Tag: Youth Zone

Why was Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service’s Kieran Timmins (former Deputy Chief Executive/Treasurer and in charge of the Saughall Massie fire station plans in 2014 & 2015) paid £144,500 for “compensation for loss of office” when he was made redundant in 2015?

Why was Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service’s Kieran Timmins (former Deputy Chief Executive/Treasurer and in charge of the Saughall Massie fire station plans in 2014 & 2015) paid £144,500 for “compensation for loss of office” when he was made redundant in 2015?

Why was Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service’s Kieran Timmins (former Deputy Chief Executive/Treasurer and in charge of the Saughall Massie fire station plans in 2014 & 2015) paid £144,500 for “compensation for loss of office” when he was made redundant in 2015?

                                            

Kieran Timmins (former Deputy Chief Executive, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service) taken in 2014
Kieran Timmins (former Deputy Chief Executive, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service) taken in 2014

The author of this piece is an Appellant in a First-tier-Tribunal (Information Rights) case in which Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority is the Second Respondent.

Below are three invoices (for £3,000 each consisting of £2,500 + VAT so £9,000 in total) from a Todd and Ledson LLP to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service for the Saughall Massie fire station project.

Invoice £3000 Todd and Ledson LLP Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 30th December 2015 Saughall Massie Pre Contract Professional fees
Invoice £3000 Todd and Ledson LLP Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 30th December 2015 Saughall Massie Pre Contract Professional fees
Invoice £3000 Todd and Ledson LLP Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 30th September 2015 Saughall Massie Pre Contract Professional fees
Invoice £3000 Todd and Ledson LLP Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 30th September 2015 Saughall Massie Pre Contract Professional fees
Invoice £3000 Todd and Ledson LLP Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 31st August 2015 Saughall Massie Pre Contract Professional fees
Invoice £3000 Todd and Ledson LLP Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 31st August 2015 Saughall Massie Pre Contract Professional fees

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (on behalf of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority) have submitted two planning applications associated with this project.

The most recent dated 20th July 2016 is for a screening opinion which if I’m correct Wirral Council as Local Planning Authority have to make a decision on within 3 weeks of the application, this is SCR/16/00994.

The related planning application to the above submitted on the 15th July 2015 is APP/16/00985 which is described as, “A single storey two bay community fire station incorporating operational and welfare accommodation, offices and meeting space, external drill and training facilities and associated car-parking. | Land adjacent to SAUGHALL MASSIE ROAD, SAUGHALL MASSIE ”.

The land is currently owned by Wirral Council, who are constructing a Youth Zone on land next to Birkenhead Fire Station.

Below are two invoices to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service from their solicitors Weightmans LLP connected to that.

Invoice £660.00 Weightmans LLP Transfer of land at Birkenhead Fire Station to Wirral Council 28th September 2015 Clive Bleasedale
Invoice £660.00 Weightmans LLP Transfer of land at Birkenhead Fire Station to Wirral Council 28th September 2015 Clive Bleasedale
Invoice £697.20 Weightmans LLP Transfer of land at Birkenhead Fire Station to Wirral Council 26th October 2015 Clive Bleasedale
Invoice £697.20 Weightmans LLP Transfer of land at Birkenhead Fire Station to Wirral Council 26th October 2015 Clive Bleasedale

Although at one stage a “land swap” was suggested by former Deputy Chief Executive of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service Kieran Timmins (that is a swap of the land held by Wirral Council for the land adjacent to Birkenhead Fire Station), Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service state that no such land swap with Wirral Council was agreed follow Mr Timmins’ proposal. In an event Mr Timmins left the employment of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service in 2015 having been made redundant and he received £144,500 in redundancy payment in compensation (see note 30 to the accounts (Officers’ Remuneration) on page 66 of the 2015-16 accounts for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority).

The officer at Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service in charge of land matters following Mr. Timmins’ departure from the organisation in August 2015 is Deputy Chief Fire Officer Phil Garrigan.

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EDITORIAL: Jeremy Corbyn, opposition, Saughall Massie fire station and “land swaps”

EDITORIAL: Jeremy Corbyn, opposition, Saughall Massie fire station and “land swaps”

EDITORIAL: Jeremy Corbyn, opposition, Saughall Massie fire station and “land swaps”

                                                  

Cllr Lesley Rennie speaking at a public meeting of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 29th January 2015 on a consultation on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and a new fire station at Saughall Massie
Cllr Lesley Rennie speaking at a public meeting of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 29th January 2015 on a consultation on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and a new fire station at Saughall Massie

A councillor on Wirral Council once suggested to me I write an editorial. It was a good suggestion, but generally I like to steer clear about giving a party political opinion.

Over the weekend, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party and Tom Watson Deputy Leader (Wirral’s own Angela Eagle missed out on becoming Deputy Leader).

Within hours of Jeremy Corbyn‘s election as Leader, I received a press release (nothing too unusual about that) from a PR company with quotes from DeVere Group (who describe themselves as “one of the world’s largest independent advisors of specialist global financial solutions to international, local mass affluent, and high-net-worth clients").

It seems that Jeremy Corbyn becoming Leader of the Labour Party has to put it mildly rattled those who work on behalf of the rich. There were a series of hyperbolic quotes which if I included here would be taking sides on a party political matter and alienate any of my readers that lean towards the left (although some of the quotes are so full of hyperbole that they’re funny).

However, it brings me to an important point about opposition. One of the quotes describes him as “Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition” . Opposition really matters in politics.

Moving from national politics to more local matters, on Tuesday evening (I’m writing this on Sunday but it will be published on Monday) Wirral Council’s Regeneration and Environment Policy and Performance Committee will discuss Cllr Chris Blakeley’s notice of motion about whether the greenbelt land owned by Wirral Council in Saughall Massie should be blocked from being gifted, sold or leased to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority for a new fire station. The public meeting starts at 6.00 pm in Committee Room 1 at Wallasey Town Hall.

The issue was reported extensively on this blog and the local newspapers over the last few years, however it an example why opposition in politics is important because there are about a thousand people who signed a petition against it going ahead.

On Thursday afternoon, a meeting of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority’s Policy and Resources Committee will decide whether to transfer the land by Birkenhead Fire Station to Wirral Council for a Youth Zone. The land is worth an estimated £250,000, but is predicted to be transferred to Wirral Council “at nominal consideration” .

In other words Wirral Council will probably get it just for the costs of the legal costs involved in the sale and not at the market price. So how are the two issues connected?

Back on the 30th June 2015 when the issue was being decided by the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority, Cllr Lesley Rennie asked for an explanation about a series of emails from its former Deputy Chief Executive Kieran Timmins that had been released in response to a FOI request.

The Chief Fire Officer Dan Stephens just answered that he didn’t know anything about it, Kieran Timmins (the author of the email stayed silent) followed by comments from at least one Labour councillor alleging that Cllr Rennie was making things up.

Below is an email from Kieran Timmins suggesting that a “land swap” happens. It suggests Wirral Council gets the land it wants next to Birkenhead Fire Station in exchange for the land in Greasby (this is before Greasby was ruled out and replaced with Saughall Massie).

I have no idea what Wirral Council’s response was to this suggestion!?

I might also point out that Colin Schofield is the PFI Project Manager at Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and it’s never been made crystal clear whether the new Saughall Massie fire station will be part of the PFI fire stations or owned outright by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority. DCLG (Department of Communities and Local Government) only partially answered my FOI request as to what Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority was spending the £4.4 million of grant money on.

Timmins, Kieran

From: Timmins, Kieran
Sent: 12 December 2013 09:58
To: ‘Armstrong, David’
Cc: Royle, Jeanette E.; Schofield, Colin
Subject: RE: Request for Sites

Thanks David, much appreciated. Hope you are ok?

Not sure if Tony can pick this up but it strikes me as making sense if (presuming a Wirral owned site is identified in Greasby) that a land swap for the youth zone in Birkenhead might be a sensible approach for tidying up ownership etc…….. what do you think?

Take care

Kieran

Kieran Timmins
Deputy Chief Executive
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority
Fire Service HQ
Bridle Road
Bootle
L30 4YD

Tel: 0151 296 4202
Fax: 0151 296 4224

kierantimmins@merseyfire.gov.uk
www.merseyfire.gov.uk

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