Category: Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Who was paid a £150,707 salary by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority?

Who was paid a £150,707 salary by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority?

Who was paid a £150,707 salary by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority?

                                          

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Monty Python’s famous sketch about chartered accountancy (as it’s very hard to make jokes about this subject)

Councillor Phil Davies shows off the LGC award Wirral Council received for being most improved Council 12th March 2015
Councillor Phil Davies (Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) shows off the LGC award Wirral Council received for being most improved Council 12th March 2015

As it states in the video above, accountancy can be dull. However I wrote this email below (sent the day before the meeting) about a disclosure mistake in the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority accounts for 2014/15. The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority meets this morning to approve the accounts for 2014/15.

It’s quite simple really, about six years ago the law changed so that public sector employees that are paid a salary of £150,000 or more had to be named in the accounts.

For example on page 160 of the accounts for the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority approved last week Dan Stephens, the Chief Fire Officer (on a salary of £170,000) is named. In fact Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority also name the Deputy Chief Fire Officer and Deputy Chief Executive, as despite their salaries being below the £150,000 threshold it is more transparent to do so as the total they receive is over the £150,000 threshold.

The Chief Executive of Merseytravel (David Brown) on a salary of £150,707 should’ve been named in the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s accounts. The email below from myself details the reasons why (KPMG are the external auditors for the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority). Hopefully this will be sorted out at the meeting and corrected.

Subject: agenda item 7 (Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Final Accounts 2014/15) meeting 20th September 2015

To: Cllr Phil Davies
CC: Mayor Joe Anderson
CC: Cllr Barrie Grunewald
CC: Robert Hough
CC: Cllr Andy Moorhead
CC: Cllr Rob Polhill
CC: Cllr Ian Maher

CC: David Brown (Chief Executive/Director General, Merseytravel)
CC: Louise Outram (Monitoring Officer, Merseytravel)
CC: Angela Sanderson (Monitoring Officer, LCRCA)
CC: Stephanie Donaldson (Head of Internal Audit, Merseytravel)
CC: Tim Cutler (Partner, KPMG LLP (UK))
CC: Ian Warwick (Manager, KPMG LLP (UK))
CC: Richard Tyler (Assistant Manager, KPMG LLP (UK))

Dear all,

I am bringing this up in advance of Monday’s meeting, in the hope it can be amended. If it isn’t amended, please class this as a formal objection by a Merseyside local government elector to the accounts of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority for 2014/15.

The draft statement of accounts at note 9 (which is page 41 in the numbering of the report or page 67 of the supplementary agenda) contains details of the remuneration paid to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s senior employees.

For the year 2015 (I presume this means financial year 2014/15), the Chief Executive/Director General received a salary of £150,707.

A number of years ago the Accounts and Audit (Amendment no 2) (England) Regulations 2009, SI 2009/3322 changed the audit regulations (this change started in financial year 2009/2010) and added the paragraph below:

"(c) the remuneration, set out according to the categories listed in paragraph (d), by the relevant body during the relevant financial year of—

(i) senior employees, or

(ii) relevant police officers,

in respect of their employment by the relevant body or in their capacity as a police officer, whether on a permanent or temporary basis, to be listed individually in relation to such persons who must nevertheless be identified by way of job title only (except for persons whose salary is £150,000 or more per year, who must also be identified by name)."

This requirement was kept in The Accounts and Audit (England) Regulations 2011, SI 2011/817 reg 7(2)(c) and the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, SI 2015/234 (which although referred to in the draft statement of accounts will apply from the 2015/16 financial year onwards).

Clearly, the Chief Executive should’ve been explicitly named and wasn’t. I think everyone I write this email to will know he’s called David Brown, but the draft statement of accounts should be amended to state this.

It’s a basic issue of openness and transparency (which I’m sure you’d expect the press to take a viewpoint on).

Yours sincerely,

John Brace

P.S. I know Merseytravel’s accounts are audited separately to the LCRCA, has the same error been made there too?

If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agrees to ask government for further powers over Mersey Tunnels, transport, fire, police, skills, employment, European funding, trade, housing, health, energy and more!

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agrees to ask government for further powers over Mersey Tunnels, transport, fire, police, skills, employment, European funding, trade, housing, health, energy and more!

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agrees to ask government for further powers over Mersey Tunnels, transport, fire, police, skills, employment, European funding, trade, housing, health, energy and more!

                                                           

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

The video above of the Special Meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority of the 2nd September will finish uploading by about 16:30 on the 2/9/15. Once processed it should be available for viewing but is not available at the time this blog post was published.

Mayor Joe Anderson speaking about devolution at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (2nd September 2015) thumbnail
Mayor Joe Anderson speaking about devolution at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (2nd September 2015) thumbnail

At a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, councillors, the Mayor of Liverpool and co-opted members agreed a revised set of recommendations. The revised recommendations appeared only minutes before the meeting started.

The revised recommendations approve a request to the Conservative government to devolve powers to the city region as part of a devolution deal.

Here are the original recommendations (with the crossed out parts deleted by the revised recommendations):

It is recommended that the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority:-

(a) comments upon, and endorses the devolution themes that will form the basis of the Liverpool City Region’s input to the Comprehensive Spending Review on the 4 September 2015 (NB: this detail will form the basis of a follow-on report for members’ consideration); and

(b) notes that the devolution process will remain an iterative process and that further information will be presented to future meetings of the Authority, for members’ consideration."

Here are the revised recommendations agreed today:

1.1 Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is recommended to:

  1. Approve the initial scope of the proposals as outlined in the supplementary report and the presentation made to the Combined Authority as the Liverpool City Region’s formal submission to the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, subject to a delegation to the Head of Paid Service in consultation with the Chair of the Combined Authority and the Lead Officer: Economic Development to make any drafting amendments to the final document;
  2. Continue negotiations with Government over the Autumn period in advance of the publication of the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review to secure a bespoke devolution ‘deal’ for Liverpool City Region which will:
  1. Drive economic growth and increase productivity;
  2. Reduce costs and improve outcomes across the whole of the public sector;
    and
  3. Improve social outcomes and better health and wellbeing for local residents.
  1. Note that any actual agreement with Government would require the approval of constituent Councils with appropriate consultation put in place;
  2. Note that devolution negotiations are an iterative process and that further information will be presented to future meetings of the Combined Authority, for Member’s consideration and approval; and
  3. Note that any Agreement will only be signed by both the Constituent Councils and Government when both parties are fully satisfied with the final details of the Devolution Deal.

So what are the proposals that the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority are asking the government for?

The proposals are in this supplementary report and include the points below (plus other asks):

  • Abolishing Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority and transferring its functions to an elected Liverpool City Region Mayor
  • Abolishing the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside and transferring its functions to an elected Liverpool City Region Mayor
  • Asking for a legislation change so that any surplus Mersey Tunnel tolls can be used for economic development
  • “the repayment of historic Mersey Tunnels debts by government”
  • Development Corporation Status for the Liverpool City Region
  • Creation of a Land Commission
  • “Designation of catapult Centres in the City Region for Manufacturing Technology Centre focused on marine and renewable energy and a Centre of Excellence for Infectious Diseases”
  • “A Free Trade Zone designation for the Liverpool Wirral Port system that includes provision for Global Zone-to-Zone Transfers, No Duty on Value Added and Enhanced Customs Warehousing”
  • “We want government to give us a long-term Special Rail Grant (SRG) to help
    secure a new fleet of Merseyrail trains.”
  • “the development of a generation system of regional significance, for example, an offshore tidal lagoon”
  • Also requested are “asks” under the headings of “cultural partnership and creative dock”, “community safety, enforcement, licensing and regulatory services”, “education”, “children’s services” and “health, wellbeing and social care”

Certainly the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is asking for many changes from the government, which if agreed in principle will be subject to consultation.

Here are what some of the people on the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority had to say at today’s public meeting that agreed the proposals:

Mayor Joe Anderson (Mayor of Liverpool, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) said, "There will be opportunities, there also will be more negotiations of more substance with businesses, with other political parties, with other interested groups like health, the voluntary sector, the trade unions and others to engage and involve themselves in the process."

Cllr Phil Davies (Chair, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) asked, "In the near future presumably we’ll be drawing up a consultation programme if you like as the negotiations roll out?"

If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.

How much does a Superlambanana cost to repaint?

How much does a Superlambanana cost to repaint?

How much does a Superlambanana cost to repaint?

                                   

I went to Merseytravel’s headquarters to inspect various invoices and contracts. A Superlambanana costs £500 to repaint, but a penguin only costs £400 as you can see from the invoice below.

Merseytravel invoice repainting Lambanana Artopia £900 27th March 2014
Merseytravel invoice repainting Lambanana Artopia £900 27th March 2014

Below are invoices that I requested from the first month of expenditure in 2014/15 that had something blacked out on them.

First there’s a larger invoice for £1,241.08 from Bircham Dyson Bell. This is for a “claim by Charles Denton as owner of Olympia Public House” and more specifically “To professional charges acting for you in the above claim for compensation in connection with advising you by Mr Charles Denton for the period from 21 December 2013 to 26 March 2014 for the Olympia Public House as set out in the attached breakdown. Actual fees £1,721.90 less £771.00 as per email dated 19th March 2014.”

Blacked out are the hourly rates charged. These are:

(Partner) 0.10 hours @ 141.92 per hour = £14.19
(Partner) 1.00 hours @ 141.92 per hour = £141.92
(Partner) 5.60 hours @ 141.92 per hour = £794.79

Merseytravel invoice repainting Lambanana Artopia £900 27th March 2014
Merseytravel invoice repainting Lambanana Artopia £900 27th March 2014
Merseytravel invoice Bircham Dyson Bell £1241.08 Claim by Charles Denton as owner of Olympia Public House 28th March 2014
Merseytravel invoice Bircham Dyson Bell £1241.08 Claim by Charles Denton as owner of Olympia Public House 28th March 2014

Next is a two page invoice from Hays for agency staff. Whereas Merseytravel have blacked out the name of the person whose services this invoice relates to on the front of the invoice, the name is clearly visible on the timesheet on the second page of this invoice (Melissa Waring). The timesheet also shows this is for 35 hours of work (a detail again blacked out on the front of the invoice) at a rate of £30.35 an hour + VAT.

Merseytravel invoice Hays £1019.77 assistant senior accountant 15th April 2014
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1019.77 assistant senior accountant 15th April 2014
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1019.77 assistant senior accountant 15th April 2014 timesheet
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1019.77 assistant senior accountant 15th April 2014 timesheet

There are three further invoices from Hays from that month which are each for the services of Melissa Waring. However the timesheets on the back of those invoices aren’t included. Those invoices (including the second page where you’d expect the timesheets) are below.

Merseytravel invoice Hays £1092.61 assistant senior accountant 3rd April 2014
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1092.61 assistant senior accountant 3rd April 2014
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1092.61 assistant senior accounant 3rd April 2014 timesheet
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1092.61 assistant senior accounant 3rd April 2014 timesheet
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1153.06 assistant senior accountant 27th March 2014
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1153.06 assistant senior accountant 27th March 2014
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1153.06 assistant senior accountant 27th March 2014 timesheet
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1153.06 assistant senior accountant 27th March 2014 timesheet
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1274.71 assistant senior accountant 9th April 2014 timesheet
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1274.71 assistant senior accountant 9th April 2014 timesheet
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1274.71 assistant senior accountant 9th April 2014
Merseytravel invoice Hays £1274.71 assistant senior accountant 9th April 2014

Finally there is an invoice for £3,800 from DWF for the services of Martin Stafford seconded to Merseytravel at £200 a day. It was pretty pointless blacking out the daily rate of £200 a day on this invoice and leaving in “for 19 days work carried out from 3rd March 2014 to 31st March 2014” along with the amount of £3,800.

Merseytravel invoice DWF £4560.00 Martin Stafford secondment 31st March 2014
Merseytravel invoice DWF £4560.00 Martin Stafford secondment 31st March 2014

If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.

BBC launches consultation on collaboration with hyperlocal blogs but do bloggers know there's a consultation?

BBC launches consultation on collaboration with hyperlocal blogs but do bloggers know there’s a consultation?

BBC launches consultation on collaboration with hyperlocal blogs but do bloggers know there’s a consultation?

                                                             

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority meeting 19th June 2015
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority meeting 19th June 2015

I’ll start by declaring an interest in this piece as I write for and run this blog. Earlier this week I got an email from a well-known journalist about a consultation the BBC is running. More information on this is on the BBC’s website.

Personally I’m not sure what to make of it. I don’t have the benefit of working for a media organisation like the BBC that is funded by taxes so gets a guaranteed income. Tomorrow I’ll be filming a public meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

At the previous meeting (19th June 2015) there were three filming the meeting itself:

a) myself
b) Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council and
c) the BBC for the Sunday Politics show.

However out of those three the footage I took was available to the public first. However I am getting off the point a little. The BBC just used clips of the meeting with a voice over during its Sunday Politics show.

Below is my footage on Youtube (which can be viewed in resolutions to 1080p HD). It has at the time of writing 19 views.

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

In comparison here is the footage on Youtube filmed by Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council (at the start of each meeting the Chair generally announces they’re filming and the meeting can be watched on their Youtube channel). It can be watched in resolutions up to 480p. As you can see when they uploaded it to Youtube it’s resulted in a blank black area right, left and top. Generally my view is that if there’s a natural source of light in the room you should try to film with the light behind the camera (this was what the BBC cameraman was trying to do at the start too). Some of the time they film pointing at the windows. However at the time of writing they have 28 views.

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Now I’m definitely biased but I think my footage is better (but not as good as the BBC’s (unfortunately I don’t have a link of their video footage to hand to show)).

It’s very hard for me to fairly compete though with Knowsley, who have a Twitter account with 8,842 followers compared to my Twitter account with 970 followers.

I do see competition in the media as a good thing though. If people want to watch footage of this public meeting they have a choice.

That’s why I don’t fully understand what the BBC is proposing. We’re all competing with each other, which means over time we learn from each other and get better. Providing people with a choice is good. It’s how the marketplace and media works.

Collaboration between competing bodies could work to reduce that choice in the long-term if two or more previous competitors collaborate.

Links from the BBC’s website to a hyperlocal blog (through this proposed external linking system) would cause a spike in traffic to the hyperlocal blog as links from the BBC’s website carry a lot of weight.

However hyperlocal blogs who weren’t collaborating with the BBC would lose out on this source of visitors.

What’s really needed is not what the BBC propose. A lot of hyperlocal blogs have filled a media void once occupied by the newspapers. Newspapers get a guaranteed income from the taxpayer through things like public notices as the legislation specifically refers to public notices being published in local newspapers.

Considering the community benefit of hyperlocal blogs what’s really needed is a decent discussion about their long-term sustainability and how essentially their community benefit is priceless. They’re doing media work that otherwise wouldn’t happen. Hyperlocal blogs (including this one) have written stories that lead to front page news stories in newspapers, have highlighted extremely important issues and contributed to greater scrutiny of public bodies.

Apart from the first of these issues, the two latter have a “community benefit” can’t be easily measured or quantified. Anyway going back to the BBC consultation I was asked a further few questions so I thought I’d do a poll here (or you can leave a comment).

http://johnbrace.polldaddy.com/s/bbc-consultation-on-blogs

If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.

Councillors on Merseytravel agree to increase upper age limit for MyTicket bus ticket from 15 years to 18 (including those aged 18)

Councillors on Merseytravel agree to increase upper age limit for MyTicket bus ticket from 15 years to 18 (including those aged 18)

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Merseytravel Committee meeting of the 25th June 2015 (item 11 Making Transport Affordable for Young People)

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Merseytravel Committee meeting of the 25th June 2015 (item 11 Making Transport Affordable for Young People)

Merseytravel Committee meeting 25th June 2015 item 11 Making Transport Affordable for Young People Foreground M'travel officer Middle Row L to R Cllr Jerry Williams, Cllr Steve Foulkes, Cllr Malcolm Sharp, Cllr Terry Shields
Merseytravel Committee meeting 25th June 2015 item 11 Making Transport Affordable for Young People Foreground Merseytravel officer Middle Row L to R Cllr Jerry Williams, Cllr Steve Foulkes, Cllr Malcolm Sharp, Cllr Terry Shields

Councillors on Merseytravel agree to increase upper age limit for MyTicket bus ticket from 15 years to 18 (including those aged 18)

                                            

In a late item on the agenda of Merseytravel’s meeting of the 25th June 2015, was an item titled Making Transport Affordable for Young People and the report for this item is on Merseytravel’s website.

The report recommended an increase in the upper age limit eligible for a MyTicket. The upper age limit of who can purchase a MyTicket is at the time of writing 15 years, but councillors decided to increase this to 18 years (which includes people who are 18 years old) effective from the 19th July 2015. MyTicket is a £2 day ticket for bus journeys launched last year by Merseytravel and MyTickets can be bought on buses from bus drivers.

This follows campaigning by the Liverpool Youth Parliament calling for more affordable bus fares for young people.

Councillors from both the ruling Labour Group on Merseytravel and an opposition councillor welcomed the change to the MyTicket upper age limit.

Commenting on the recommendation, Councillor Les Rowlands (Conservative, Wirral Council) said, "I very, very welcome the report. It’s nice to see Merseytravel leading the way for affordable travel for teenagers. I think it’s one of the biggest problems teenagers face actually getting transport around so this goes a long way towards helping that. So that is absolutely superb. "

Cllr Mary Rasmussen (Labour, Liverpool City Council) said, "I think it’s absolutely amazing what the officers have managed to achieve. You know with us there shoving you all the way, I know we’ve been a pain, but quite rightly. I think the people we need to really thank though is every kid that’s stopped us in the street and said to me ‘Do you know what Mary? It’s not fair! I can’t afford to do! I can’t get to school. I can’t do this, do something about it’ and do you know we actually have but don’t forget to thank them along the way. It was them that helped us get here. Well done."

Councillor Steve Foulkes (Labour, Wirral Council) also welcomed the move and said, "Let’s be careful how we talk about it. Some people are saying eighteen, up to eighteen. It’s up to a person’s nineteenth birthday. So let’s not undersell the product in any way, shape or form. Up to their nineteenth birthday MyTicket will apply, I think we need to you know blow the trumpet loud and clear."

If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.