Month: October 2011

Planning Committee 25th October 2011 Agenda Item 6 APP/11/00834 Part 2

The Chair, Cllr David Elderton asked if there was a petitioner who wished to address the Committee. A Stephen Walker, who lives in Wright Street did want to address the Committee. Stephen said the petitioners had concerns over the new build, its effect on the character of the area and parking concerns. He referred to … Continue reading “Planning Committee 25th October 2011 Agenda Item 6 APP/11/00834 Part 2”

The Chair, Cllr David Elderton asked if there was a petitioner who wished to address the Committee.

A Stephen Walker, who lives in Wright Street did want to address the Committee. Stephen said the petitioners had concerns over the new build, its effect on the character of the area and parking concerns. He referred to the site visit the day before at noon and said they had struggled to park. He highlighted the fact that flats had been converted on King Street and Wright Street which had led to extra demand on parking. Mr. Walker said that if the user of the proposed garage had a car it would be a struggle to park there and there would be a struggle over access. He was concerned over the proposed building and damage by the builder during demolition to a neighbouring property. Mr. Walker was concerned that the site was not secure and the fences were down.

Cllr David Elderton thanked the petitioner and summarised his concerns as being about parking & access, demolition and security. He asked if the applicant was present and wished to speak? The applicant didn’t wish to speak, however a councillor representing the ward Cllr Darren Dodd did.

Cllr Darren Dodd said the site visit had taken place, parking was difficult, it was a narrow road and he had dealt with parking issues here for over a year. He said his concern was that the extra building would make existing issues worse. There were issues surrounding site safety as the area was an unguarded building site which led to antisocial behaviour. Cllr Dodd said the residents had genuine concerns and he asked for these to be taken into account.

Planning Committee 25th October 2011 Part 1 Minutes, Declarations of Interest, Site Visit

Present:
Cllr David Elderton
Cllr Eddie Boult
Cllr Wendy Clements
Cllr James Keeley (deputy for Cllr Paul Hayes)
Cllr Peter Johnson
Cllr Dave Mitchell
Cllr Stuart Kelly
Cllr Patricia Glasman (deputy for Cllr Brian Kenny)
Cllr John Salter
Cllr Denise Realey
Cllr Joe Walsh
Cllr Bernie Mooney

The agenda and reports for this meeting can be found by clicking on the link.

The Chair, Cllr David Elderton thanked people for coming, he introduced himself, the councillors on the Planning Committee and officers.

The minutes of the Planning Committee meeting held on the 6th September and 20th September were agreed.

The Chair, Cllr David Elderton asked for any declarations of interest. Cllr Bernie Mooney declared a prejudicial interest on item 11 with regards to an email she sent on behalf of Cllr Darren Dodd.

The Chair then asked for any requests for site visits. A site visit was requested by Cllr John Salter with respect to agenda item 4 (APP/10/01105) for a dozen houses on vacant land at the junction of Wharf Street and Water Street in Bromborough. This was agreed by the Planning Committee.

The Chair asked to vary the order of the agenda to take into account petitions. This was agreed.

The first planning application to be considered was APP/11/00834 – Land adjacent to 47 WRIGHT STREET, EGREMONT, CH44 8BD – Erection of a new dwelling. Matthew Rushton said it was a planning application for a new dwelling which followed the existing building line. It was also for a garage for one car. He said it was in line with Supplementary Planning Document 4. He said the staircase and the rear terrace had been deleted and mentioned the separation distance.

Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee 20/10/2011 Part 1 (PACSPE call in)

The agenda and reports for the meeting can be found here.

Apologies
Cllr Stuart Wittingham substituted by Cllr Denise Roberts
Cllr Pat Hackett substituted by Cllr Ron Abbey

Present:
Conservative councillors
Cllr John Hale (Chair)
Cllr Don McCubbin (Vice-Chair)
Cllr Steve Williams
Cllr Adam Sykes

Labour councillors
Cllr Denise Roberts (substitute for Cllr Stuart Wittingham)
Cllr Ron Abbey (substitute for Cllr Pat Hackett)
Cllr Jerry Williams
Cllr Chris Jones
Cllr Joe Walsh

Liberal Democrat councillor
Cllr Bob Wilkins

Labour Cabinet member in attendance (who is not part of the Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee)
Cllr Chris Meaden (Cabinet Member for Culture, Tourism and Leisure)

The Chair, Cllr John Hale welcomed people to the meeting. Something about the Serious Fraud Office was mentioned and a wish to “close without session”.

Cllr Ron Abbey suggested ten minutes of the meeting in closed session.

Cllr John Hale mentioned something about the press and an inquiry being another matter.

The legal advisor to the committee said it had been brought to Wirral Council’s attention, but the level of information was limited. He appreciated the Labour councillor’s suggestion.

Cllr Bob Wilkins said he failed to see the evidence, but agreed with the Labour councillors to hold it in closed session for ten minutes.
Cllr John Hale said as it was a majority view of the committee, that press and public would have to leave until they were invited back in.

Due to the large numbers of people present it took some time for the room to clear. Some people went home, others waited in the lobby to go back into the meeting.

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In the interests of openness, John Brace lives opposite Bidston Hill which is covered by the PACSPE contract.

Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee 20th October 2011 PACSPE Call-in

Tonight’s meeting was as the Cabinet decision of the 22nd September 2011 on the PACSPE contract had been called-in by Cllr Jeff Green, Cllr Tom Harney, Cllr Dave Mitchell, Cllr Lesley Rennie and Cllr David Elderton.
At the end of a 3 1/2 hour meeting the voting went as follows.

Labour Amendment to Conservative motion

This amendment upheld the original decision.

Votes For         : 5 (Labour councillors)
Votes Against : 5 (Conservatives councillor plus one Liberal Democrat councillor)

Abstention       : 0
Casting vote of Conservative Chair: AGAINST

Votes For        : 5 (Labour councillors)

Votes Against: 6 (Conservatives councillor plus one Liberal Democrat councillor) + Chair’s casting vote
Abstention     :  0

AMENDMENT FAILS

Conservative Motion

Votes for          : 5 (Conservative councillors plus one Liberal Democrat councillor)

Votes against: 5 (Labour councillors)

Abstentions   : 0

Casting vote of Chair: For

Votes for:          6 (Conservative councillors plus one Liberal Democrat councillor) + Chair’s casting vote

Votes against: 5 (Labour councillors)

Abstentions:  0

MOTION PASSES (Proposed Cllr John Hale, seconded Cllr Don McCubbin)

Text of Motion:

This committee notes that:

    • The Cabinet appeared to ignore, and did not even mention, the findings of the Office of Government Commerce Gateway Reviews that the Parks & Countryside Services Procurement Exercise (PACSPE) had been subjected to.
    • No attempt was made to publically question officers from the Finance Department, the Legal Department and the Procurement Unit who were members of the PACSPE Project Board as to whether the “risk” identified by District Audit, and made such play of in the Cabinet resolution could or had been satisfactorily mitigated.
    • No discussion was had by Cabinet Members of the risks of not awarding the contract.
    • No mention or discussion took place regarding stakeholder management or the views of key stakeholders about the benefits of clear quality improvements that were built into the procurement exercise. In fact, other than the view of the Council’s Trade Unions, the results of the consultation and the views of the park users and user groups were not even mentioned in a single Cabinet meeting.
    • No reference was made to the new post of Community Engagement Manager to work with Friends, stakeholders, user groups, and local Area Forums or the new key performance indicators developed through PACSPE to reflect the change to a more customer and community focused service.
    • Insufficient account seemed to have been taken of the reduction from costs of £8.1 million per year to £7.4 million per year already achieved by the PACSPE process with the potential to reduce costs by a further circa £500,000. Indeed, it is hard to understand how the Leader of of the Council characterised a £1.2 million per annum potential saving arising from PACSPE to be sufficiently marginal to be ignored.
    • No effort appeared to be made by Cabinet Members to discuss or evaluate the additional costs to Council Tax Payers of purchasing what has been accepted as worn out equipment requiring immediate replacement (circa £2.5 million) or the TUPE costs of bringing current contractor staff into the Council workforce and pension scheme, per annum or over the 10 year period.
    • No mention was made of the training and development programme for staff and volunteers or the three to six new apprentices to be created as part of PACSPE.
    • No explanation was given at Cabinet regarding the opposition to a 10 year contract that would reduce annual costs by circa £1.2 million and improve the quality of our parks and countryside, other than the expressed need contained in the resolution to reduce spending by £85 million over three years.
    • Therefore we believe that the decision to refuse to award the PACSPE contract would see the ever decreasing quality of a service starved of investment by this administration which is already characterised by going for the quick fix instead of making the difficult but necessary strategic decisions in the interests of Wirral residents.

The Committee recommends to the Cabinet

*Editor’s note will have to check rest of resolution due to noise preventing taking it down*

My guess is that the rest of it is “reconsider the decision”.

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In the interests of openness, John Brace lives opposite Bidston Hill which is covered by the PACSPE contract.

Wirral Council 17th October 2011 Part 2

Here is the next part of Monday night’s meeting.

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