niblock, Labour, Wirral

Continue reading “49 pages of secret expenses on fruit cake, stays at the Hilton, first class travel & taxis for councillors”

Cllr Lesley Rennie refers to proposed Saughall Massie fire station site in green belt as "a piece of scrappy land"

Cllr Lesley Rennie refers to proposed Saughall Massie fire station site in green belt as “a piece of scrappy land”

Cllr Lesley Rennie refers to proposed Saughall Massie fire station site in green belt as “a piece of scrappy land”

                                          

Cllr Lesley Rennie speaking at a public meeting of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 29th January 2015 on a consultation on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and a new fire station at Saughall Massie
Cllr Lesley Rennie speaking at a public meeting of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 29th January 2015 on a consultation on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and a new fire station at Saughall Massie

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Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority meeting 29th January 2014 Part 2 of 2 starting at what councillors said on agenda item 5 (West Wirral Operational Response Considerations (Post Consultation))

This transcript continues from Councillors agree 12 week consultation on new £1.95 million Saughall Massie fire station to replace Upton and West Kirby. The reports for this agenda item are on the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority website.

DAN STEPHENS (Chief Fire Officer, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service): I’ll pause at that point and take questions.

Continue reading “Cllr Lesley Rennie refers to proposed Saughall Massie fire station site in green belt as "a piece of scrappy land"”