Category: Conservatives

Wirral Council – Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 – Part 11 – speech (Cllr Lesley Rennie) on leader motion/amendment

She asked for a pledge to protect the libraries, leisure centres and other council facilities. She asked would they protect vulnerable old people? She said the CQC [under the last Labour administration] had inspected how they run services for vulnerable old people. The CQC had rated Wirral Council’s Social Services department as 152nd out of … Continue reading “Wirral Council – Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 – Part 11 – speech (Cllr Lesley Rennie) on leader motion/amendment”

She asked for a pledge to protect the libraries, leisure centres and other council facilities. She asked would they protect vulnerable old people? She said the CQC [under the last Labour administration] had inspected how they run services for vulnerable old people. The CQC had rated Wirral Council’s Social Services department as 152nd out of 152 councils. However changes had been made. How can people rely and trust [Labour] if they can’t protect vulnerable old people? “Time will tell.” she said.

The Mayor asked Cllr Phil Davies (proposer of the motion) if he wished to have his right of reply. Cllr Phil Davies waived it. She asked the Conservatives if there was an apology regarding the councillor not there. Cllr Blakeley said an apology had been received, but that he had got the message late and asked for it to be added to the list of apologies.

Cllr Blakeley then requested a card vote. [A card vote is where they list the name of each councillor and how they voted].

The Conservative amendment was voted on first. The split was along party lines.

The thirty Labour councillors voted against. The twenty six Conservative councillors voted for. The nine Liberal Democrat councillors abstained.

FOR 26
AGAINST 30
ABSTAIN 9

The Conservative amendment was therefore lost by four votes.

Wirral Council – Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 – Part 10 – speech (Cllr Lesley Rennie) on leader motion/amendment

Cllr Rennie next to speak said “If it was true [in relation to the Foulkesworld Twitter account] she was really worried, however she thought it was the product of a twisted mind. She said there had been signs of progress and that never before had the Council, staff, officers and residents worked together. She said they had run things in an open and transparent manner and hoped it would continue. Never in [Wirral Council’s] previous history had there been such a wide consultation exercise. The wishes of the people had been carried out or if impossible they had been written to. The next administration had to engage openly and honestly. Cllr Green’s leadership had supported a strong and able Cabinet with the support of the Liberal Democrats. However not here today were three Lib Dem former Cabinet members [Gill Gardiner, Bob Moon, Simon Holbrook]. She was concerned that a new administration would take Wirral Council back to the “bad old days” driven by dogma.

She said whenever a party is in government that members of that party who are local councillors suffer. She referred to John Major telling Conservative councillors in 1995 to take a sabbatical and that it may be a while. After 24 years, Wirral Council was Conservative led, run for the people of Wirral. She took a dim view of the Lib Dems and said there were not nine empty seats as there had been in 1991. She said she couldn’t imagine they were elected to Wirral Council to sit on their hands. Cllr Rennie repeated they were not elected to sit on their hands, but thought perhaps they had lost the glue that kept them together under the strong leadership of Simon Holbrook, deputy leader Gill Gardiner, Bob Moon and Stuart Kelly (who had been to one Cabinet meeting). She said it would be a shame to be tearing things apart when they had been willing to challenge when necessary.

Council (Annual Meeting Part 1) – Civic Hall, Wallasey Town Hall

Yesterday evening the new Mayor was “installed”, in front of about two hundred and fifty people in the Civic Hall at Wallasey Town Hall. The annual meeting which decides the Mayor is always well attended as Wirral Council send out invites.

I took some photos (which unfortunately were rather blurred, I must start using a tripod) and video, the first half hour of which is below. Unfortunately I didn’t press the record button hard enough so I missed the first few minutes of Alan Jenning’s speech and the pun about filling up at a petrol station is lost. It is in low quality, as I didn’t know how long it’d last and am limited by battery life and memory card capacity. The rest of the footage is in HD (Mayor McLaughlin’s speech in two parts, the prayer of the chaplain and the installation of Cllr Ellis as Deputy Mayor). Sound quality is a little bad, but speakers such as Cllr Green could hardly be heard from the back row. There is a backup audio track recorded seperately on which the sound may be better quality.

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Humour is subjective, but I found Alan Jenning’s jokes better than the ones attempted by others who made speeches.

Wirral’s Young Poet Laureate also read out a poem, Cllr Moira McLaughlin was made Mayor, Cllr Gerry Ellis was made Deputy Mayor. Strangely (as they haven’t done it at previous meetings where they install the Mayor) the three party leaders were appointed to the Merseyside Police Authority Appointments Committee (probably because it meets on the 27th so they need to send agendas out soon). After the annual council meeting was adjourned there was a light buffet and drinks for guests.

The whole thing had the formality of a wedding.

Looking back over the last 12 months

Looking back over the last half-year or so since this blog started, what were the stories and pages on this blog that have captured the public’s attention and brought them to this blog?

There was the story about the 2011 Census, which many people had questions about ranging from why was there no question 17 (it was a question asking if you understand, speak, read or write Welsh).

The About John Brace” page was popular and attracted a number of comments. It’ll be updated soon.

This Cabinet meeting about the Conservative-Lib Dem budget and Labour not being happy was read over a hundred times.

Merseytravel’s response on Mersey Tunnel’s issues also aroused interest.

The pages about protest outside Birkenhead County Court regarding Council Tax and the Save our Forests campaign were read just a bit more than stories about the Chinese New Year celebrations in Liverpool, HMS Campbeltown, ID Cards being scrapped or the Labour Chair of Merseytravel using his casting vote to increase Mersey Tunnel tolls.

More local issues also aroused interest such as the Lib Dem plan to invest £1.8 million in Cathcart Street primary school as a result of the closure of Cole Street primary school and the relocation of the Children’s Centre across the road to Cathcart Street Primary School, how much councillors are paid (which was used by some parties during the election to show how some councillors were getting £50,000+/year), Arriva not stopping its buses at the new bus stop near Tesco, the Lib Dem Mayor at Tam O’Shanter Urban Farm, Flaybrick cemetery flytipping and the Corsair in Bidston Village being demolished.

Over the Winter the issue of gritting and bin collections was on resident’s minds. The street level crime website and minimum price proposals for alcohol were also topics the public were interested in.

In total there have been 5,557 views of pages on this website and it has been read keenly by certain councillors and others. Yet who knows what the public will be wanting from its elected representatives in the next 12 months?

A Brief Message about the elections and the result

Firstly a quick thank you to my wife, people I spoke to, those who signed my nomination papers, those who voted including myself.

However, the questions now to ask are “What next?”. Well candidates and agents in this election will be busy this month will be busy filling out an election expenditure form.

Guidance is here and covering complex issues such as spending reductions in places with two elections for councillor on the same day (eg Greasby/Frankby/Irby) and other advice regarding election bureaucracy.

This form needs to be filled out, along with a declaration from the election agent and candidate.

Copies of these are then open to public inspection (and copies can be made), which show not just the spending but the source of the money. In the past I’ve had a look through other candidates and agents’ spending to see what they’ve done. Sometimes it’s more interesting to see what they’ve forgot to declare (or maybe deliberately forgot to declare) as political parties (well aware of this means to see what the others are up to) have been known to provide as little information as possible.

There are legal penalties for getting it wrong, but convictions are rare.

Following my question to Cllr Ian Lewis at the Council meeting of the 13th December 2010, I will quote what he said:-

“A person may also, of course, be offered gifts and hospitality, when seeking election, and we shall therefore publish the election expense return submitted by each elected member.”

His full answer can be read here.

I thank Cllr Lewis for his comprehensive answer and know from what is said to me by the people know that the public welcome a new era of openness and accountability at Wirral Council as opposed to the previous Labour-led administration’s desire to keep the public in the dark and stitch things up behind closed doors.

My wife Cllr. Brace holds slightly different views on things as she represents her community but we usually agree. Just like the Lib Dems and the Tories we sometimes disagree on how to go forward. Yet, we still stay together!

The one constant in politics is change. Political reform has to happen. Yet, Wirral Council also needs to live up to its legal responsibilities when it comes to democracy.

Labour will spend the next few years condemning the Liberal Democrats and Tories for doing what they’re elected to do. Yet Liberal Democrats believe in a plural form of politics, where we work together with other parties combining the best of both worlds.

The public trust in politicians over the MP expenses scandal is still lingering in the public’s mind. This scepticism and trust has done harm to democracy. Yet it was Labour MPs who were put in prison. It was a Labour MP Phil Woolas that was convicted of lying about the Lib Dem candidate and lost his seat.

I saw the hope with which the country greeted a Labour government in 1997. However if they ever wish to govern the country or Wirral Council again they will have to prove they have changed as a party.

Based on their literature I would say the first step they need to take is to tell the public the truth and stop treating their own residents with little or no respect.