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Wirral Council Cabinet 22/9/11 Items 19A and 13 Here are copies of the resolutions passed at the first two business items at last night’s Cabinet. Click on the relevant image for a larger copy. These are now reduced to 10% original size. Item 19A Item 13
Here are copies of the resolutions passed at the first two business items at last night’s Cabinet. Click on the relevant image for a larger copy. These are now reduced to 10% original size.
Item 19A
Item 13
A Supplementary Report and a Covering Report are down as item 19A of tomorrow night’s Wirral Council’s Cabinet agenda.
However the full report and executive summary is not going to be published until those named in it have had a right of reply. It’s a rather long running saga, a little complex to put into a short blog post but the supplementary report (which relates to the institutional failings at Wirral Council previously also identified by former employee Martin Morton) should hopefully start Wirral Council back on the path to where it should be.
Clearly somebody’s going to make political capital out of it (and the full report and executive summary when it’s published). With a third of council seats up for election (22) in May 2012, I’m sure some councillors would prefer the reports to be published sooner rather than later.
Update 22/9/11: There’s a Wirral Globe story about it written by Leigh Marles that goes into more detail.
I was listening to Ed Davey MP on Post Offices, some of the changes make sense. No one wants to see any more Post Offices close, but going from a “nationalised industry” to a “mutualised cooperative” is something I’m sure the unions won’t be happy with.
Taking nearby Hoylake Road Post Office as an example, there are three counters and usually two people working there. In addition there’s another person at a different counter that deals with anything you want to buy in the shop. Ed Davey said they’re trying out (through some pilot projects) everything being sold at the Post Office counter (which could cut costs making more Post Offices viable) whilst trialling self-service machines to cut down on queues.
Clearly queues is an issue that has been a greater problem since a several Post Offices in Birkenhead have been closed. Having used the Hoylake Road and Upton Road Post Offices in the last few months I think there’s only been one occasion when I didn’t have to queue.
I also remember the campaigns against Post Offices closures we ran a number of years ago. Paula Southwood campaigned in 2007 against the threatened post office closures in Spital and in Heswall. She put a lot of hard work into campaigning and getting petitions going.
In fact a year ago I tabled a question at the Liverpool conference in a session chaired by Lorely Burt MP about the future of the Post Office network. Hopefully any changes made will result in a better Post Office network and not the closures that happened under the previous Labour government.
I notice the next speaker after Ed Davey is also still taking up the Post Offices theme.
The observant watchers of this blog will notice that the day before yesterday it had its 10,000th visitor. As it was my third wedding anniversary, I was spending time with my wife. Considering this blog was started only eleven months ago, in less than a year that’s pretty fantastic!
By the time this is published I should be (with Leonora) at the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham for the next few days. I’m not taking the laptop to Birmingham (relying on my notepad and camera instead).
As I don’t have a mobile phone with a decent keyboard, instead just relying on it in the traditional way for receiving and making phone calls, I’ll be writing up my experiences when I return. The conference will be shown on the BBC Parliament channel which you can watch live on BBC Iplayer or the TV if you want to see what’s happening at it.
The Chair, Cllr Johnston welcomed people to the meeting, he said he was varying the agenda to bring the budget item first, then apprenticeships, then the rest of the agenda.
Cllr Stuart Wittingham declared a personal interest as a Director of Wirral Partnership Homes in item 3 (Affordable Housing in Wirral). The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.
The Chair said further information would go out tomorrow in an email about priority letting and a tour was in progress. He also said that 6 (Budget Issues for Economy and Housing in 2012/2013) was a last-minute agenda item, there would be a presentation, then he would make a statement giving every councillor a chance to speak in turn. They would then work out motions. Kevin Adderley said it was a Cabinet request for overview and scrutiny committees to consider the 2012 Budget and challenges. The projected shortfall was £25 million. The budget for areas under this committee’s control was £21 million revenue and £9.6 million capital. They had lost Housing Market Renewal Initiative funding and Working Neighbourhoods Fund funding of £20 million in 2011/2012. The £1.2 million funding for Homelessness and the Private Sector Housing Team (from the Community Fund and carry over of HMRI funds) was due to end in March 2012. There was a £500k shortfall in the income target for Development Control. The £740k in year grant for worklessness wouldn’t be received until 2012/2013. They have been successful in their ESF and ILM bid, but it had been taken out of the Budget that ended in May 2012.