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Councillors meet next week to discuss fire station mergers project including Saughall Massie

Land off Saughall Massie Road Saughall Massie 13th December 2016 SAVE OUR GREEN BELT SAY NO TO THE FIRE STATION banner

A public meeting of councillors on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority next week (MFRA’s Wirral Council nominated councillors are Councillor Brian Kenny, Councillor Chris Meaden, Cllr Lesley Rennie and Councillor Jean Stapleton) has as its last agenda item the fire station mergers project.

A report to councillors states that the Prescot fire station will cost a further £145,000 than planned due to “discovery and eradication of Japanese Knotweed; grouting of shallow mining workings; requirement for further boreholes and trial pits due to inaccurately plotted co-ordinates; and the discovery of further asbestos contamination”. A break-in to the site compound over Easter also led to a loss of £2,000 of plant and equipment.

The report states that in St Helens, Pilkington have withdrawn their offer of a two acre site in Canal Street as someone else has offered Pilkington more money than Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority, so MFRA have been forced to switch to another Pilkington owned site in the Watson Street works (which may require a further consultation).

A revised planning application for the Saughall Massie site (which is owned by Wirral Council) has been submitted to Wirral Council and the report author had been hoping that it would be decided at the Planning Committee scheduled for the 1st June 2017.

Due to the general election, it looks unlikely that a decision will be made a week before people vote, so Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service have told councillors it will probably go to a Planning Committee meeting to be decided on the 22nd June 2017.

Interestingly, despite an “intention” expressed to councillors in January to appeal the original refusal of planning permission, this has now been changed to an appeal of the decision to the Planning Inspectorate of the revised planning application (should it be refused again).

The public meeting of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority will be held on Thursday 25th May 2017 starting at 1.00 pm in the Liverpool Suite at Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Bridle Rd, Bootle, L30 4YD. Further details on the meeting including an agenda and reports can be read on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority’s website.

Would you like to see 2 invoices (totalling £153,250.61) for pre construction work on the Saughall Massie fire station project?

Below this are 2 two page invoices to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service for work by their contractor Wates Construction Ltd. This is for pre-construction work on the Saughall Massie fire station (as far as I know a planning application hasn’t been yet submitted).

One invoice is for £99,686.90 (£119,623.31 including VAT) paid on the 4th March 2016, the second is for £28,022.75 (£33,627.30 including VAT) paid on the 17th March 2016.

There are also some emails that accompany the invoices which show:

a) The contractor originally didn’t put Saughall Massie on the invoice but Prescot (Prescot is about 18 miles away from Saughall Massie and is another fire station project),

b) Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service refused to pay the invoice until it was amended and Saughall Massie put on it,

c) the contractor submitted an amended invoice but then spelt Saughall Massie as Saughall Massey.

Sadly the valuation breakdowns of what these invoices were for which was included in the Draft Payment Notice e-mail has not been shared with me. Apologies if the images below take a while to load, I scanned them in in colour by mistake instead of black and white. This has the effect of increasing the file size.