Cllr Phil Davies stands down as Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Cllr Phil Davies stands down as Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority                                                             This morning the dramatic news that Cllr Phil Davies is stepping down as Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority was made public. In a statement Cllr Phil Davies said, "I felt now was the right moment to rebalance … Continue reading “Cllr Phil Davies stands down as Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority”

Cllr Phil Davies stands down as Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

                                                           

Councillor Phil Davies chairing a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority earlier this year
Councillor Phil Davies chairing a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority earlier this year

This morning the dramatic news that Cllr Phil Davies is stepping down as Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority was made public. In a statement Cllr Phil Davies said, "I felt now was the right moment to rebalance my time in favour of my duties as Wirral Council Leader."

Councillor Phil Davies (Leader of Wirral Council pictured above) has been Chair since the Combined Authority’s since the first meeting of the Combined Authority on April Fool’s Day in 2014. Those with long memories will remember that Mayor Joe Anderson (pictured below) expected to be elected Chair at that meeting and was unhappy at how Cllr Phil Davies was elected.

Mayor Anderson was elected Mayor of Liverpool in 2012 and is expected to be the Labour candidate in an election for a second term of office as Liverpool’s Mayor in 2016. As a result of the devolution deal announced last month, there will be a public election for the Mayor of Merseyside in May 2017. Mayor Anderson has announced his intention to seek the Labour nomination for Mayor of Merseyside and if he is elected Chair of the Combined Authority at Friday’s meeting this will help his chances.

Mayor Joe Anderson speaking at a meeting of Liverpool City Council (8th April 2015)
Mayor Joe Anderson speaking at a meeting of Liverpool City Council (8th April 2015)

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EXCLUSIVE: Wirral Council plans revealed for Neptune to run Birkenhead Market

EXCLUSIVE: Wirral Council plans revealed for Neptune to run Birkenhead Market

                                                       

birkenhead-market-lease-birkenhead-market-limited-wirral-borough-council-plan-number-2-internal-floor-plan-thumbnail-min

While much of the news focus has been on the large petition in opposition to changes to Hamilton Square, a report by Cllr Adrian Jones to a meeting of Wirral’s councillors on Monday evening outlines further detail on Neptune’s plans for Birkenhead.

His report states:

A number of other major developments are ongoing, including:
 
  • Negotiations are ongoing with Neptune Developments for the sale of three sites at Europa Boulevard to provide a replacement swimming pool and fitness suite, Budget Hotel, Food court and Fast Food Drive-through. Allied to this as Phase 2 will be the grant of an intermediate lease of
    Birkenhead Market to Neptune to safeguard its continued operation, with a view to the eventual grant of a restructured lease to facilitate the development of a smaller market which will, in turn, release land for the reconfiguration of The Grange.

  • The proposal to establish the Isle of Mann University ICT Faculty in Birkenhead is still being worked on. This will utilise the Conway Building and Municipal Building in Cleveland Street. Proposed Heads of Term have been prepared in anticipation of confirmation from the University that funding is in place.

In other words, Wirral Council plan to grant Neptune an intermediate lease of Birkenhead Market, then "develop" a smaller market so that some (or all) of where Birkenhead Market is at present can be sold to become part of the Pyramids and Grange Shopping Centre.

There are further details on the rest of Neptune’s plans in a story I wrote earlier this year Will councillors tell the public what Neptune’s plans for Birkenhead Market are?

Will will the promised consultation with the public over Neptune’s plans for Birkenhead Town Centre happen?

Meanwhile across the road from Birkenhead Market, Wirral Council look set to lease the Conway Building to what’s down in the report as the "Isle of Man University", but is more likely to be the Isle of Man College at the University of Chester.

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Wirral’s Cabinet expected to start consultation on 4% Council Tax rise and £2.4 million of cuts

Wirral’s Cabinet expected to start consultation on 4% Council Tax rise and £2.4 million of cuts

                                                                     

Cllr Phil Davies at a recent Cabinet meeting
Cllr Phil Davies at a recent Cabinet meeting

Wirral Council’s Cabinet will meet next Thursday evening to discuss further cuts to Wirral Council’s budget for the 2016/17 year. Councillors are expected to agree to a public consultation on £2.5 million of budget options as well as a 4% council tax increase. Cabinet is also expected to agree to a staff consultation on budget options such as reducing the pay rise from 2% to 1%.

The consultation will run from the 18th December 2015 and finishes on the 29th January 2016. At the end of the consultation Cabinet will propose a budget to be voted on at a meeting of all Wirral’s councillors.

The nine budget options that Cabinet is expected next week to start a consultation on start on page 16 of this report to Cabinet and are:


  • Community Safety (£367,000) – litter enforcement was recently outsourced to Kingdom Security and this proposal would see the same happen to dog fouling enforcement, Wirral Council hope to increase income to the community safety service from landlords and schools.

  • Discretionary Housing Payments & Advice (£406,000) – this proposal would see Wirral Council only covering rent shortfalls to people in hardship to the amount they receive from the government, it would also see the end of Wirral Council providing welfare benefits advice.

  • Girtrell Court service re-provision (£155,000) – Girtrell Court provides short breaks for carers of adults with physical and learning disabilities, this proposal would see that service provided by the private sector instead of directly by Wirral Council.

  • Highways Maintenance and Road Safety (£320,000) – This proposal means Wirral Council would only use the money it receives for highways maintenance, only 100 out of 300 grit bins would be filled and school crossing patrols would be reviewed.

  • Leisure Centres and Golf Courses (£641,000) – Discounts and free access would be removed, such as free access for long serving Council staff, foster carers and families, free swimming for those under 18 in the school holidays and free swimming for the over 65s between 9am and noon.

  • Libraries Re-provision (£203,000) – Transferring up to 12 of Wirral’s libraries into "community ownership" (run by volunteers rather than paid staff).

  • Parks Community Partnership Working (£108,000) – Increasing the role of community organisations and volunteers in parks maintenance and looking to increase parks income.

  • Charging for the Pest Control Service (£30,000) – Charging landlords, business and residents who can afford to pay for dealing with rats.

  • Charging for the Garden Waste Service (£196,000) – Increasing the brown bin charge from £35 a year to £40 a year (but with a £5 discount if paid online).

So to summarise the proposed cuts (along with a 4% council tax increase) are to dog fouling, community safety, covering rent shortfalls for those in financial hardship, axing the welfare right service, the short breaks for carers service, highways maintenance, grit bins, school crossing patrols, free swimming for children, free swimming for pensioners, free leisure access for some Council staff, transferring many of Wirral’s libraries to be run by volunteers, having more volunteers involved in parks maintenance, charging for dealing with rats and increasing the brown bin charge by £5.

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Why did Wirral Council spend £534.90 on catering for a meeting with Dong Energy?

Why did Wirral Council spend £534.90 on catering for a meeting with Dong Energy?

                                                                            

It’s no secret that Wirral Council have been trying to persuade businesses to create jobs on the Wirral. Last year Cammell Laird applied for planning permission (planning application APP/14/00352) for "an on shore office, warehouse building and pontoon that will serve as a marine operations and maintenance facility for off shore projects" on a car park in Alabama Way. This was so Cammell Laird could expand to the "green energy" sector such as maintenance for wind turbines such as the Dong Energy wind farm at Burbo Bank.

Below is an invoice from Carrington Catering Ltd paid by Wirral Council for catering at a meeting on the 8th May 2014 with Dong Energy. You can click on the thumbnail for a higher resolution version.

Wirral Council invoice Carringtons Catering Ltd Dong Energy Meeting 8th May 2014 catering £534.90 thumbnail
Wirral Council invoice Carringtons Catering Ltd Dong Energy Meeting 8th May 2014 catering £534.90 thumbnail

On the 23rd July 2014 it went to be decided by Wirral Council’s Planning Committee (you can watch video footage of the meeting below). The Planning Committee refused the application based on the effect it would have on the flats nearby. That refusal was appealed to the Planning Inspectorate.

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Wirral Council’s Planning Committee refuse Cammell Laird’s planning application (APP/14/00352) 23rd July 2014

Cammell Laird (before the planning appeal had been decided) submitted a revised planning application in December 2014 (APP/14/01585). This also went to Planning Committee for a decision and after nearly an hour of discussion it was refused on the 19th February 2015 (see video of the decision below).

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Wirral Council’s Planning Committee refuse Cammell Laird’s planning application (APP/14/01585) 19th February 2014.

Eventually a planning inspector on the 13th October (after informal hearings on the 25th February and the 19th May and site visits on the 18th May and 4th June 2015) issued a 29 page appeal decision overturning the earlier decisions of the Planning Committee.

I’ll point out at this stage that the planning application is in Birkenhead and Tranmere ward (currently represented by Cllr Phil Davies (Labour), Cllr Jean Stapleton (Labour) and Cllr Pat Cleary (Green)).

As detailed in the planning appeal decision, although the plans would have created an estimated sixty to sixty-five jobs, nearby LDRA Ltd had threatened to relocate to Newbury taking fifty local jobs away if the plans for expansion at Cammell Lairds were approved.

So the news reported in the Wirral Globe yesterday that an alternative site has been found at Kings Wharf in Seacombe, as the "new home of [Dong Energy’s] offshore-wind manufacturing and maintenance facility" means a compromise must have happened. The Alabama Way site is referred to in a quote in that article from Cllr Phil Davies as, "Alternative sites had been considered in Birkenhead, but were rejected by my council team responding to community concerns."

However the number of jobs created seems to have gone from sixty to sixty-five jobs (the number referred to in the planning appeal) down to forty jobs. This seems to be another example of where Wirral Council is spending Regional Growth Fund money (you can also read a story published on this blog last week on how £4 million of Regional Growth Fund money is being spent on a new Unilever building in Port Sunlight).

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EXCLUSIVE: First 83 pages of Wirral Council’s Highway Services Contract with BAM Nuttall

EXCLUSIVE: First 83 pages of Wirral Council’s Highway Services Contract with BAM Nuttall

                                                           

In 2013, Wirral Council’s Cabinet on the 7th November decided to award the Highway Services Contract to BAM Nuttall (which started on the 1st April 2014). BAM Nuttall won the contract out of three companies that bid for it and they replaced the previous contractor Colas. The contract runs from 2014 to 2018 and has an estimated value of £30 to £33 million (£6 to £6.6 million a year). You can read the Cabinet report that led to that decision and the Internal Audit report and Gateway 3 report (along with the recommendations/action plan for both of those) on Wirral Council’s website.

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At a meeting on the 7th November 2013 Wirral Council’s Cabinet spends less than two minutes deciding on awarding the £30 to £33 million Highway Services Contract to BAM Nuttall (that agenda item starts at 1m 40s)

This year was the first year I could request a copy of the BAM Nuttall contract during the audit and I’ve scanned in the first 83 pages (of a very long contract). The Highway Services Contract is for:

the provision of standby and call-out, reactive and preventative maintenance on all parts of the highway, public car park and coastal defence infrastructure for which Wirral Council is responsible, including: carriageways; footways; gully cleaning and drainage; street lighting and electrical services; traffic signs and road markings; street and coastal defence furniture; bridges; subways and retaining walls and sea wall and accesses; together with snow and ice clearance; including precautionary salting except for
 
maintenance of traffic signals equipment and their electrical supplies, all maintenance and improvement schemes estimated in value at over £250,000 and the provision of gritting vehicles and road salt.
 

The documents below cover the parent company guarantee with Koninklijke Bam Groep N.V. (no that’s not a spelling mistake but the name of a company based in the Netherlands), then the start of volume 1 (part 1) of the contract documents which covers form of agreement, bond (unfortunately the details haven’t been filled in on this), form of tender, declaration, what information is considered commercially sensitive for freedom of information requests, information assurance, insurance certificate (with AXA Corporate Solutions), parent company letter guarantee, contract data part 1 (data provided by Wirral Council, partnering information, more contract data on the optional parts of the contract (pages 62-63 add optional clauses about FOI requests) which includes matters such as TUPE, subcontracting, intellectual property, data protection, human rights, the Local Government Ombudsman, price adjustment for inflation and other optional clauses/changes to the contract).

Below are thumbnail images of the contract pages. The text on the thumbnails is just about readable on my laptop screen. If there are any pages that you find it’s not readable please leave a comment with the page number and I’ll link the thumbnail to a higher resolution image for that page.

The optional contract clauses added about FOI requests seem to mean that if a FOI request is made for information about or relating to the contract, that Wirral Council will contact BAM Nuttall and ask it to make representations if it wants information to be withheld. Page 24 of the contract classes the following parts of the contract as "commercially sensitive" which are Contract Data Part 2, The Price List and the Fee Percentage Schedules.

Bam Nuttall contract Wirral Council page 1
Bam Nuttall contract Wirral Council page 1

Continue reading “EXCLUSIVE: First 83 pages of Wirral Council’s Highway Services Contract with BAM Nuttall”