Category: Labour

Surprise in Candidates for Bidston & St. James – no Green or BNP candidate

I was surprised to read the the list of candidates for Bidston & St. James ward (Wirral Council). I’ve stood as the Bidston & St. James Liberal Democrat candidate in 2007, 2008, 2010 and this year. Each year a Green candidate called Bowler has stood, as the ballot paper is listed alphabetically by surname I … Continue reading “Surprise in Candidates for Bidston & St. James – no Green or BNP candidate”

I was surprised to read the the list of candidates for Bidston & St. James ward (Wirral Council).

I’ve stood as the Bidston & St. James Liberal Democrat candidate in 2007, 2008, 2010 and this year. Each year a Green candidate called Bowler has stood, as the ballot paper is listed alphabetically by surname I have always been number 2! Has the Green party given up here?

In addition to there being no Green candidate there is no BNP candidate either (which I am pleased about)! I was half expecting an independent George Thomas to stand against Harry Smith again as he did in 2007.

So you will have a choice of only four candidates on May 5th.

Those are:-






Name Party Home Address
John Michael BraceLiberal DemocratsJenmaleo, 134 Boundary Road, Bidston, Wirral, CH43 7PH (in Bidston & St. James ward)
Helen Frances RomnesUKIP6 Pleasant Street, Wallasey, CH45 5EU (in New Brighton ward)
Harry SmithLabour25 Holmlands Drive, Oxton, Birkenhead, CH43 0QY (in Oxton ward)
Jerrold Samuel VickersConservative13 Bramwell Avenue, Prenton, CH43 0RG (in Prenton)

However, if you wish to vote for a local candidate, the Liberal Democrats are your only choice. As the Liberal Democrats came 2nd last year, voting Conservative or UKIP will result in Labour being elected.

I do wish all candidates the best of luck with their election campaigns and look forward to hearing from them. However I have already made my mind up to vote Liberal Democrat, so you may have to try persuading someone else to vote for you. 😉

Price of Alcohol – Lib Dem and Tory councillors vote not to raise it – Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee 21st March

Unusually the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee weren’t available. This led to a few jokes from the Cabinet Member for Housing & Community Safety as to what he’d Twitter about it following his recent coverage in the Wirral Globe of the Chair.

The Committee decided to (for this meeting only) have Cllr Ian Lewis (Cabinet Member for Community Engagement) as the Chair. The most interesting item on the agenda was a decision (following consultation) as to whether Wirral would recommend a minimum price (per unit ~50p) for alcohol as a local bylaw.

Many councillors told members of the public present and committee members about their favourite drinks, how alcohol was an issue that needed to be addressed but that putting up the price for Wirral residents wasn’t the answer. They also suggested that raising the price would lead to an increase in shoplifting. A quarter of the consultation responses were from the Birkenhead & Tranmere/Rock Ferry area.

Here were the results

Licensed premises
39% agreed with a minimum unit price for alcohol (384 people)
16% had no strong opinion (159 people)
45% disagreed with a minimum unit price for alcohol (438 people)

Off Licences
44% agreed with a minimum unit price
14% had no strong opinion
42% disagreed with a minimum unit price

People cited issues such as anti social behaviour, young people drinking, violence, noise and criminal damage as some of the problems caused by alcohol. There was also a call for better policing and education.

In the end after a spirited debate the committee voted not to implement one of the “Access to Alcohol by Young People” report’s recommendations and press for a bylaw on Wirral. However with an election less than a month away would you have expected any politician to vote to increase the price of alcohol?

When I dig out my notes, I’ll provide a more detailed report of the meeting.

Cabinet meeting (Wirral Council) 22/02/2011 Part 1 – the Conservative/Lib Dem budget cometh and Labour is not happy

Well yesterday the Conservative & Lib Dem Cabinet “unveiled” their Wirral Council budget for 2011/2012. Labour’s (opposition) budget will arrive by noon on Friday the 25th February.

Next Monday (1st March) the full Council will vote on the budget, although with 41 (yes I know it’s 42 including the Lib Dem Mayor but generally he doesn’t vote as he’s supposed to be politically neutral as part of his office) “progressive partnership” councillors to Labour’s 25 24 (edit – I sometimes forget Cllr. Knowles had switched from Labour to Tory and the independent Cllr Kirwan isn’t still with Wirral Council) councillors, I’m sure even Labour can do the maths and realise Labour’s budget will be defeated next Monday (with no need for Budget Part 2 on the evening of the 9th March) by around seventeen votes.

Can you see which bits of the Budget are from the Lib Dem side and which from the Conservative side? Yes you can see “the seams” between the two halves as we continue to be two independent political parties with minds and policy making processes of our own. If you look really hard you can see the bits influenced by yours truly and others (for example the 4-year rolling programme for 20 mph residential zones discussed last year by the party when Cllr Quinn was Cabinet Member for Streetscene and Transport) now carried forward by Cllr Rennie.

One Lib Dem policy coming into play is the pupil premium which means about £5 million extra for Wirral Schools to spend on children on free school meals, looked after children and service children. You should’ve heard the “wails of anguish” at the Wirral Schools Forum from headmasters/headmistresses from the more prosperous parts of the Borough when they realised £5 million would be spent on improving the educational chances of the most needy! Clearly Wirral is a place of large social divides and the extra money will be a welcome boost to the schools in Bidston & St. James.

So what may you ask is “in the budget”? Well, first to deal with the elements of the council tax that are made up by Merseyside Police’s budget and Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service’s budget. Both Merseyside Police and Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service froze their contributions from Council Tax compared to last year (2010/2011).

Due to increased costs and inflation (as well as a high proportion of its costs being on staff), Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service will be cutting some jobs. Their Chief Exec/treasurer explains the situation in a self-styled “podcast” (I don’t think he quite knows what a podcast is but I have to give them a few marks for trying), which unfortunately with my browser Firefox either opens a blank black window or six video windows of him at once creating an echo effect so I’ve uploaded it to Youtube (which has slightly better audio quality than five echoes).

For the purposes of any copyright lawyers out there, as the work has been made previously available to the public (and still is on Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service’s website at this location), this is classed as “fair dealing” under s.30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is being done for the purpose of news reporting (and making sure you can hear what the speaker says).

Quite why councillors on Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service left it to an officer to record a video to explain the cuts is a mystery I’m sure my humble readers can enlighten me on in the comments section (or maybe I’ll just ask Cllr Ellis, Cllr Niblock, Cllr Rennie or Cllr Roberts next time I see them).

Labour use casting vote to increase Mersey Tunnel tolls from April 2011

Labour use casting vote to increase Mersey Tunnel tolls from April 2011

                                              

Labour councillor and Merseytravel Chair Cllr Mark Dowd used his casting vote this afternoon after Merseytravel councillors were deadlocked in a 9:9 vote over whether to increase tunnel tolls.

A Liberal Democrat amendment proposed to have no increase in the Mersey Tunnel charges, but to still to ask for a further report as to whether the existing toll concessions for disabled users was “justified or appropriate”. Conservatives tabled two amendments. The first was to keep toll charges at 2010 level and reduce charges for Fast Tag users by 10p, keeping the existing concessions for disabled drivers. The second Conservative amendment also was to keep toll charges at 2010 levels and keep the existing concessions for disabled drivers.

During his amendment Lib Dem Cllr Millea commented on earlier “childish exchanges while members of the public were present” between Cllr Dowd and Cllr Blakeley during an earlier heated debate over taxis used to send reports to councillors and a spat over how criticism by Cllr Blakeley of a Merseytravel officer during a previous meeting was reported in the minutes.

Cllr Millea said in that for the past thirty years they had been asking government to scrap the tolls and the answer had been the same. He believed there was sufficient scope in the budget to keep the tolls at their current levels.

From April 1st 2011, the tolls will rise to the following. Figures in brackets are rise from 2010/2011:-

Vehicle Class 2011/12 Cash Toll 2011/2012 Fast Tag Toll
1 £1.50 (+10p) £1.30 (+10p)
2 £3.00 (+20p) £2.60 (+20p)
3 £4.50 (+30p) £3.90 (+30p)
4 £6.00 (+40p) £5.20 (+40p)

      

Class 1 M/cycle with sidecar, car up to 3.5 tonnes, light goods vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes, passenger carrying vehicle (less than 9 people)
Class 2 Private/light goods vehicle up to 3.5 tonnes with trailer, 2 axle HGV over 3.5 tonnes, 2 axle passenger carrying vehicle for more than 9 passengers
Class 3 3 axle HGV over 3.5 tonnes, 3 axle passenger carrying vehicle carrying more than 9 passengers
Class 4 HGV over 3.5 tonnes with four or more axles

Looking back – Top ten most popular stories

Looking back – Top ten most popular stories

Looking back – Top ten most popular stories

                                         

In a matter of weeks this blog has been viewed over a thousand times (which compared to the traffic other new (and established) blogs get is quite astounding).

The most popular pages have been the homepage (naturally) and a page about myself. The top ten most popular stories have been:-

1. A story about housing policy, Wirral Partnership Homes and a Labour Party donation
2. A story about another Lib Dem policy announcing that ID cards have finally been scrapped
3. A report of a full Council meeting featuring one of my local Labour councillors
4. A report on the Cabinet meeting of the 14th October last year as well as the twists and turns of the Sail Project
5. A report on the Planning Committee Site Visit to Upton Road, Bidston
6. Yesterday’s story about councillors visiting Tam O’Shanter Farm (just up the road)
7. A story about the satellite tracking of gritters
8. Freedom of Speech & Censorship – Time Labour said sorry for the cuts
9. Wirral’s Future: Be a Part of It – the massive public consultation last year
10. Standards and why we need them at Wirral Council