Category: Labour

Cabinet 1st September 2011 Part 1 – Apologies, Declarations of Interest

The agenda and associated reports for Cabinet can be found by following this link. Present: Cllr Harry Smith, Cllr Brian Kenny, Cllr George Davies, Cllr Anne McArdle, Cllr Ann McLachlan, Cllr Phil Davies, Cllr Chris Meaden and Cllr Adrian Jones. Cllr Phil Davies started the meeting by asking people if he could make a start … Continue reading “Cabinet 1st September 2011 Part 1 – Apologies, Declarations of Interest”

The agenda and associated reports for Cabinet can be found by following this link.

Present: Cllr Harry Smith, Cllr Brian Kenny, Cllr George Davies, Cllr Anne McArdle, Cllr Ann McLachlan, Cllr Phil Davies, Cllr Chris Meaden and Cllr Adrian Jones.

Cllr Phil Davies started the meeting by asking people if he could make a start please. He welcomed people and explained that he would be chairing as the Leader of Wirral Council (Cllr Steve Foulkes) was taking a well-earned break. Apologies were made for Cllr Steve Foulkes and Cllr Jean Stapleton.

Cllr Ann McLachlan declared a personal interest in item 13 as a Board Member of the Beechwood and Ballantyne Community Housing Association, due to her being on the Livingstone Street Community Centre Joint Management Committee and the Gautby Road Play & Community Centre Joint Management Committee.
Cllr Harry Smith declared a personal interest in item 13 as a Board Member of the Beechwood and Ballantyne Community Housing Association due to being on the Livingstone Street Community Centre Joint Management Committee and the Gautby Road Play & Community Centre Joint Management Committee.
Cllr Phil Davies declared a prejudicial interest in item 19 as his wife teaches at the University of Chester. He said he would be vacating the Chair during this item and Cllr George Davies would be chairing the meeting in his absence.

E-petition – Hillsborough tragedy documents – Update – Nick Clegg visit/announcement

Two short days after I wrote “it’s only right that the public should have access to the documents surrounding the case. I hope the Coalition government responds positively to this request so the relatives of those who died and the public have full disclosure as to what happened decades ago.” Nick Clegg has visited the region and confirmed that all documents relating to Hillsborough will be released.

There’s a write up of the announcement and visit on the Birkdale Liberal Democrats website.

Two and a half years ago I was at a full Council meeting around the 20th anniversary of the tragedy. At this meeting all three political parties Lib Dem, Labour and Conservative voted together to make it official Wirral Council policy to push for the documents to be released. It’s nice to see things finally moving in the right direction.

Wirral Council releases a document – all black boxed out

The legal department at Wirral Council (specifically Law, HR and Asset Management, Legal and Member Services section) have authorised a document to be released to me which I requested a while ago but received yesterday. You can see it below. Care to guess at what’s in the black boxes?

Document released by Wirral Council

Of course to be fair to Wirral Council the document might just be an error. It could be the photocopying settings were just set wrong or the ink from blacking out on one page managed to go on another when they were folded together.

Cllr Green (Conservative leader on Wirral Council) stated on 23rd May 2011 "he believed that under Labour there had been a lack of openness and secrecy in which the public had been excluded from decision making.".

However I did read a communication written by Cllr Steve Foulkes (Labour’s leader & Leader of Wirral Council) who sent out a side of A4 co-delivered with something from Wirral Council (I think it was the annual voter registration form). It left me highly amused. In it he’s trying to consult the public in the budget setting process for the 2012/2013 budget.

As some of the savings for 2012/2013 were identified for him by the previous Conservative/Lib Dem administration I’m wondering exactly why Labour councillors are trying to outsource the budget to the public. Are they trying to be popular or is it genuine consultation and engagement with the public in an effort to influence their decisions?

Or is it because with so few Labour councillors, if the Conservative and Lib Dem councillors disagree with the Labour Budget it won’t get passed in March 2012?

Election Expenses – election of a councillor (elections declared on 6th May 2011) – Birkenhead (Bidston & St. James, Birkenhead and Tranmere, Claughton, Oxton, Prenton & Rock Ferry)

I spent the morning inspecting election expenses returns for candidates in the 2011 local elections to Wirral Council in the Birkenhead constituency. I have requested copies of the returns and invoices but here are the total amounts declared (split down by ward). I’ll double-check these figures when I get copies of the returns tomorrow:-

Bidston & St. James ward
Brace (Lib Dem) £279.02
Romnes (UKIP) £33.81
Vickers (Conservative) £169.00
Smith (Labour) £516.00 ELECTED

Birkenhead and Tranmere ward
Allan Brame (Lib Dem) £0.00
David Martin (UKIP) £33.81
Patrick Cleary (Green) £217.02
Philip Davies (Labour) £994.00 ELECTED

Claughton
Barbara Sinclair (Con) £639
Bethan Williams (UKIP) £33.81
Roy Wood (Lib Dem) £0.00
Steve Foulkes (Labour) £827 ELECTED

Rock Ferry
Chris Meaden (Lab) £594 ELECTED
Ann Flynn (UKIP) £33.81
Peter Heppinstall (Lib Dem) £0.00
Joyce Hogg (Green) No return submitted
Barbara Poole (Conservative) £169

Oxton
Bowler (Green) No return submitted
Kelly (Lib Dem) £1120.60 ELECTED
McDonnell (Con) £169
Williams (UKIP) £43.81
Patrick (Labour) £942.00

Prenton
Broadshaw (UKIP) £33.81
Ferguson (Con) £169
Holbrook (Lib Dem) £1129.61
Mitchell (Green) No return submitted
Doughty (Labour) £1112.69 ELECTED

Employment and Appointments Committee 11th August 2011 Part 2

Cllr Gilchrist said he was puzzled by the equality implications. He asked why they were not required for the Finance restructure but were required for the Education restructure and he asked for an explanation.

Chris Hyams, Head of Human Resources & Organisational Development started to speak but then Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive asked why had there been no Equality Impact Assessment on the IT restructuring but they had done one on the Children and Young People restructuring?

Chris Hyams, Head of Human Resources & Organisational Development said they were not changing the structure. However the Children and Young People restructure had an impact on service delivery, which required an EIA.

Cllr Gilchrist asked comparing the two structures, what posts would be deleted further down?

Ian Coleman said there would be a £500,000 staffing saving.

Cllr Adrian Jones asked if the report was agreed and said yes.

The committee then considered Item 3 – Department of Children and Young People Restructure along with Appendix 1, Appendix 2, Appendix 3, Appendix 4 and Appendix 5.

This report was introduced by Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive. He explained that the Director of the Children and Young People’s Department, David Armstrong was current on his well deserved annual holiday on a cruise ship. Although there were no senior staff here tonight from the Children and Young People’s Department, he had their telephone numbers.

He said he was at a disadvantage over the detail at the briefing. However the restructure was a result of the Early Voluntary Redundancy/Voluntary Severance which had led to over three hundred leaving.