Why was Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service’s Kieran Timmins (former Deputy Chief Executive/Treasurer and in charge of the Saughall Massie fire station plans in 2014 & 2015) paid £144,500 for “compensation for loss of office” when he was made redundant in 2015?
Why was Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service’s Kieran Timmins (former Deputy Chief Executive/Treasurer and in charge of the Saughall Massie fire station plans in 2014 & 2015) paid £144,500 for “compensation for loss of office” when he was made redundant in 2015?
Kieran Timmins (former Deputy Chief Executive, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service) taken in 2014
The author of this piece is an Appellant in a First-tier-Tribunal (Information Rights) case in which Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority is the Second Respondent.
Below are three invoices (for £3,000 each consisting of £2,500 + VAT so £9,000 in total) from a Todd and Ledson LLP to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service for the Saughall Massie fire station project.
Invoice £3000 Todd and Ledson LLP Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 30th December 2015 Saughall Massie Pre Contract Professional feesInvoice £3000 Todd and Ledson LLP Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 30th September 2015 Saughall Massie Pre Contract Professional feesInvoice £3000 Todd and Ledson LLP Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority 31st August 2015 Saughall Massie Pre Contract Professional fees
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (on behalf of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority) have submitted two planning applications associated with this project.
The most recent dated 20th July 2016 is for a screening opinion which if I’m correct Wirral Council as Local Planning Authority have to make a decision on within 3 weeks of the application, this is SCR/16/00994.
The related planning application to the above submitted on the 15th July 2015 is APP/16/00985 which is described as, “A single storey two bay community fire station incorporating operational and welfare accommodation, offices and meeting space, external drill and training facilities and associated car-parking. | Land adjacent to SAUGHALL MASSIE ROAD, SAUGHALL MASSIE ”.
The land is currently owned by Wirral Council, who are constructing a Youth Zone on land next to Birkenhead Fire Station.
Below are two invoices to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service from their solicitors Weightmans LLP connected to that.
Invoice £660.00 Weightmans LLP Transfer of land at Birkenhead Fire Station to Wirral Council 28th September 2015 Clive BleasedaleInvoice £697.20 Weightmans LLP Transfer of land at Birkenhead Fire Station to Wirral Council 26th October 2015 Clive Bleasedale
Although at one stage a “land swap” was suggested by former Deputy Chief Executive of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service Kieran Timmins (that is a swap of the land held by Wirral Council for the land adjacent to Birkenhead Fire Station), Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service state that no such land swap with Wirral Council was agreed follow Mr Timmins’ proposal. In an event Mr Timmins left the employment of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service in 2015 having been made redundant and he received £144,500 in redundancy payment in compensation (see note 30 to the accounts (Officers’ Remuneration) on page 66 of the 2015-16 accounts for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority).
The officer at Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service in charge of land matters following Mr. Timmins’ departure from the organisation in August 2015 is Deputy Chief Fire Officer Phil Garrigan.
If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority decides to freeze Mersey Tunnels cash tolls for 2016/17 at 2015/16 levels, reduce Fast Tag tolls in 2016/17, not charge tolls on Christmas Day 2016 and no tolls for emergency vehicles
Councillors on the Merseytravel Committee met on Thursday afternoon to decide on a recommendation on Mersey Tunnel tolls for 2016/17. Their recommendation was accepted at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority that met the following day on Friday morning.
You can view video of the Merseytravel Committee meeting on Youtube below (starting at agenda item 6 (Mersey Tunnel tolls).
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
The decision made was that cash tolls would be kept the same for 2016/17 as they were in 2015/16. The cash toll levels decided for 2016/17 are shown below.
Vehicle Class
2016/17 Cash toll
1
£1.70
2
£3.40
3
£5.10
4
£6.80
The price for Fast Tag tolls was reduced for 2016/17. Below is a table of 2016/17 Fast Tag tolls compared to 2015/16.
Vehicle Class
2016/17 Fast Tag toll
2015/16 Fast Tag toll
1
£1.20
£1.40
2
£2.40
£2.80
3
£3.60
£4.20
4
£4.80
£5.60
There were also other changes agreed for 2016/17. Tunnel tolls will be waived for all classes of traffic between 10 pm on Christmas Eve (24th December 2016) to 6 am on Boxing Day (26th December 2016). All designated emergency vehicles will no longer have to pay tolls in 2016/17.
These were the votes on the Mersey Tunnel tolls decision at the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority meeting.
FOR THE PROPOSAL (4)
Mayor Joe Anderson (Liverpool City Council) FOR
Cllr Phil Davies (Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council) FOR
Cllr Andy Moorhead (Knowsley Council) FOR
Cllr John Fairclough (Sefton Council) deputy for Cllr Ian Maher (Sefton Council) FOR
ABSTENTION (1)
Cllr Rob Polhill (Halton) ABSTAIN
Reacting to the decision, John McGoldrick representing the Mersey Tunnels Users Association stated that “the [Liverpool City Region Combined] Authority would still be making a massive profit from the Tunnels and that most users of the Tunnels would not be seeing the reductions in tolls promised last year.”;
During the meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Cllr Phil Davies (pictured below) said,
Cllr Phil Davies speaking about Mersey Tunnel tolls for 2016 17 at the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority meeting on the 5th February 2016
“Yeah, I’d just like to say a few things about this. I welcome the recommendations of Merseytravel yesterday and the recommendations in this report.
Errm, I think I just need to record the fact that I’ve been involved in the errm the Task Group that’s been looking at this so, this issue errm, but I clearly wanted to, to hear what the outcome of the meeting is today was and I do endorse the approach.
I mean from each err, errm, we did make a commitment in the devolution deal that we gain control of the finances of the Mersey, Mersey Tunnels, errm and certainly you know, wearing my Wirral hat, I think this is definitely a big move forward, errm.
You know, the id.., the fact that the errm the cash toll has been frozen for a further year is great news but even more importantly the Fast Tag, which is effectively a local discount, is being reduced by 20p. So that would mean that errm, there’ll be a 50%, 50p discount per a journey, using the Fast Tag which if you’re travelling, if you’re travelling each day, it could be a saving of £5 a week.
So I think this is err, you know if I can use the expression, I think this is the kind of devolution dividend deal if you like, the deal that was signed with government, I think it will help local people who use the Fast Tag and local businesses. Errm and I really think this is a good demonstration of the value we’re getting already from the devolution deal but finally Chair I’d like to say I’m hoping in future err years we can go even further.
I think we need to do err more work, err more, I know there are more discussions errm err going on with government about us gaining even greater control over the finances of the Tunnels. Certainly from a personal point of view, I’d like to see us continue to drive down the costs of the err tunnel tolls for residents particularly local users, but I do welcome the recommendations in the report. Thanks Chair.”
Just for clarity, the discount for Fast Tag users (compared to cash tolls) for 2016/17 is not 50% as stated by Cllr Phil Davies. It’s (to the nearest percent) 29% for class 1, 29% for class 2, 29% for class 3 and 29% for class 4.
Would you like to see what 19 pages of invoices paid by Merseytravel looks like for Smartcare, project management, police community support officer costs, the Stop Hate Line service, temporary closure of a bus interchange, bus subsidy, a temporary traffic regulation order, EPI sign licence, scanning and flexible hours annual hours consultancy?
Below is an index page for month one and some of the invoices I requested to inspect at Merseytravel last year (financial year 2014/15) during the period each year when citizens can inspect matters such as invoices. The legal right to do this is outlined in s.15 Audit Commission Act. Each invoice is connected to a payment made by Merseytravel (or to give it its formal name the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive).
The thumbnails below are invoices for payments to ECEBS Ltd (£1,500), Weston-Projects Limited (£4,504.92), British Transport Police (£13,698.87), Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside (£39,213.72), Stop Hate UK (£3,500), Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council (£650), Your Travel Borough Wide Ltd (£3,538.46), Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council (£903), Trapeze Group (UK) Limited (£6,100), Service Point UK Ltd (£3,500) and Crown Computing Limited (£1,000 + £1,125.40 + £1,500). All figures are exclusive of VAT.
These invoices relate to the first 13 lines on the index page.
Due to small text size on some of the invoices, it means that the text on some of the thumbnails will be difficult to read or not readable. However the thumbnail images of the invoice below are each linked to a high-resolution image. If you want to view at the original resolution just click on the image.
The invoice from Wirral Council is for £903 for "COSTS IN RESPECT OF TEMPORARY TRAFFIC REGULATION ORDER. WOODSIDE BUS STATION, BIRKENHEAD. ORDER NUMBER 88003977. REF: JESSICA".
JESSICA is an acronym which stands for Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas. Merseytravel run Woodside Bus Station which is outside Woodside Ferry Terminal.
Merseytravel 2014 2015 audit Month 1 index page ECEBS Ltd to MERSEYRAIL ELECTRICS 2002 thumbnail
Invoices
Month 1
Name
ECEBS LTD
WESTON-PROJECTS LIMITED
BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE
POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER FOR MERSEYSIDE
STOP HATE UK
SEFTON M B C
YOUR TRAVEL BOROUGH WIDE LTD
WIRRAL BOROUGH COUNCIL
TRAPEZE GROUP (UK) LTD
SERVICE POINT UK LTD
CROWN COMPUTING LIMITED
CROWN COMPUTING LIMITED
CROWN COMPUTING LIMITED
LOCAL SOLUTIONS
FOURPOINT MAPPING
OPTEVIA LIMITED
OPTEVIA LIMITED
BIKERIGHT
BIKERIGHT
FOURPOINT MAPPING
FOURPOINT MAPPING
OEFICEXPRESS
TRUEFORM ENGINEERING LTD
KENYON FRASER
KENYON FRASER
NATIONAL QUALITY ASSURANCE LTD
MOTT MACDONALD LTD
MOTT MACDONALD LTD
OFFICEXPRESS
APPIUS INTERNATIONAL LTD
ARTOPIA
LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL
VOCUS UK LTD
MOTT MACDONALD LTD
SEFTON M B C
BIRCHAM DYSON BELL
FACELIFT (GB) LTD
FACELIFT (GB) LTD
QA LTD
QA LTD
QA LTD
COUNSELLING SOLUTIONS NORTHWEST
WEIGHTMANS LLP
BIRCHAM DYSON BELL
ALLAN PILCH & CO
DAVIES WALLIS FOYSTER
XEROX UK LTD
HAYS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
HAYS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
HAYS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
HAYS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
VEALE WASBROUGH VIZARDS
RSTCS LTD
BIRCHAM DYSON BELL
NEXUS
DLA PIPER UK LLP
MERSEYRAIL ELECTRICS 2002 LTD
The Conway Building and the Hamilton Building are both owned by Wirral Council. Manx Education Foundation who had been behind the plans had a minority shareholding in the International Centre for Technology Ltd. However the International Centre for Technology Ltd have since bought out Manx Education Foundation’s shareholding which means the plan for a creative industry training college in Birkenhead will now not happen.
ICT Ltd are instead concentrating on developing a property on the Isle of Man called the Nunnery that they bought from the Tynwald (Isle of Man government) for £5 million that they hope to open later this year.
