Author: John Brace

New media journalist from Birkenhead, England who writes about Wirral Council. Published and promoted by John Brace, 134 Boundary Road, Bidston, CH43 7PH. Printed by UK Webhosting Ltd t/a Tsohost, 113-114 Buckingham Avenue, Slough, Berkshire, England, SL1 4PF.

3 Organisations will jointly sign “Memorandum of Understanding” with Peel for transport planning on Wirral Waters project

3 Organisations will jointly sign “Memorandum of Understanding” with Peel for transport planning on Wirral Waters project A report on Merseytravel’s General Purposes Committee meeting of the 5th September 2013

3 Organisations will jointly sign “Memorandum of Understanding” with Peel for transport planning on Wirral Waters project

                                                                           

Councillors on Merseytravel’s General Purposes Committee today agreed to Merseytravel’s Chief Executive David Brown signing a “Memorandum of Understanding” with Peel Land and Property (Ports) Limited about transport planning for the Wirral Waters project.

The Memorandum of Understanding will (subject to future approval) be signed by Wirral Council and the Highways Agency too. The agreement is for twenty-five years and is set to be reviewed annually by the Transport Steering Group. It covers the areas of any necessary public transport improvements, monitoring the effect of Wirral Waters related traffic on the local road network as well as the effect of construction traffic. Wirral Council will be leading the Transport Steering Group as it’s the local Planning Authority for the Wirral Waters scheme.

Chair of Merseytravel Cllr Liam Robinson (Labour) said, “Thanks for that Jeff, can I just say I’m absolutely delighted we’ve had this report brought through, because I think I would echo everyone in this chamber by saying that Wirral Waters is one of the most exciting proposed developments, not just in our part of the world but the whole of the country, dare I say Europe and I know from Merseytravel’s perspective we are all fully committed to provide the very best sustainable transport option for what is going to be hopefully a very, very exciting and prosperous development for the City Region. So the fact that we’ve got this report before this before we’ve signed the memorandum of understanding that gives us an opportunity to look at all of those options that are out there to provide the very transport solution for Wirral Waters which is welcomed from the development of this organisation. So that’s just really just what I wanted to say, so if anyone wants to add to that at all? Les?

Cllr Les Rowlands (Conservative spokesperson) said, “I just want to reiterate those great words. It is a very, very important project, I know it’s over a long period of time but we need to be getting in at the very early stages which is why as you know I’m very interested in what is going on there because I think we need to be starting to think about the memorandum at a very early stage to get the document in place, I very much welcome this report”.

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Coordinating Committee (Wirral Council) 3rd September 2013 Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

A report on Wirral Council’s Coordinating Committee’s meeting of the 3rd September 2013 specifically the item on the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

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Continues from Coordinating Committee (Wirral Council) 3rd September 2013 Agenda items 1,3 and 4.

Combined Authority – Cabinet Minute No 45 3:37

Joe Blott, Strategic Director for Transformation and Resources told the Coordinating Committee that the matter was referred to them by Wirral Council’s Cabinet decision of the 8th August 2013. The issue was the subject of a consultation in Wirral and the other authorities. He went into the detail of the Cabinet report of the 8th August 2013, along with appendices 1 (Strategic Governance Review Draft), 2 (Appendix 2 Potential Role for a LCR Combined Authority) and 3 (Draft Scheme for the Establishment of a Combined Authority for LCR) .

He referred to an upcoming City Region Cabinet meeting, the Council meeting of the 19th September and a deadline of the 30th September 2013 for a submission to central government. Cllr Wittingham asked if there were any questions?

Cllr Abbey referred to the timescale having been moved back from July to September, but it would give them access to “major funding”. He referred to Lord Heseltine’s work on devolving government budgets.

Cllr Fraser asked for clarification on the cost implications of the Combined Authority. Cllr Clements asked if it was neutral in cost?

Joe Blott said the Coordinating Committee wasn’t the decision-making committee for it, but as they would be combining six existing processes hopefully they would create efficiencies.

Cllr Brighouse referred to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and incorrectly labelled Wirral Council as a separate transport authority.

Joe Blott said that Halton was a transport authority, Cllr Foulkes said that Cllr Brighouse’s statement that Wirral Council was a transport authority was not factual. Cllr Ron Abbey said that Wirral Council was a highways authority, not a transport authority. Joe Blott said that Wirral Council was a highways authority and not a transport authority.

He went on to say that the new arrangements would be more open and transparent than existing arrangements with the potential for greater decision-making and influence on the City Region.

Cllr Elderton asked about the statutory powers of a combined authority and whether this would lead to increased costs for Wirral Council? He wanted assurances that that wouldn’t happen.

Joe Blott said that if it existed it would have responsibility for regeneration projects, which may lead to the employment of specialist people or specialist contracts. Cllr Elderton asked for noting of his concerns.

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Coordinating Committee (Wirral Council) 3rd September 2013 Agenda items 1,3 and 4

A report on the Coordinating Committee (Wirral Council) 3rd September 2013 Apologies for absence, Declarations of Interest and Minutes of the meeting of the 3rd July 2013

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1. Apologies for absence 0:17

Cllr David Elderton gave his apologies for Cllr Andrew Hodson (Conservative spokesperson) as he was on holiday. Cllr Andrew Hodson had appointed Cllr David Elderton Conservative spokesperson in his absence.

Shirley Hudspeth (Committee Clerk) gave apologies for Cllr Steve Williams (Conservative).

3. Declarations of interest/Whip 0:50

Cllr Ron Abbey declared an interest in agenda item 5 (Combined Authority – Cabinet Minutes No.45) as a Board Member of Merseytravel.
Cllr Steve Foulkes declared a personal interest in agenda item 5 (Combined Authority – Cabinet Minutes No.45) due to his membership of the Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority (Merseytravel).
Cllr Stuart Wittingham declared a personal interest in agenda item 5 (Combined Authority – Cabinet Minutes No.45) due to his employment (Arriva).

4. Minutes of previous meeting (3rd July 2013) 1:20

Cllr Stuart Wittingham (Chair) said he had one issue on page 2. He said that the Coordinating Committee had resolved to note the comments, not alter the minutes.

Cllr David Elderton said that the second paragraph on page 4 concluded by “He informed that he would circulate an easily understandable form of words in plain English on this matter to all Members of the Committee.” He was not quite sure what that referred to.

Surjit Tour responded that it was to do with the committee having clarity of its remit. Cllr Elderton asked if it had already been circulated as to his recollection he hadn’t received it yet? Surjit Tour replied that the note had yet to be circulated by him. Cllr Elderton asked for it to be sent out.

Cllr Stuart Wittingham asked if subject to his comment and that of Cllr David Elderton were the committee happy with the minutes of the meeting held on the 3rd July? The minutes were agreed.

Continues at Coordinating Committee (Wirral Council) 3rd September 2013 Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

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Thousands of pounds spent by Wirral Council on legal advice for safeguarding and Salisbury Independent Living

Thousands of pounds spent by Wirral Council on legal advice for safeguarding and Salisbury Independent Living

Thousands of pounds spent by Wirral Council on legal advice for safeguarding and Salisbury Independent Living

                                                                                                              

A comment left yesterday by Paul Cardin made me think about three legal invoices which seem to be (at least it seems reasonable to assume) tied in with issues raised during Martin Morton’s whistle blowing.

SIL on this invoice stands for Salisbury Independent Living (who was service provider 3 in the Anna Klonowski Associates Ltd report). Ninety-five pages of her two hundred and forty-nine page report were about Salisbury Independent Living. In stark contrast to the other invoices for thousands of pounds, this is for £360 representing 2.5 hours of an associate’s time on “financial abuse”. Unless this was independent legal advice to someone who was overcharged by Wirral Council, you wonder why it wouldn’t have been cheaper to do this in-house instead.

However, Wirral Council isn’t always so frugal in cases involving disabled adults. This interim invoice comes to £3,024 for “adult safeguarding advice” for one person from August to October of last year.

Morris Hill of Weightmans was also involved with legal work for Wirral Council in [2012] WLR(D) 31, [2012] EWCA Civ 84, [2012] PTSR 1221, a Court of Appeal case between Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council and Salisbury Independent Living Ltd which Wirral Council won. The case was about a claim by Salisbury Independent Living Ltd that Wirral Council owed them £3 million and was an appeal from [2011] UKUT 44 (AAC) this earlier decision. There’s also a further invoice for £8,017.20 concerning Salisbury Independent Living.

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A Town Hall Mystery: The Riddle of £32,074.98 spent on legal advice for employee who had already retired

A Town Hall Mystery: The Riddle of £32,074.98 spent on legal advice for employee who had already retired

The mysteries of Wirral Council’s legal invoices deepen and leave me scratching my head trying to unlock their puzzles. Two pages are particularly perplexing to me, so maybe one of my readers could help enlighten me with an illuminating comment or two?

First the background, as many readers of this blog will know Jim Wilkie retired as Chief Executive of Wirral Council last year on the 7th June 2012.

The puzzle comes first in the form of this invoice for £28,422.44 from Eversheds for “Advice on governance and employment issues” and “Professional fees in conjunction with advising you on the above matter Period of Invoice 11 June 2012 to 31 July 2012 Your ref: Jim Wilkie”

How could they be advising Jim Wilkie on governance and employment issues as he no longer worked for Wirral Council? He’d retired!

Then as many readers of this blog know, Graham Burgess became Chief Executive/Head of Paid Service of Wirral Council on July 16th starting full-time in the September of that year.

However there’s a further invoice from Eversheds this time for £3,652.54 for the period 4th December to 28th December 2012 for “advice on governance and employment issues” and “Professional fees in connection with advising you on the above matter” again with a reference of “Jim Wilkie”.

Judging by this post on Wirral Leaks which has a copy of the media statement about the suspension of Dave Green ending it would appear as the dates match to be advice provided to Graham Burgess about Dave Green’s suspension and obviously not to Jim Wilkie.

This still leaves the question of who Frances Woodhead of Eversheds thought she was advising on governance and employment issues over the period of the first invoice? Based on the dates it can’t have been Jim Wilkie (as he’d retired days before the period covered by the invoice) and it can’t have been Graham Burgess as he was only made Chief Executive in the last two weeks of the seven week period covered by the invoice). So who was it that needed such expensive advice costing over £28,000?

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