Wirral Council councillors agree to change of polling station and to consultation on medical requirements for taxi drivers

Wirral Council councillors agree to change of polling station and to consultation on medical requirements for taxi drivers

Wirral Council councillors agree to change of polling station and to consultation on medical requirements for taxi drivers

                                                     

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Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee Wirral Council 19th November 2014  L to R Cllr Steve Williams, Cllr Geoffrey Watt, Cllr Andrew Hodson and Anne Beauchamp
Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee Wirral Council 19th November 2014 L to R Cllr Steve Williams, Cllr Geoffrey Watt, Cllr Andrew Hodson and Anne Beauchamp

Wirral Council’s Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee met on the 19th November 2014. The agenda and reports for this meeting can be read on Wirral Council’s website.

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1. MEMBERS’ CODE OF CONDUCT – DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST 0:22
There were no declarations of interest made.

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2. MINUTES 0:30
The minutes of the meeting held on the 19th June 2014 were agreed.

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3. POLLING STATIONS: FURTHER UPDATE 0:43
Cllr Geoffrey Watt then declared a non pecuniary interest in item 3 (Polling Station – Further Update) as it refers to polling district QC which is in West Kirby & Thurstaston ward (which he represents on Wirral Council). Get Propecia free trial on http://www.trendingdownward.com/propecia-finasteride/ and try for hair loss treatment.

Kate Robinson explained that this report was about polling stations for polling district YC (Moreton West and Saughall Massie) and QC (West Kirby & Thurstaston).

The (Acting) Returning Officer’s report recommended the following polling stations:

YC (Moreton West and Saughall Massie): Foxfield School (Douglas Drive)
QC (West Kirby & Thurstaston): St Bridget’s Church of England Primary School (St Bridget’s Lane)

Councillors discussed the (Acting) Returning Officer’s recommendations.

The decisions as to where polling stations would be for the May 2015 elections were made by councillors on the Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee as follows:

YC (Moreton West and Saughall Massie): Foxfield School (Douglas Drive)

There was a petition of “more than twenty-five names” about the decision for polling district QC. However Cllr Geoffrey Watt said that the petition had unfortunately been lost. There was also a letter from the headteacher of St Bridget’s Church of England Primary School which he had circulated to those on the committee which was about the polling station for district QC.

Councillors discussed whether the polling station for district QC should be St Bridget’s Church of England Primary School (St Bridget’s Lane) or St Bridget’s Centre (St Bridget’s Lane).

QC (West Kirby & Thurstaston): St Bridget’s Centre (St Bridget’s Lane) proposed by Cllr Geoffrey Watt, seconded by Cllr Andrew Hodson. This proposal was agreed.

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4. UPDATE ON ELECTORAL ACTIVITIES 9:59

Kate Robinson advised the Committee that Wirral Council would be writing to 2,930 postal voters and 6 proxy voters during December to ask for refreshed signatures. If no response was received, a reminder would be sent. If no response was received to the reminder then the postal vote would be cancelled. She said that councillors may get inquiries about this and that they should encourage electors to respond.

Councillors discussed many interrelated issues to do with postal votes, the electoral roll, application forms, One Stop Shops, surgeries, internet access and local free newspapers.

Kate Robinson updated councillors on the results of the changes to individual registration. 91% of those on the voting lists had been matched with Department for Work and Pension data. People who had been automatically matched didn’t need to re-register. The plan was to send polling cards out in March [2015], but before that to do an audit of the electoral register in January with a mini canvass. Every household that was now registered would be sent a letter asking if the information held was right or wrong. This would save Wirral Council staff being “inundated with changes”.

Councillors Hodson and Sullivan asked her questions or commented on that item, the purpose of which was to keep councillors on the Committee updated on Electoral Services activities).

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5. HACKNEY CARRIAGE VEHICLE PROPRIETOR LICENCE ALLOCATION POLICY 21:35

Margaret O’Donnell introduced this item and the reasons for the proposed change.

Councillors agreed the new policy.

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6. MEDICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR HACKNEY CARRIAGE AND PRIVATE HIRE DRIVERS

Margaret O’Donnell introduced this item and the reasons for the proposed consultation.

Councillors suggested changes to what was consulted on. One councillor asked for legal advice on whether the current requirements should be a consultation option.

With the changes made to what was being consulted on councillors agreed the changes.

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7. ANY OTHER URGENT BUSINESS ACCEPTED BY THE CHAIR

A councillor raised the issue of taxi drivers not adhering to the dress code. Margaret O’Donnell suggested that the dress code requirements could be sent out with the consultation on medical requirements for hackney carriage and private hire drivers.

The Chair raised the issue of deregulation. Margaret O’Donnell said she could provide an update, however the Bill had not yet received Royal Assent. She explained that one of the proposed changes after lobbying by the Local Government Association had been removed from the Bill.

A councillor said that he didn’t understand.

The Chair referred to emails. Margaret O’Donnell referred to a piece of work by the Law Commission which was unlikely to have effect this side of the May 2015 election.

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Cllr Steve Foulkes “I daren’t pick on the libraries because of my past”

Cllr Steve Foulkes “I daren’t pick on the libraries because of my past”

Cllr Steve Foulkes “I daren’t pick on the libraries because of my past”

                           

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Cllr Steve Foulkes had this to say about the Internal Audit update and its appendix presented to the Audit and Risk Management Committee, which starts at 20:20 in the video above.

He said, “Yeah, well I mean this report is good and it’s followed every month by the updated report on work that’s going on and I’m glad this work’s going on, but I think audit and risk can be a pretty dull committee for its old hands but I think what we should always try to do is put what we’re learning and what we’re investigating back into the real world in many ways.

If you look at the report around the libraries, and I’m not going to go into a debate about that, I’ve got too many scars over that. However, however, I need to be reassured that this isn’t an aspect of the service either because of the changes that have to be made or changes that are coming about or just a general poor management that’s taken place because often things like this are not just a symptom of poor regulatory or financial issues but are lack of morale, lack of motivation, lack of care in the service or a feeling perhaps sometimes of you know well ‘we’re untouchable, nothing else will happen’.

We’ve got twenty-four libraries, I think that the decision has been made that those assets are vital assets and the community have made an opinion about them, but at the same time they have to be run extremely efficiently, like every service that we have to justify what they’re doing and we’re asking them to take on more and more.

There’s no reason why the libraries shouldn’t be part of the front line sort of places where people do business and have trust in. So I’m just sort of saying that this has been investigated. If it’s a general malaise or a general lack of management or misunderstanding then certainly you know we are combining one stop shops with libraries, they are coming more along and if we’ve got twenty-four, there again we’d better make sure we get every single pennies worth of value out of them for the future. So I’m, what I would like to do on this is committee is actually use the audit in a broader way to draw attention to what is happening with the rest of the Council.

Likewise in 2.2, the Invigor8 direct debit, one of the ways the Council needs to become more efficient is encourage more people to do things like that with direct debit, the most you know quickest, cheapest form of transaction. So if 100% of the population did everything by direct debit, there would be considerable savings, so when we have a direct debit system that undermines public confidence in the Council and how it delivers those systems it makes alarms bells ring a little bit more in my head and says, ‘Come on, you know we can’t, we’ve got to be so spot on.’

We are actively, I hope actively tempting people to use and address Council services in the cheapest way for us and therefore protect more services that are not available. So I like to look underneath the headlines of you know, we made a mistake there some people I believe got £400 debit as opposed to a £40 debit. How many people will they have told about that? How many people will they say, ‘Don’t do a direct debit with the Council, they get it wrong!’

So my view is that you know these points can’t just be brushed over and say oh well it’s just you know librarians can’t manage money, well they have to if that want to work for the Council. Anybody has to manage money efficiently and our job of the audit is to see those signals and ask some more searching questions about what’s going on underneath.

You know if I just read that one particular site and I’m not saying this now I’m picking on the libraries, I daren’t pick on the libraries because of my past but as I say we’re asking them to become more front line, more proactive if they need to understand anything else. So I’m asking those questions, maybe Mark on my behalf could ask one of the heads of service who might be able to understand what’s going on on the ground.”

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