5 days after Lyndale School closes, Labour councillors on Wirral Council’s Cabinet will meet to decide on a further consultation on sale of Lyndale School and the playing fields

5 days after Lyndale School closes, Labour councillors on Wirral Council’s Cabinet will meet to decide on a further consultation on sale of Lyndale School and the playing fields

5 days after Lyndale School closes, Labour councillors on Wirral Council’s Cabinet will meet to decide on a further consultation on sale of Lyndale School and the playing fields


                                        

Cabinet 17th December 2014 vote on Lyndale School closure L to R Cllr Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Education), Cllr George Davies, Cllr Ann McLachlan
Cabinet 17th December 2014 vote to close Lyndale School L to R Cllr Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Education), Cllr George Davies, Cllr Ann McLachlan

Wirral Council’s Cabinet, who decided to close Lyndale School effective from the end of August 2016 (this month), will be making a further decision about Lyndale School at the first Cabinet meeting after it closes.

The decision to close Lyndale School was opposed by the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green Party councillors on Wirral Council, but supported by Labour councillors.

At a public meeting of Wirral Council’s Cabinet to be held on the 5th September 2016, the Cabinet will be asked to declare Lyndale School a surplus asset and to seek permission from the government to sell both the Lyndale School site and the playing fields. If agreed there will then be a further consultation on disposal.

The review of commissioning of high needs places, promised to parents during the drawn out process of closing Lyndale School (which many parents stated would conclude after Lyndale School had been closed) will report back to Cabinet on the 3rd of October 2016 (around 5 weeks after Lyndale School will have closed).

As revealed by this blog exclusively in September 2014, Wirral Council’s asset register assigned a value of £1,788,103.00 to the buildings on the Lyndale School site and £908,000 to the land (total £2,696,103.00) in February 2013.

Elleray Park School (another primary school on Wirral in the special sector) has recently had internal alterations and an extension in a contract estimated at £1,028,109.84. It was stated by Wirral Council’s senior management that some of the remaining pupils at Lyndale School when it closed would be transferred to Elleray Park (although this appears now not to be the case as parents have chosen other schools) and an invoice for some of the recent building work (£170,798.74) at Elleray Park School is below.

Wirral Council Elleray Park Primary School Lyjon Company Ltd £170,796.74 28th September 2015 resized
Wirral Council Elleray Park Primary School Lyjon Company Ltd £170,796.74 28th September 2015 resized

Also in 2015 the former Foxfield School in Moreton (which is another special primary school on the Wirral but for clarity this is after the school was moved from Moreton to a new site in Woodchurch) was demolished (see invoice below).

Wirral Council Foxfield School Powell Demolition Ltd £82,050.25th November 2015 resized
Wirral Council Foxfield School Powell Demolition Ltd £82,050.25th November 2015 resized

If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.

Notice of Motion on flooding in Moreton to be debated by Wirral’s councillors tonight

Notice of Motion on flooding in Moreton to be debated by Wirral’s councillors tonight

Notice of Motion on flooding in Moreton to be debated by Wirral’s councillors tonight

                                                             

Cllr Chris Blakeley (foreground centre) the proposer of the Notice of Motion on flooding in Moreton at a public meeting last month
Cllr Chris Blakeley (foreground centre) the proposer of the Notice of Motion on flooding in Moreton at a public meeting last month

Wirral Council has a sub domain (democracy.wirral.gov.uk) on its website which is used to publish information to do with public meetings.

Due to the way its configured, the search engines (at least the search engines that respect such rules) are barred from searching pages on its website.

I have to declare at this point that I earn money from Google. However to illustrate this point a quick search of the site in Google will only show one page even though there are many more pages than that.

So I used a program called Xenu Link Sleuth to create an index of pages on that part of Wirral Council’s website. This has thrown up many interesting (and some quite frankly dull pages).

For example, one of the larger files on that part of Wirral Council’s website at nearly 17 megabytes is the Mersey Heartlands Water Cycle Study (January 2014) (100 pages) which was done for Wirral Council and Liverpool City Council by URS Infrastructure & Environment UK Ltd. The report is connected to this delegated decision made by the Cabinet Member for the Economy made on the 26th February 2014 and is a material consideration when deciding on planning applications.

Pages 65 to 72 of that report deal with management of flood risk and Notice of Motion 4 to tonight’s Council meeting is about flooding in Moreton. Labour have submitted an amendment (amendment 2 on this list) that adds an extra two paragraphs to the original motion.

That report mentions in detail the risks of various types of flooding and refers to the River Birket. As it states in the report:

  • "The main river draining the Wirral Mersey Heartland, the River Birket, relies on pumping, and the area is reliant on flood defences to minimise flood risk to the existing development both from fluvial and tidal flood risk and surface water drainage channels. Failure of these defences constitutes a residual risk of flooding to the area."

If you’re wondering what fluvial means, it means “of or relating to a river”.

The report also details what how new homes should be more water efficient through the Water Efficiency Targets such as through water efficient showers, rainwater harvesting and other measures to cut down the amount of water used by households.

If you click on any of these buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people. Thanks:

£1800 invoice to Wirral Council for barrister Sarah O’Brien in Fernbank Farm matter (Kane & Woodley)

£1800 invoice to Wirral Council for barrister Sarah O’Brien in Fernbank Farm matter (Kane & Woodley)

£1800 invoice to Wirral Council for barrister Sarah O’Brien in Fernbank Farm matter (Kane & Woodley)

                                                        

Below is the invoice received for the services of a barrister called Miss Sarah O’Brien of Exchange Chambers to Wirral Council to do with the possession order for Fernbank Farm which was heard at the Birkenhead County Court earlier this year. I requested this as part of the 2013/14 audit.

I have added annotations in green which represent information that Wirral Council either incorrectly blacked out, or should’ve blacked out or information which was blacked out but is known to me from court reporting on the issue.

Detail of redactions 1: “Professional Fees of:”
Reason incorrect: Sarah O’Brien is not an employee of Wirral Council.
Unredacted text: Sarah O’Brien

Details of redaction 2: DX 708630
Reason incorrect: partial redaction as it was meant to redact next line, DX 708630 refers to Wirral Council’s document exchange number.
Unredacted text: DX 708630

Details of redaction 3: Mr Ali Bayatti
Reason correct: Redaction correct as person is Wirral Council employee, however due to earlier court hearing name of solicitor is known. Unredacted to aid in transparency as name said during open court hearing in Birkenhead County Court (2013). Also important to know which solicitor is instructing the barrister.
Unredacted text: Mr Ali Bayatti

Details of redaction 4: AB / H19 / 25650
Reason correct/incorrect: Redaction partially correct as AB refers to Ali Bayatti. However redaction done incompetently by drawing a line in pen through after the other redactions were added as an afterthought by an accountant.
Unredacted text: AB/ H19 / 25650

Details of redaction 5: METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF WIRRAL – V – CAROL KANE & EILEEN WOODLEY
Reason incorrect: refers to parties’ names in court case.
Unredacted text: METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF WIRRAL – V – CAROL KANE & EILEEN WOODLEY

Details of redaction 6: “Name/info”
Reason incorrect: refers to parties’ names in court case. Unredacted KANE. Rest is unknown.
Unredacted text: KANE

Details of redaction 7: “Init” (three handwritten initials)
Reason correct: Refers to initials of Wirral Council officer.
Unredacted text:

Details of redaction 8: “Certified Correct for payment” (signature)
Reason correct: signature of Wirral Council officer.
Unredacted text:

Details of redaction 9: “To Miss Sarah O’Brien”
Reason incorrect: refers to barrister of Exchange Chambers not Wirral Council officer.
Unredacted text: To Miss Sarah O’Brien

Details of redaction 10: “Sarah Rotheram”
Reason incorrect: Does not refer to Wirral Council employee.
Unredacted text: Sarah Rotherham

Original document is below, followed by the same document with my annotations in green (although it is possible Wirral Council’s legal department have gone too far with the black pen in places).

There is a related Freedom of Information Act request to this of Ian Lewis on the Whatdotheyknow website “Use of barrister in Wirral Borough Council v. Kane and Woodley” which provides a little more detail.

redacted invoice Fernbank Farm court case Carol Kane Eileen Woodley Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
redacted invoice Fernbank Farm court case Carol Kane Eileen Woodley Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
unredacted invoice Carol Kane Eilieen Woodley Metropolitan Borough of Wirral Birkenhead County Court invoice £1800
unredacted invoice Carol Kane Eilieen Woodley Metropolitan Borough of Wirral Birkenhead County Court invoice £1800

If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.

Horses or 100 houses at Fernbank Farm? Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agrees to list it for housing

Horses or 100 houses at Fernbank Farm? Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agrees to list it for housing

Horses or 100 houses at Fernbank Farm? Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agrees to list it for housing

                               

Councillor Phil Davies and Graham Burgess at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority on the 13th June 2014
Councillor Phil Davies and Graham Burgess at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority on the 13th June 2014

Today was the second meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. The agenda and reports can be read on Knowsley Council’s website. Item 19 was “Liverpool City Region Strategic Local Investment Plan (2014-17) Housing Sites” and had in its appendices a list of housing sites that are currently in the pre planning stage.

This particular entry in appendix 3 (which can be found on page 124 of the reports pack) caught my eye and is below.

Site Potential Total Units Comments
Moreton (Wirral) Approximately 100 dwellings Cabinet resolution on 7 November 2013 to defer decision for disposal until the outcomes of legal proceedings for the relocation of the existing tenant are known. A court order dated 13 February 2014 granted a Possession Order to the Council which provided tenant with six months to relocate. The Council has since offered to extend this period to 12 months from the date of the court order. No current resolution, however, to dispose of site.

The Cabinet resolution of 7th November 2013 in relation to Fernbank Farm was (3) the decision on land at Manor Drive be deferred and reconsidered at the next scheduled meeting of the Cabinet when the outcome of legal proceedings will be known. The legal proceedings didn’t deal with relocation of the existing tenants but merely Wirral Council’s claim for a possession order.

The court order dated 13th February 2014 gave twelve months, not six as stated in the report before the possession order had effect. The Council hasn’t “offered to extend this period to 12 months” as that’s the date in the court order!

A copy of the court order is below. So who wrote the comments in the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority report which got the history of what had happened so wrong?

Possession Order (February 2014)

Possession Order (February 2014)

If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.

Cabinet agree to progress plans to move Foxfield School from Moreton to Woodchurch following consultation

A report on Wirral Council’s Cabinet decision to move Foxfield School from Moreton to Woodchurch

Cabinet agree to progress plans to move Foxfield School from Moreton to Woodchurch following consultation

Wirral Council’s Cabinet agreed to proceed further with the plan to relocate Foxfield School from Moreton to Woodchurch following the consultation. The proposed move would result in a newly built school at a cost of £7.5 million on a site next to Woodchurch High School. Planning officers had pointed out that the proposed site is in Wirral’s Green Belt and that special circumstances would need to be demonstrated if the new build school was to be agreed.

Julia Hassall (Director of the Children and Young People’s Department) told the Cabinet that they had met the special circumstances requirement when building Woodchurch High, but that the decision needed now to be referred to the Secretary of State. She also said that Sports England would need to be consulted as it would result in the loss of a school playing field. In order to deal with the timescales for accessing funding, Cabinet agreed to waive call-in on the decision.