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.

Full Council last night & Scrutiny Programme Board

Full Council last night & Scrutiny Programme Board

Full Council last night & Scrutiny Programme Board

                                     

The Scrutiny Programme Board in a three-minute meeting decided to send the Hoylake lifeboat call-in to the Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

All the stops were pulled out an hour later for invited guests (and councillors) at Wirral Council’s meeting last night, where Steve Maddox was awarded Freedom of the Borough. Before the meeting from the public gallery you could hear drunken laughter echoing through the corridors of the Town Hall.

Despite myself and Leonora being invited; we were both prevented from speaking to councillors or Steve as Town Hall staff had been left with instructions as usual. All I managed to get was a hello to Steve as he walked past through the lobby.

For the first time in a long time, Labour councillors behaved and didn’t jeer/heckle through anybody’s speeches. After the last full council meeting where Cllr Harry Smith got two people booted out of the Council Chamber I half thought he’d jump up and say, "I object to the dozen or so member of the public sitting in the Council Chamber (some in front of the Labour benches obscuring our view of Tory councillors) including Steve Maddox, his family, the High Sheriff, Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant, Mayoress and others and insist they’re thrown out of the Council Chamber and sit in the public gallery." but he didn’t.

So much for Harry’s assertion last time that it was usual procedure of members of the public to be bullied into moving about contrary to Wirral’s constitution!

However, someone must have told Harry to behave because I didn’t even hear one heckle or jeer out of him.

There were around thirty in the public gallery, I’ll write a longer report on last night including a summary of the speeches by the three leaders. The atmosphere was quite different to usual; partly because all the political parties agreed.

The only thing that seemed to go wrong (with a night that was meticulously planned by officers who got rather stressed) was the Mayor’s microphone wasn’t working.

Gritting (continued) as the weather gets colder

Having received a phone call from someone (I presume based at Wirral Council) I now better understand why there are the problems with gritting (and complaints from residents).

Although I was told that routes on the list are being gritted, the grit isn’t being as effective as it could be due to the low temperatures. I was reassured that although the gritting team is working hard there are factors outside of its control. For example if the temperature drops too low for it to work.

I did ask why they weren’t using grit that works at the lower temperatures; the answer given was the other type of grit costs more. An added complication is that weather forecasts aren’t always 100% correct.

The person wanted to make sure I wasn’t “misleading the public”; so hopefully the above explains matters better. I will also be rereading the review from last year and looking into this in more detail.

Interestingly the cold weather seems to have led to more visitors to this blog. I might point out that Colas gave out the wrong information regarding Streetscene as it’s open from 8am (not 9am, which is what Colas stated).

True grit edition (continued)

As gritting is still a problem we’ve both been in touch with Streetscene.

It’s interesting how my wife and I get a different response from Streetscene; but then I suppose there’s a red flag in respect to my name.

We’re doing our best. However I will point out that:-

It was a Labour led Council last year that (if memory serves me right) awarded the contract to Colas. As I did last year I brought up concerns about this contract however the Labour led council denied my Freedom of Information Act requests on grounds of commercial sensitivity. It then turned down a review of this request.

When £40 million is at stake I suppose the public aren’t entitled to know if the gritting is being done properly.

So if you wonder why it’s not done in-house anymore and the roads are icy – blame Labour and its policies of privatisation and subcontracting Wirral Council’s responsibilities.

Until the end of this financial year, Wirral Council is operating under a budget with Labour priorities in it.

Subcontracting services leads to massive problems with communication, monitoring contracts and complaints from the unions about changes to terms and conditions. In this case there are many from residents too.

In many cases, subcontracting is used as a “smokescreen”; to deny the public (and media) information over how their money is spent. It also sets up a convenient scapegoat if things go wrong.

Labour Still Isn't Working Poster

Musical interlude – guess the blank edition

Strangely both I and my wife thought of a certain councillor when we heard this. I’ll leave it to readers to guess which leader and party we immediately both thought of!

I grew so rich that I was sent
By a pocket borough into local government
I always voted at my party’s call
And I never thought of thinking for myself at all

He never thought of thinking for himself at all

I thought so little,
they rewarded me
By making me the leader of the             Party

He thought so little,
they rewarded he
By making him the leader of the           Party

Now, landsmen all, whoever you may be
If you want to rise to the top of the tree
If your soul isn’t fettered to an office stool
Be careful to be guided by this golden rule

Be careful to be guided by this golden rule

Stick close to your desks,

Yes,

And never go to sea
And you all may be leaders of the            Party

Stick close to your desks and never go to sea
And you all may be leaders of the            Party

With thanks to Gilbert and Sullivan for the original lyrics. If you’d like to watch the original it’s on youtube here.

Satellite tracking of gritters

I’ve just received an email from the Cabinet Member and the officers have written to her informing her that gritting had been done using the following log.

18:34:08 Ilchester Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside CH41 7BP – 0.01 119 8 298
18:35:08 Hoylake Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside CH41 7BZ – 0.29 275 22 287
18:36:08 Boundary Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside CH43 7PQ – 0.23 220 19 143
18:37:08 Boundary Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside CH43 7PF – 0.40 152 22 158
18:38:08 Upper Flaybrick Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside CH43 7PF – 0.10 056 17 261
18:39:08 Boundary Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside CH43 7PG – 0.25 315 20 328
18:40:08 Worcester Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside CH43 7QB – 0.26 342 21 033

Yes, the log is great; I’m pleased we have satellite tracking to keep an eye on the gritters this year! However it’s for the wrong route. As mentioned in my previous post, which has a link to the gritting routes, Boundary Road (split into two) is on two gritting routes.

The log is clearly showing gritting route 3 (Green), which wasn’t the one I complained about which was route 5 (Purple). All this would make better sense if I had a map to link to!

Has anybody else had problems like this when reporting roads not gritted (or anything requiring a location) or does this confusion explain how frustrated people were getting with Streetscene last year about it?

P.S. My address is well-known and was in the original email. I realise email responses can be tricky to deal with and people make mistakes however the subject line from the officer involved Phil Miner clearly stated “Fwd: lack of gritting on Boundary Road between Worcester Road and Bidston Village Road”. Perhaps I’m being harsh on people just trying to do a difficult job managing this contract; but it’s frustrating!