Merseytravel | A blog about Wirral Council, Wirral Council's councillors & officers

Why are taxpayers not Merseyrail paying £139,000+ for each day of Merseyrail strike?

Cllr Steve Foulkes (middle) answers a question about the Merseyrail strike (L to R Cllr Chris Meaden, Cllr Steve Foulkes, Cllr Moira McLaughlin and Cllr Ann McLachlan) Birkenhead Constituency Committee 30th March 2017

Further information has been supplied to this blog which shows new information about the Merseyrail strike planned tomorrow timed to coincide with the Grand National. For the background to this story please read Why are Merseyrail staff striking on the 8th April?

Last year I exclusively published the contract that councillors agreed to between Merseyrail and Merseytravel titled Deed to confirm the Consolidated Concession Agreement relating to the services for the carriage of passengers by railway to be provided by Merseyrail Electrics 2002 Limited.

That contract shows that the cost of the strike action tomorrow and the one day strike recently will not be met by Merseyrail but by Merseytravel.

It is estimated that just the one day strike tomorrow will cost the taxpayers of Merseyside at least £139,000 (plus the cost of any contingency arrangements).

Merseyrail is however required to use all reasonable endeavours to prevent a strike, which may explain Merseyrail’s recent unsuccessful court action to prevent a recent one day strike from happening.

However, financial considerations aside (pictured above is Merseytravel’s Lead Councillor for Finance and Strategy Cllr Steve Foulkes) the union also states that the public supports a guard on every train (as compared to the Merseytravel & Merseyrail view that a guard will not be required on every train once the new trains start running).

The public will have their say on who will decide the future direction of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Merseytravel when a new Metro Mayor is elected next month.

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Why are Merseyrail staff striking on the 8th April?

The end of the Birkenhead Constituency Committee had the air of an Agatha Christie’s Poirot, as I asked a question about Merseytravel, Merseyrail and the upcoming strike.

Indeed in Cllr Foulkes’ answer he mentioned the death of Georgia Varley as one of the reasons behind the new trains which will only need a driver.

However perhaps with those with long memories will know that a long time ago I asked a question to Cllr Foulkes about Wirral Council’s treatment of disabled people (which led to Bill Norman advising councillors not to publish the draft Anna Klonowski Associates report).

Although there is a strike timetable for Saturday and some timetable alterations for the two days before, as Merseyrail staff wouldn’t cross the picket lines last time, Merseyrail had to stop all trains during the last strike on the network from running at all.

My question (in two parts) is below:

Q. Wirral Council pays millions to Merseytravel each year for concessionary travel passes for free travel on the buses, trains and ferries.

One of the train stations nearest to where I live Bidston is only accessible by going up a flight of stairs, over a footbridge and down another flight of stairs.

Other train stations in Birkenhead such as Birkenhead Park and Upton have stepped ramps which can also cause problems.

A link is included in this question to a legal case from 2004 in the Court of Appeal which decided that providing taxis is not a reasonable adjustment and that train stations that were not accessible for wheelchair users were therefore discriminating against disabled people.

Who therefore for the stations listed above (Birkenhead Park, Upton and Bidston) is the body that should make these stations more accessible (for example Merseytravel, Merseyrail, Network Rail, Arriva Trains Wales)?

Would you also like to comment on the reasons that have led Merseyrail to go on strike recently, with a further planned strike on 8th April (timed to coincide with the Grand National)?

Thank you.

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Birkenhead Constituency Committee 30th March 2017 Public Questions

Both Cllr George Davies and Cllr Steve Foulkes are Labour councillors in Claughton ward where there is a contested byelection due to the death of Cllr Denise Roberts. There is also an election for Metro Mayor across Merseyside who will be directly accountable to the people for these sorts of decisions as ultimately the decision to purchase new trains was made by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

If people would like to comment on the candidates’ policy positions on this (or other matters) in either election, please feel free to leave a comment.

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Merseytravel blamed by Merseyrail as cause of 1 day strike tomorrow by RMT over axing guards from trains

Merseytravel Committee (Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) meeting 25th June 2015 Middle Row L to R Cllr Jerry Williams, Cllr Steve Foulkes, Cllr Malcolm Sharp, Cllr Terry Shields

UPDATED 12.37 13.3.17: Merseyrail have suspended all trains until at least 2pm as drivers (presumably not part of the RMT union) refuse to cross picket lines, so trains are not running at all on the Merseyrail network at this point in time.

It was like the Wild West out there at the train station.

And who should I spy scurrying away, why a blast from the past Steve Maddox (with his wife)!

Those who remember will know that Steve Maddox was once clerk to Merseytravel (in the days it met at Hatton Garden).

So in a way I think the universe is gently nudging me to write this story!

In train related news, the workers are getting cross at the local politicians’ plan to axe the guards when new trains are introduced .

Decided in a behind closed doors extraordinary meeting last year, councillors (including Cllr Steve Foulkes (Labour), Cllr Jerry Williams (Labour) and Cllr Les Rowlands (Conservative)) agreed to new trains that only need drivers and not guards.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) has called a strike for tomorrow (Monday 13th March 2017).

The strike will lead to disruption of timetabled services.

Merseyrail (their employer) objected to the High Court on the basis that RMT’s dispute was with Merseytravel not with Merseyrail, however this call for an injunction was rejected by the judiciary.

RMT is also striking on Northern Rail services too on the same day.

On the Merseyrail network (in addition to the planned engineering works that mean Liverpool Lime Street (Wirral Line), Moorfields (Wirral Line) and Liverpool Central (Wirral Line) will be closed), during the day of the strike action tomorrow Merseyrail plan to run trains only from 7am to 7pm with a half hourly service.

Services from Liverpool Lime Street (which was only recently reopened) travelling with Northern Rail to Manchester Victoria and Wigan North Western services will also be disrupted.

Northern Rail has a page on their website outlining the changes to timetables and so does Merseyrail.

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Why did Labour’s Cllr Foulkes gag Green Party Cllr Cleary in devolution debate and what’s happening at the next Merseytravel Committee meeting?

Councillor Steve Foulkes (Labour) (right) speaking at a recent meeting of the Birkenhead Constituency Committee (28th July 2016) while Councillor Pat Cleary (Green) (left) listens

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Council (Wirral Council) 6th December 2016 Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Part 1 of 2

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Council (Wirral Council) 6th December 2016 Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Part 2 of 2

In a debate of Wirral Council councillors held yesterday evening to agree changes to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Labour’s Cllr Steve Foulkes used a procedural motion to gag the Green Party councillor Cllr Pat Cleary from speaking.

Despite an intervention by Cllr Stuart Kelly, pointing out that in Cllr Kelly’s opinion no such power exists in Wirral Council’s constitution, the gag remained.

Asked after the meeting for his views on what happened, Cllr Pat Cleary stated, “Thank you Labour for gagging me and sparking unprecedented interest in my views on devolution.” and he has blogged about what he would’ve said had he not been gagged here.

In other Liverpool City Region Combined Authority news, an Extraordinary meeting of LCRCA’s Merseytravel Committee is scheduled for the morning of the 16th December, followed by a meeting of the Combined Authority later that day. Cllr Steve Foulkes is one of Wirral’s four representatives on the Merseytravel Committee. The purposes of the next Merseytravel Committee meeting is to agree a contract for new rolling stock.

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What is in 13 Merseytravel/Liverpool City Region Combined Authority contracts and hundreds of pages of invoices relating to the 15/16 financial year?

Merseytravel and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority were the last public body to respond to my request to inspect and receive copies during the 30 working day period which was originally supposed to run starting on the 1st July 2016.

Interestingly the public notice for Merseytravel published on their website and the public notice for Liverpool City Region Combined Authority published on Merseytravel’s website, a Julie Watling (Merseytravel) stated in response to a FOI request on the 8th August 2016, that “This notice is not unfortunately on our website at this present time.”.

This was interesting as the 30 working day period isn’t allowed to start until the public notice is published!

However the FOI request went to an internal review and Julie Watling of Merseytravel responded on the 11th August stating that, “However I had been mistakenly informed that the information was not on the website, when in fact it was available at the following links:-”

Merseytravel public notice 15/16 FY

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority public notice 15/16 FY

But then, is it reasonable to expect an organisation to know what’s published on its own website and to answer Freedom of Information Act requests accurately or am I asking too much?

Which is the correct answer?

However the information (or to be more accurate part of the information) I requested arrived in the post yesterday (postage around £6.20 as it was special delivery guaranteed by 1pm) with a covering letter from a trainee solicitor and DVD.

Below is what was on the DVD. I did get a further email yesterday with a contract that had been mistakenly left off the DVD too.

Although the internal review clears up the issue about the public notice on Merseytravel’s website, for the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority it should’ve been published on the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s website, not Merseytravel’s.

So part of my objection I sent to the auditors yesterday still stands.

The invoices are split by the thirteen accounting periods that Merseytravel used during the 2015 2016 financial year, although why spoil the surprise when you can read for yourself below?

There are some interesting matters to be gleaned from the invoices and contracts, however I don’t have the time at present to blog about them in detail.

Invoices 2015 to 2016 financial year (Merseytravel and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority).

11.3 MARCH3-810124407-0001 Merseytravel LCRCA invoices 2016

11.2 MARCH2-810124324-0001 Merseytravel LCRCA invoices 2016

11.1 MARCH1-810124215-0001 Merseytravel LCRCA invoices 2016

10 FEBRUARY-809164910-0001 Merseytravel LCRCA invoices 2016

9 JANUARY-809164746-0001 Merseytravel LCRCA invoices 2016

8 DECEMBER-809164624-0001 Merseytravel LCRCA invoices 2015 2016

7 NOVEMBER-809164505-0001 Merseytravel LCRCA invoices 2015

6 OCTOBER-809164348-0001 Merseytravel LCRCA invoices 2015

5 AUGUST-810123950-0001 Merseytravel LCRCA invoices 2015

4 JULY-809164206-0001 Merseytravel LCRCA invoices 2015

3 JUNE-809164104-0001 Merseytravel LCRCA invoices 2015