Category: Lib Dems

Planning Committee Site Visit 5/9/2011 18 Bidston Road, Claughton Part 2

A resident introduced herself as Jean Whalley and said she lived at the back. She said three houses would be affected by the dormer windows and there was a lot of concern in the local neighbourhood. The Chair, Cllr Elderton said they would look outside, but it would be decided tomorrow night. The petitioner said … Continue reading “Planning Committee Site Visit 5/9/2011 18 Bidston Road, Claughton Part 2”

A resident introduced herself as Jean Whalley and said she lived at the back. She said three houses would be affected by the dormer windows and there was a lot of concern in the local neighbourhood.

The Chair, Cllr Elderton said they would look outside, but it would be decided tomorrow night. The petitioner said she had other concerns but was mainly concerned about the apartments. The Chair said this was not the purpose of the site visit.

An officer said she would have an opportunity tomorrow. He said this was for councillors to see the site and that the people who live here was not a planning issue.

Cllr Davies said that for children brought up here there was no play area and a busy main road. The Chair said these were matters for debate tomorrow when he would have an opportunity to speak. Everyone went outside to the side of the building.

Cllr Mitchell asked if the fire escape would be retained internally. The architect confirmed this. The petitioner asked if the car park would be here, the architect confirmed that some of the spaces would be here. Comment was made about a recent theft of lead from the roof. People then went to the back of the building.

Cllr Davies said the main thing the residents were objecting about were the dormers. He said the house behind looks straight into a bedroom and that he’d been round to see. To alleviate this the windows could be made opaque. It was asked when the building was constructed, the answer given was the mid 1980s.

Liberal Democrat Chief Executive Chris Fox steps down

Liberal Democrat Party Chief Executive Chris Fox today announced he is to step down as Chief Executive in November. He stated “on a personal level I feel that now is the right time to move on. “.

Lord Rennard, his predecessor as Chief Executive, was approachable friendly and genuinely cared about people and kept in touch with the grass-roots of the party.

Chris Fox on the other hand was a different type of person to Lord Rennard with a more aloof management style, the party headquarters will benefit from someone different ready to lead the party into the future challenges it faces. I look forward to finding out who it will be.”

The new address for the Liberal Democrats is 8-10 Great George Street, London, SW1P 3AE which they recently moved to from 4 Cowley Street, London SW1P 3NB.

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.

E-petition – Hillsborough tragedy documents

I notice the E-petition with regards to releasing the documents surrounding the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 has passed the 100,000 threshold.

At the time it happened I was only eight, but I do remember it vividly as my family was affected by the death of someone who died. It deeply affected Merseyside and the Wirral at the time (and still does) as it happened at a FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

After that many football stadiums (including local Tranmere Rovers FC and others) were converted to all-seater stadiums. I remember going to a football match at the stands at Tranmere Rovers FC which are no longer there. The active substance in Ambien is zolpidem. It does the job well. Once I read about it at https://mi-aimh.org/generic-ambien-zolpidem/. I take the pill, start yawning and fall asleep in an hour. This drug is addictive. As the course ended, it became harder to fall asleep. Side effects are not observed save the addiction. It’s very, very sad what happened all that time ago and 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.

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?