Incredible: Wirral “spending freeze” Council overpay £½ million to Colas in ten Colas payment blunders
Incredible: Wirral “spending freeze” Council overpay £½ million to Colas in ten Colas payment blunders
The invoice above (which you can click on for a more readable version) received by Wirral Council from Colas in April 2012 showed that while they had a spending freeze on non-essential expenditure that they’d managed to overpay Colas to the tune of £548,734.16! Incredibly ten separate overpayments to Colas were made ranging from £4,660.51 to a staggering £122,330.62.
Although the £½ million credit will count towards later Colas invoices, it makes you wonder if Wirral Council really are as hard up financially as they claim? Wirral Council stamped the invoice from Colas advising them of the £548,734.16 as “paid”, perhaps they don’t have a stamp for overpaid?
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West Kirby and Upton Fire Stations face axe in Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority savings proposals
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West Kirby and Upton Fire Stations face axe in Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority savings proposals
Last weeks Regeneration and Environment Policy and Performance Committee spent nearly thirty-four minutes discussing Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service cuts without mentioning the specifics of what has been already been agreed by the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority. The debate starts about two minutes into the meeting.
On 3rd September Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority (Wirral Council’s represented on this body by Cllr Denise Roberts, Cllr Lesley Rennie, Cllr Steve Niblock and Cllr Jean Stapleton) agreed the following recommendations:
1) The Authority must identify strategic mergers that allow operational response to be maintained whilst improving community and firefighter facilities and reducing costs.
Having assessed the location of the newer stations and the operational response needs of the service the Chief Fire Officer has identified that the two key geographic options where strategic mergers should be considered following consultation are:-
a) Wirral:
Merging West Kirby and Upton to create a much improved station with extensive community facilities at Greasby, which would allow response standards to be maintained whilst improving the capability for community partnerships.
In addition, consideration might be given to the opportunities for the future development of Heswall. This site is commercially attractive and working with private/public partners may create opportunities to improve facilities or relocate services.
….
(ii) Request the Chief Fire Officer to report back with detailed proposals on:-
(a) Options for Station mergers in Wirral
I presume by report back it means to the next meeting of the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority on the 22nd October 2013. The Regeneration and Environment Policy and Performance Committee did agree to invite Chief Fire Officer Dan Stephens to a future meeting to “highlight the potential impact of the Government proposals on the residents of Wirral” but ultimately the decision on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service’s budget for next year is in the hands of the local councillors on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority (current composition fifteen Labour, two Lib Dem and one Conservative). Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority could decide to raise Council Tax to offset the need to make these kinds of cuts to Wirral’s fire cover. If Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority propose (when they set their budget in February 2014) raising the amount of Council Tax spent on fire services by more than 2% compared to last year (which is not enough to offset the decrease in government grant) then it would trigger a Council Tax referendum of Merseyside residents. Currently an assumed 2% rise is in their financial calculations so it seems likely that the proposed cuts on Wirral will go ahead unless savings are found elsewhere.
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Merseyside Police ask Wirral Council for extra powers for Birkenhead booze crackdown
Hogarth’s “Gin Lane”
Merseyside Police ask Wirral Council for extra powers for Birkenhead booze crackdown
Merseyside Police will next week be asking Wirral Council’s Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee to start a four-week consultation on designating all of Birkenhead as an area where the police can confiscate alcohol from people in public places. The police state that their request is due to 128 incidents of alcohol related antisocial behaviour between January and July of this year, twelve of which also involved violence.
There are already two areas of Birkenhead which are already alcohol free zones. The first includes the Pyramids, Birkenhead bus station, Woodside bus station and Hamilton Square. The second area is the electoral ward of Prenton.
If Wirral Council designates all of Birkenhead as a “Designated Public Places Order” then the police will have extra powers in public places to stop people drinking and confiscate their alcohol. If the person refused by either failing to stop drinking or handing over their alcohol they could be fined up to £500. Licensed premises or clubs and the land are not classed as public places for these purposes.
Merseyside Police say they have the support of police officers, police community support officers, local businesses and local residents in calling for this. If you consume Ambien frequently, its effect is reduced and it becomes less efficient. I take it rarely, only when I can’t fall asleep for an hour or two. In the morning, you feel a little bit sleepy after the use of the drug. It is sold by prescription at https://mi-aimh.org/generic-ambien-zolpidem/. There is a petition signed by four hundred and twenty-six people asking for this larger alcohol free zone. The report to the meeting and maps of the proposed and existing alcohol free zones has been published on Wirral Council’s website.
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A report on the 2013 Port Sunlight Festival with photos of balloons, fire eaters, the fountain, a helter skelter and sheep
Port Sunlight Festival 2013: Fire-Eater, Balloons, Fountain, Helter Skelter and Sheep
I went to the Port Sunlight Festival in 2012 too and you can view some photos of last year’s event by following this link. This year it was held over the two days of the weekend instead of one, which meant it was far less crowded.
Here are some photos I took, the images are thumbnails at 10% of the original size. Each thumbnail should link to the original photo though if you click on it.
Drawing quite a crowd was the fire-eater.
The first photo is of one of the balloon sellers with the war memorial in the background.
The second photo is of the same scene as photo one but taken at a different time.
Another photo of balloons, this time much closer so you can see how colourful they were.
There were two balloon sellers there, this one was near the food stalls.
This is a close up of the balloons near the food stalls.
Another photo of the fire-eater this time with an impressively large flame.
A further photo of the fire-eater although I’m unsure why he’s covering his face in this photo.
A photo of the impressive fountain in full flow.
The helter skelter was one of the popular attractions, with a long queue of people waiting to go on it.
This photo is of an old American car.
Finally a photo of some sheep.
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A blog post about a Colas invoice for services to Wirral Council totalling £879,406.02 (+VAT)
£879,406.02 spent by Wirral Council on Seagulls
I wrote on Twitter recently that not much surprises me with regards to Wirral Council. However this Colas invoice, you can click on the image for a larger version, received by Wirral Council in March from Colas is for £879,406.02 (+VAT) for work raised through its Seagulls system.
The detail as to what the taxpayer gets for just over £1 million spent on this item isn’t detailed on the invoice but a part of the contract details what the work on Seagulls refers to. The Colas contract shows that the Council has to raise work orders with Colas through a system that Wirral Council called Seagulls which keeps a track of various assets like drainage gullies. The Colas contract for Seagulls (and other matters) runs to 2014 and Wirral Council is looking for another company to do the work under a new contract.
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