Why did 2 Wirral Council councillors take taxi journeys costing ÂŁ83.60 each time?

Why did 2 Wirral Council councillors take taxi journeys costing ÂŁ83.60 each time?

Why did 2 Wirral Council councillors take taxi journeys costing ÂŁ83.60 each time?

                                              

Wirral Council Cabinet meeting at Birkenhead Town Hall Thursday 12th March 2015 Left to right Surjit Tour, Cllr Phil Davies and Joe Blott
Wirral Council Cabinet meeting at Birkenhead Town Hall Thursday 12th March 2015 Left to right Surjit Tour, Cllr Phil Davies and Joe Blott

This year, during the 30 day inspection period I requested the Eye Cab Limited invoices for the contract for taxis for councillors.

An option in the Eye Cab Limited Passenger Transport Contract to extend it for a further year was taken up by the Council which meant it ran to the 31st August 2017.

Wirral Satellite Cars (who have recently merged with Argyle Taxis to become Argyle Satellite) won the the contract to supply taxi journeys to councillors which started on the 1st September 2017. Major parts of the new contract have also been redacted on grounds of commercial confidentiality.

The Eye Cab Limited invoices supplied cover March 2016, April 2016, May 2016, June 2016, July 2016 and August 2016. Apologies if the text can be a little hard to read, but these were how they were supplied by Wirral Council.

These are for taxi journeys by Cllr Moira McLaughlin, former Cllr Steve Niblock, Cllr Tony Norbury, Cllr Irene Williams, Cllr Warren Ward, Cllr Stuart Whittingham, Cllr Phil Davies and Cllr George Davies.

Wirral Council has decided to redact from these invoices, the name of the Wirral Council employee that these invoices went to and the mobile telephone number for Eye Cab limited. Some of the start points and end points of these taxi journeys have also been redacted by Wirral Council who deem it to be unfair processing of personal data for the public to know the home addresses of councillors!

One matter that does stand out are two taxi journeys made on the 5th July 2016 and the 7th July 2016 costing ÂŁ83.60 each (as Wirral Council received an invoice each time for a 70 mile round trip rather than just the mileage between points A and B). Both journeys are shown on the invoice as being related to Cllr Phil Davies and both relate to taxi journeys to Manchester Airport.

Wirral Council have pointed out that Cllr Phil Davies shared the taxi journey with the Deputy Leader of the Council Cllr George Davies and the purpose of it was travel to and from the LGA Conference held in Bournemouth between the 5th and 7th of July 2016.

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Which Wirral Council councillor made 38 taxi journeys in 6 months?

Which Wirral Council councillor made 38 taxi journeys in 6 months?

Which Wirral Council councillor made 38 taxi journeys in 6 months?

                                                       

Eye Cab taxi invoice Wirral Council councillors
Eye Cab taxi invoice Wirral Council councillors

Yesterday Wirral Council responded to my FOI request for the more recent invoices from Eye Cab Limited for taxi journeys by councillors.

These don’t include taxi journeys where councillors have paid for the taxi themselves and then claimed back the cost.

Sadly, due to a lot of missing pages (curiously always the ones with councillors’ names on them), plus a number of pages scanned at such low quality making them very difficult to read, I’ve requested an internal review.

There was an £85 taxi journey listed on page 5. By the price list published on my blog here it comes to a taxi journey of around 67 and a half miles.

Sadly the second page of the invoice that invoice from May 2015 that would state who undertook this unusually long journey is not supplied. The invoice itself is of such low quality it’s hard to read how far this journey was. However if you’re going on a journey that far why not take the train instead?

In fact if the journey was by a councillor then Wirral Council’s constitution states (members means councillors):

8. Travel and Subsistence

Travel Costs

8.1 Travel costs incurred by members in performing “approved duties” as specified in Schedule 2 to this Scheme shall be reimbursed at the prevailing public transport rates, provided that the use of taxis or members’ private motor vehicles may be permitted where public transport is either not available, or the journey by public transport would be likely to result in unreasonable delay.”

Sadly as Wirral Council didn’t respond properly to this FOI request it’s impossible to tell whether a councillor took this journey or not!

However over the 6 months of invoices where names were supplied, here are how many taxi journeys were undertaken by each councillor at the taxpayers’ expense. For shared journeys I’ve counted it as one journey for each councillor sharing the taxi:

Cllr Moira McLaughlin (38)
Cllr Steve Niblock (23)
Cllr Bill Davies (13)
Cllr Irene Williams (5)
Cllr Pat Williams (2)
Cllr Kathy Hodson (1)
Cllr Denise Roberts (1)
Cllr Phil Davies (1)

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How much did taxis cost for councillors at Wirral Council through a contract with Eye Cab Limited between September 2014 and March 2015?

How much did taxis cost for councillors at Wirral Council through a contract with Eye Cab Limited between September 2014 and March 2015?

How much did taxis cost for councillors at Wirral Council through a contract with Eye Cab Limited between September 2014 and March 2015?

                                                           

Eye Cab Ltd taxi invoice Wirral Council October 2014
Eye Cab Ltd taxi invoice Wirral Council October 2014

During the 2014/15 audit I requested the contract between Wirral Council and Eye Cab Limited for LOT 4 (councillors taxis) called the Passenger Transport Contract. This is what the contract states about the invoices (pages 22 to 23):

2.3.8 Invoicing

Invoices should be submitted once a month for all journeys undertaken by Councillors for official business only. There will be no payment in advance for journeys. The invoice should contain the following information

  • Journey collection and arrival destinations

  • Date and time of journey

  • Name of the Councillor ordering the journey
Invoices will be paid at the price agreed between Wirral Council and the Contractor at the time of award of contract. If an overcharge is identified on an invoice a credit note will be required from the Contractor or a deduction for the amount owed clearly identified on the following invoice.

Invoices should be forwarded to:-

Carl Thompson
Legal and Member Services
Wallasey Town Hall
Brighton Street
CH44 8ED

However when I made a Freedom of Information request for the invoices for September 2014, October 2014, November 2014, December 2014, January 2015, February 2015 and March 2015, this was the response I got.

The invoices supplied don’t contain the times of journeys, or the journey collection or arrival destinations!

Wirral Council have also tried to black things out on these invoices (incompetently I might add with an image mask) because they class them as personal data.

All the underlying images of the invoices are still there as they’re using an image mask (that is the file contains two images that of the underlying invoice and over the top a further image used as a mask to black certain bits out).

Let’s start with the junior officer name at Wirral Council they blacked out which is Thompson, Carl S. [carlthompson@wirral.gov.uk].

Here’s the mobile phone number from this invoice: 0798 944 6652. I might point out that Eye Cab Limited publish this mobile phone number on their Facebook group page anyway.

Below are the totals by councillor for each invoice. The below are just journeys through this contract. It is possible for councillors to pay for taxi journeys themselves, then claim the money back from Wirral Council, in which case those figures would not be included below.

Invoice dated 27th September 2014 (LOT4/2)

Councillor Total Amount

Pat Hackett ÂŁ5.20
Ron Abbey ÂŁ43.40
Steve Niblock ÂŁ9.40
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ42.80
Irene Williams ÂŁ8.00

Invoice dated 4th October 2014 (LOT4/2)

Councillor Total Amount

Ron Abbey ÂŁ56.60
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ16.00
Bill Davies ÂŁ6.60

Invoice dated 4th October 2014 (LOT4/3)

Councillor Total Amount

Ron Abbey ÂŁ34.00
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ31.00

Invoice dated 11th October 2014 (LOT4/5)

Councillor Total Amount

Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ26.80
Ron Abbey ÂŁ71.60
Bill Davies ÂŁ6.60

Invoice dated 18th October 2014 (LOT4/6)

Councillor Total Amount

Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ26.80
Pat Hackett ÂŁ5.20
Ron Abbey ÂŁ51.00

Invoice dated 24th October 2014 (LOT4/7)

Councillor Total Amount

Ron Abbey ÂŁ76.00
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ31.50
Bill Davies ÂŁ6.60
Muspratt ÂŁ10.80
Pat Hackett ÂŁ5.20

Invoice dated 31st October 2014 (LOT4/8)

Councillor Total Amount

Pat Hackett ÂŁ5.20
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ18.80
Ron Abbey ÂŁ71.00 *for two journeys includes waiting time of 5 minutes (ÂŁ1) and 10 minutes (ÂŁ2)

Invoice dated 8th November 2014 (LOT4/9)

Councillor Total Amount

Pat Hackett ÂŁ15.60
Muspratt ÂŁ12.20
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ33.40
Bill Davies ÂŁ6.60
Niblock/Davies ÂŁ10.80
Irene Williams ÂŁ8.00
Ron Abbey ÂŁ51.00

Invoice dated 15th November 2014 (LOT4/10)

Councillor Total Amount

Irene Williams ÂŁ17.40
Pat Hackett ÂŁ19.40
Steve Niblock ÂŁ28.20
Bill Davies (down on invoice as W J Davies) ÂŁ13.20
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ9.40

Invoice dated 22nd November 2014 (LOT4/11)

Councillor Total Amount

Steve Niblock (down on invoice as S. Niblock) ÂŁ28.20
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ40.40
Bill Davies (down on invoice as W J Davies) ÂŁ6.60
Irene Williams (down on invoice as I. Williams) ÂŁ8.00
Muspratt (down on invoice as C. Muspratt) ÂŁ12.20
Pat Hackett (down on invoice as P. Hackett) ÂŁ11.80

Invoice dated 29th November 2014 (LOT4/12)

Councillor Total Amount

Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ18.80

Invoice dated 6th December 2014 (LOT4/13)

Councillor Total Amount

Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ9.40
Steve Niblock (down on invoice as Steve Nibkock) ÂŁ37.60

Invoice dated 13th December 2014 (LOT4/14)

Councillor Total Amount

Steve Niblock (down on invoice as Steve Nibkock) ÂŁ49.80
Moira McLaughlin (down on invoice as Moira McGlaughlin) ÂŁ18.80
Bill Davies ÂŁ13.20
Muspratt (down on invoice as Clr Muspratt) ÂŁ12.20
Taxi Share ÂŁ12.20

Invoice dated 20th December 2014 (LOT4/15)

Councillor Total Amount

Steve Niblock (down on invoice as Steve Nibkock) ÂŁ59.20
Muspratt (down on invoice as Clr Muspratt) ÂŁ12.20
Denise Realey (down on invoice as Denise Reaty) ÂŁ8.00
Pat Hackett ÂŁ11.80
Moira McLaughlin (down on invoice as Moira McGlaughlin) ÂŁ10.80
Irene Williams ÂŁ8.00

Invoice dated 10th January 2015 (LOT4/16)

Councillor Total Amount

Pat Hackett (down on invoice as P. Hackett) ÂŁ11.80
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ79.40
Bill Davies ÂŁ16.00

Invoice dated 17th January 2015 (LOT4/17)

Councillor Total Amount

Pat Hackett (down on invoice as P.Hackett) ÂŁ9.40
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ28.20

Invoice dated 24th January 2015 (LOT4/18)

Councillor Total Amount

Irene Williams ÂŁ8.00
Bill Davies ÂŁ6.60
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ9.40
Niblock/Davies ÂŁ12.20

Invoice dated 31st January 2015 (LOT4/19)

Councillor Total Amount

Steve Niblock ÂŁ10.80
Bill Davies ÂŁ6.60
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ28.20

Invoice dated 7th February 2015 (LOT4/20)

Councillor Total Amount

Steve Niblock ÂŁ31.00
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ73.80
Williams/Muspratt ÂŁ12.20
Irene Williams ÂŁ9.40

Invoice dated 14th February 2015 (LOT4/21)

Councillor Total Amount

Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ9.40
Steve Niblock ÂŁ9.40

Invoice dated 21st February 2015 (LOT4/22)

Councillor Total Amount

Bill Davies ÂŁ19.80
Irene Williams ÂŁ8.00
Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ9.40
Davies/McLaughlin ÂŁ10.80

Invoice dated 28th February 2015 (LOT4/23)>

Councillor Total Amount

Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ18.80
Bill Davies ÂŁ18.40

Invoice dated 7th March 2015 (LOT4/24)

Councillor Total Amount

Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ59.20

Invoice dated 21st March 2015 (LOT4/25)

Councillor Total Amount

Moira McLaughlin ÂŁ28.20
Bill Davies ÂŁ13.20
Irene Williams ÂŁ8.00
Niblock/Davies ÂŁ12.20


Grand totals (September 2014 to March 2015)

Cllr Pat Hackett ÂŁ5.20 + ÂŁ5.20 + ÂŁ5.20 + ÂŁ5.20 + ÂŁ15.60 + ÂŁ19.40 + ÂŁ11.80 + ÂŁ11.80 = ÂŁ79.40

Cllr Ron Abbey ÂŁ43.40 + ÂŁ56.60 + ÂŁ34.00 + ÂŁ71.60 + ÂŁ51.00 + ÂŁ76.00 + ÂŁ71.00 + ÂŁ51.00 = ÂŁ454.60

Cllr Steve Niblock (figures for Niblock/Davies not included here) ÂŁ9.40 + ÂŁ28.20 + ÂŁ28.20 + ÂŁ37.60 + ÂŁ49.80 + ÂŁ59.20 + ÂŁ10.80 + ÂŁ31.00 + ÂŁ9.40 = ÂŁ263.60

Cllr Moira McLaughlin (figures for Davies/McLaughlin not included here) ÂŁ42.80 + ÂŁ16.00 + ÂŁ31.00 + ÂŁ26.80 + ÂŁ26.80 + ÂŁ31.50 + ÂŁ18.80 + ÂŁ33.40 + ÂŁ9.40 + ÂŁ40.40 + ÂŁ18.80 + ÂŁ9.40 + ÂŁ18.80 + ÂŁ10.80 + ÂŁ79.40 + ÂŁ28.20 + ÂŁ9.40 + ÂŁ28.20 + ÂŁ73.80 + ÂŁ9.40 + ÂŁ9.40 + ÂŁ18.80 + ÂŁ59.20 + ÂŁ28.20 = ÂŁ678.70

Cllr Irene Williams ÂŁ8.00 + ÂŁ8.00 + ÂŁ17.40 + ÂŁ8.00 + ÂŁ8.00 + ÂŁ8.00 + ÂŁ9.40 + ÂŁ8.00 + ÂŁ8.00 = ÂŁ82.80

Cllr Bill Davies ÂŁ6.60 + ÂŁ6.60 + ÂŁ6.60 + ÂŁ6.60 + ÂŁ13.20 + ÂŁ6.60 + ÂŁ13.20 + ÂŁ16.00 + ÂŁ6.60 + ÂŁ6.60 + ÂŁ19.80 + ÂŁ18.40 + ÂŁ13.20 = ÂŁ140.00

Cllr Muspratt (does not include Williams/Muspratt) ÂŁ10.80 + ÂŁ12.20 + ÂŁ12.20 + ÂŁ12.20 + ÂŁ12.20 = ÂŁ59.60

Cllrs Niblock/Davies (note not included in Cllr Steve Niblock’s amounts above and there are three councillors with the surname Davies) ÂŁ10.80 + ÂŁ12.20 = ÂŁ23.00

Taxi Share ÂŁ12.20

Cllr Denise Realey ÂŁ8.00

Cllrs Williams/Muspratt (note not included in Cllr Muspratt’s amounts above and there are three councillors with the surname Williams) ÂŁ12.20

Cllrs Davies/McLaughlin (note not included in Cllr McLaughlin’s amounts above and there are three councillors with the surname Davies) ÂŁ10.80

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How much a mile do taxis for Wirral’s councillors cost (between &#1a63;1.33 and £6.40/mile)?

How much a mile do taxis for Wirral’s councillors cost (between £1.33 and £6.40/mile)?

How much a mile do taxis for Wirral’s councillors cost (between £1.33 and £6.40/mile)?

Last year I published the £multi-million contract Wirral Council has called the Passenger Transport Contract which covers transport for children with special educational needs/disability, children in care and vulnerable adults (to places like school and day centres) (Lot 1), ad hoc journeys for these categories of people (Lot 2), the "Maxi Taxi" scheme (taxis for people to work) (Lot 3) and of course that most interesting category of all taxis for councillors (Lot 4).

From the answer Cllr Adrian Jones gave recently (this blog post details the aspects of the request that relate to an underspend on the modern equivalent of the Poor Laws), I think it is fair to summarise that his answer states that providing me with a 44 A4 page contract about a £multi-million contract such as this, is a great drain on Wirral Council’s resources (bear in mind this is an organisation that has a revenue budget of hundreds of millions of pounds a year plus a capital budget of a similar size). Just the annual invoices to their external auditors Grant Thornton comes to a six-figure sum! Personally I’d prefer Wirral Council to routinely publish such information (but they don’t). Maybe if all such contracts that Wirral Council has for millions of pounds were published the public would know what they were getting for their money?

He pointed out at a public meeting to me last month that it takes a long time to black out " personal information" on such contracts. Out of those 44 pages I published, as only one telephone number is blacked out on page 39, I am truly glad that Wirral Council is saving the public from knowing the phone number of a local taxi company (that I’m pretty sure will be in the phone book anyway!)

It’s a contract estimated at £4.1 million (no that’s not all on taxis for councillors).

Of course, as regular readers of this blog will know, despite the information on councillors’ expenses being open to inspection at "all reasonable times" actually getting information out of Wirral Council on councillors’ expenses is a bit like a dentist asking a patient do they want their teeth out!? I asked (again) and the answer from Cllr Adrian Jones was that I should be "patient".

I gather that "all reasonable times" by Wirral Council’s interpretation of the legislation is at some point between to be poetic "when hell freezes over" or the councillor (or former councillor) to whom the expenses relate is dead.

From a public relations perspective I would say that the drip, drip, drip of information on councillors’ expenses at Wirral Council and repeated attempts to block information is probably far more embarrassing (to all councillors including the ones that don’t claim any expenses) than actually releasing the information in the first place! Has their new PR adviser heard of the Streisand Effect! This FOI request (which will be the third time of asking for this information so I must have a lot of patience) is one I hope will be answered. However dear reader I presume this request will be either refused or ignored (despite the Court of Appeal judgement [2015] EWCA Civ 388, [2015] 1 WLR 2879, [2015] WLR 2, [2015] WLR(D) 194 referred to being extremely clear that such information has to be released). As there is for want of a better term "political resistance" at Wirral Council to the release of expenses information, I am beginning to think an ICO decision notice (which will take an answer to this FOI request past the May 2016 elections) may be what it takes. Who knows? Please leave a comment if you know more than me.

However moving on to oversight and scrutiny. I have conducted some oversight and scrutiny on my original publication of the contract and realised that there was a schedule containing rates that I didn’t include when I published the original contract. That table can be found below. This table is how much that Wirral Council is charged by Eye Cab Limited for taxis for councillors.

Here is an easy read version of Councillors Pricing Schedule LOT 4.

You can see the original below (linked to a more high-resolution version). Personally I feel this web version and the PDF file I’ve created above are far easier to read (especially for those with visual issues like myself it can be zoomed in without loss of resolution). However don’t get me started on Wirral Council’s track record towards people with disabilities. I hate to think how much I’d be moaned at if I asked for large print versions of documents and how much of a drain I’d be regarded on resources then!

Councillors Pricing Schedule LOT 4

Item

 Description
 1 Mile = 1609.344 Metres


Distance


Quoted
Mile Cost

Quoted
Total
Journey
Cost

1

 First 805 metres (half mile)

First mile

£3.20

£3.80

£3.80

2

 Remaining 805 metres

£0.60

3

 Additional mile @1609 metres

1-5
miles

£1.40

£9.40

4

 Additional mile @1609 metres

5-10
miles

£1.40

£16.40

5

 Additional mile @1609 metres

10-15
miles

£1.30

£22.00

6

 Additional mile @1609 metres

15-20
miles

£1.20

£26.60

7

 Waiting time (if applicable)

Per Minute Cost

£0.20

  Additional Information or Charges:
  All vehicles are Hackney Carriages 5/7 seat vehicles and have been quoted accordingly, any tolls will be charged extra at the appropriate return rate.

Passenger Transport Contract Councillors Pricing Schedule Lot 4 thumbnail
Passenger Transport Contract Councillors Pricing Schedule Lot 4

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Why did Wirral Council include Ian Coleman as a whistleblowing contact in the Passenger Transport Contract?

Why did Wirral Council include Ian Coleman as a whistleblowing contact in the Passenger Transport Contract?

Why did Wirral Council include Ian Coleman as a whistleblowing contact in the Passenger Transport Contract?

                                                 

Here is my first question to Wirral Council’s auditor (Grant Thornton) about the Passenger Transport Contract.


Wirral Council has a contract with Eye Cab Limited called the "Passenger Transport Contract". This contract started on the 1st September 2014 and runs to the 31st August 2015 and is for the provision of taxi services.

I requested to inspect a copy of the contract (see Audit Commission Act s.15(1)(a)) which was arranged for the 4th September 2015. As a local government elector for the Wirral area, I can question the auditor about the 2014/15 accounts from 9.30am on the 18th August 2015 until the accounts are closed (see Audit Commission Act 1998 s.15(2)).

Page 36 of the contract has a section titled &quotSection 5 CONFIDENTIAL COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE (Whistle-blowing) A Guide for Suppliers and Contractors (see attached page 36).

Passenger Transport Contract Wirral Council page 36 of 40 thubmnail
Passenger Transport Contract Wirral Council page 36 of 40

At the bottom of this page of the contract it details two people that a complaint under the whistleblowing procedure can be made to.

The second of these individuals is:

"Ian Coleman, Director of Finance, Wirral Borough Council, Finance Department, Treasury Building, Cleveland Street, Birkenhead, Merseyside, CH41 6BU"

Wirral Council’s Employment and Appointments Committee agreed early voluntary retirement for Ian Coleman on the 3rd October 2012 (see attached minutes).

Therefore as Ian Coleman was not an employee of Wirral Council at the time the Passenger Transport Contract was put out to tender (or when the contract was agreed) why was he included as a whistleblowing contact in the contract?

Yours sincerely,

John Brace

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