Mayor Joe Anderson responds to green space protestors “I’ve got news for you I’m going to stand again [as Mayor]”
Mayor Joe Anderson responds to green space protestors “I’ve got news for you I’m going to stand again [as Mayor]”
Protest outside Liverpool Town Hall 8th April 2015
About three dozen people protested outside Liverpool Town Hall yesterday ahead of a meeting of Liverpool City Council councillors. The protest was about opposing any plans to build on green space land and against Liverpool City Council selling off any green space land to developers.
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.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
One of the protestors from a group called Save Our Green Spaces Liverpool addressed the meeting and said, “Firstly, we want to ask the Council and the Mayor once again to respect the views of local people and our communities and not just listen to their preferred developers whose objectives seem to be for short-term economic gain at Liverpool’s long-term expense.”
She asked for new housing to be built on brownfield sites and not green space sites and said “As a Labour run Council, it is your duty to look to the benefit of your constituents and listen to their views and to keep the lungs of our city in our parks and open spaces.
We would also hope finally that in the Mayor’s final year he would want his legacy to be the introduction of building thousands of homes by the Council, affordable homes for its people on brownfield sites, rather than being remembered for building homes for the elite on places like Sefton Park Meadows.”
Mayor Joe Anderson responds on the issue of green spaces in Liverpool 8th April 2015
Mayor Joe Anderson (pictured above) said that the protestors were “coming together in an alliance with the Greens and the Liberal Democrats to cause political mischief”. He claimed that “over the last four years, 167 sites totalling more than 100 acres have been created or improved within this city. We’ve now got more green space in this city than we’ve ever had in the history of this city, more green space now than we’ve ever had.”
He finished by saying, “We’re not in the hands of anybody, we’re in the hands of the people of this city and it’s they who will decide. Let’s see and let me tell you one thing Janet you said in my last year as Mayor, well I’ve got news for you I’m going to stand again!”
If you click on any of these buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people. Thanks:
Why did Mayor Anderson claim a councillor was “behaving like a child” for highlighting a cut of £42,000 to domestic violence charities?
Why did Mayor Anderson claim a councillor was “behaving like a child” for highlighting a cut of £42,000 to domestic violence charities?
Just for a change I thought I would attend a public meeting of Liverpool City Council yesterday evening, which was their budget meeting.
Prior to the meeting starting, there were a lot of police outside Liverpool Town Hall and not just on foot, but going round on motorbikes and police vehicles. The High Street was closed off to traffic as you can see from the traffic cone to the right of the photo I took below:
Outside Liverpool Town Hall for their budget meeting where there are a lot of police officers ahead of the meeting. pic.twitter.com/f9umyevMKH
Even before getting in to the Council Chamber, the City Watch (Liverpool City Council employees) were stop searching everyone from the press and public attending, supposedly for “whistles and banners”.
At the time this meeting happened (due to the similarity in uniforms between Liverpool City Council’s City Watch and Merseyside Police) I made a Freedom of Information Act request to Merseyside Police for further details. However it turned out that Merseyside Police had nothing to do with the stop searches.
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.
Liverpool City Council (unlike Wirral Council) doesn’t have a public gallery a floor above the Council Chamber, so the public sit on chairs (or benches) around where the councillors sit. What was also interesting was that during the meeting a screen showed a live transcript of what was said.
On Wirral I know that during Council meetings there are two people providing sign language, however having what is being said during the meeting appear on a screen that everyone can see, benefits everyone with hearing difficulties in being able to follow what’s going on.
Liverpool City Council Budget Meeting 4th March 2015 showing the screen used for a live transcript of the meeting
The Lord Mayor of Liverpool (who chairs meetings of Liverpool City Council) did refer to social media and filming of meetings at the start and said, "Can I remind those present that this is a meeting held in public and not a public meeting? I would also like to emphasise that this is a key public meeting, can I therefore request that everyone present, including the public treat this meeting accordingly which will enable the business to be dealt with effectively?
The use of social media and filming for reporting proceedings is permitted during Council meetings. This does not extend to filming of members of the public and anyone wishing to film the proceedings are also particularly directed to the very sensitive issue of filming children without the express permission of their parents."
Sadly although the public were well-behaved during the meeting, the Lord Mayor’s plea to councillors to behave fell on deaf ears (but more of that later). Once the items such as declarations of interest and minutes of the last meeting were dealt with, the Lord Mayor suggested that Mayor Anderson had twenty minutes to speak to Labour’s budget, the mover of an amendment or right to reply ten minutes and all other speakers allowed five minutes and with the permission of Council a two-minute extension.
Mayor Anderson started his speech at 5 minutes 36 seconds into the video clip above and finished it at 45 minutes 48 seconds (a total of forty minutes 12 seconds) which was double the twenty minutes he’d been given.
Liverpool City Council Budget Meeting 4th March 2015 Mayor Joe Anderson speaks on Labour’s budget
It’s hard to summarise such a massively long speech although I will try. He said, “we’ve faced an onslaught by this government in terms of financial cuts” and referred to the Green Party as “no more than militant in sandals, the phrase I coined but it is true and absolutely true”.
He went on to criticise the Green Party’s budget amendment for raising Council Tax by 6% (whilst conveniently failing to mention that his own party’s budget would also raise Council Tax by 1.99%) and asked if the Greens wanted to “return us back to the [19]80s”?
Mayor Anderson referred to Cllr Kemp (Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group) as “caustic Kemp” and then went on to say about Cllr Kemp “it’s another smear and it’s another insult and that’s all we get from you so either put up or shut up, that’s my advice to you”. He then went on to refer to Cllr Kemp as “Mr 3% who spends more time jetting off around the world telling people how important he is, instead of spending more time with the Deputy Prime Minister telling him about the damage that is being done to our city on a daily basis”.
Mayor Anderson also stated that he wanted people who worked in Liverpool to live there so that Liverpool City Council would receive council tax from them. He also said (if I heard it correctly) that next week he was going to MIPIM (Le marché international des professionnels de l’immobilier which is an international property event held in Cannes, France), although the screen displayed it as Mickham but that this was “not a jolly”.
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.
Liverpool City Council Budget Meeting 4th March 2015 Cllr Jake Morrison tries to move an amendment
After his speech and the applause from the Labour benches had died down, Cllr Jake Morrison (independent) tried to move an amendment to the budget. He said that the chief financial officer had looked at it and said it was legal, but that the Chief Executive [Ged Fitzgerald] had decided “not to allow it tonight” so he was asking the Lord Mayor whether he could move it.
The Chief Executive Ged Fitzgerald then gave a rather long-winded response stating that it shouldn’t be accepted as it hadn’t been submitted in time and that it would set a bad “precedent”. The Lord Mayor asked Cllr Morrison if there was a reason why he hadn’t been able to move the amendment.
Cllr Morrison said that the Council summons hadn’t informed him of the consequences of submitting a late amendment and that his budget amendment related to a cut of £42,000 to domestic violence charities which he only found out about the day before.
The Lord Mayor asked if he could speak to the main motion and ask for his amendment to be accepted rather than as an amendment? She then detailed how she had planned the meeting to go.
Cllr Morrison said “I will stand up until I can move this amendment”. Everyone started speaking at once and the Lord Mayor said (to Cllr Morrison), “sit down or I will ask you to leave the Chamber! Would you leave the Chamber Councillor Morrison? Could you leave the Chamber please thank you? Could you leave the Chamber please Councillor Morrison? Would you leave the Chamber?”
Throughout this Councillor Morrison carried on talking to his amendment.
The Lord Mayor then said, “If you don’t leave the chamber, I will adjourn the meeting for ten minutes!”
Mayor Anderson then intervened and referred to Cllr Morrison’s behaviour as “behaving like a child, you can stand up there and get thrown out. That’s what you might want for your leaflets or whatever”. He asked if Cllr Morrison wanted an answer to his amendment or to “spit your dummy out?” and that he felt he’d “wasted the last twenty-five minutes on you”.
Cllr Morrison said, “Can I respond to that?” to which the Lord Mayor replied, “No. Cllr Morrison, I’m sorry no, Councillor Morrison either you’re quiet or you leave. You really are being grossly disrespectful.”
Cllr Morrison said, “I want to move that amendment.”
The Lord Mayor banged her gavel and said, “This meeting’s adjourned for ten minutes.”
If you click on any of these buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people. Thanks:
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agree to no rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls for 2015/16
Councillor Phil Davies asks for "more sensible decisions" about Mersey Tunnel tolls at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 13th February 2015
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.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agree to no rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls for 2015/16
Following cross-party support for no rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls from councillors on the Merseytravel committee, councillors on the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority last week agreed with Merseytravel’s recommendation not to increase the tolls. Cllr Liam Robinson called on both Arriva and Stagecoach to “support local people” and “at the very least freeze their fares” in response to the news.
The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority went further than just agreeing with Merseytravel’s recommendation to not increase tolls this year and agreed to set up a task group to look into whether tunnel tolls could come down in future years. The task group would also call for a review of the Mersey Tunnels Act.
Cllr Phil Davies who seconded the motion creating the task group said, “I think it is timely that we do look at the whole arrangement, costing and pricing et cetera for the tunnel tolls because you know we seem to go through this annual process and it seems to inexorably increase year on year. So I do think it is a good idea to set up a task group where we can look at in-depth all of these issues and I think it’s absolutely again the timing is excellent in terms of the devolution agenda and that really plays into that and our asks.”
John McGoldrick of Mersey Tunnel Users Association, a campaign group who have long campaigned for the scrapping of tunnel tolls, “We were very pleasantly surprised at today’s decision to look again at the whole question of Tunnel’s financing and the level of tolls.”
If you click on any of these buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people. Thanks:
Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority’s £110,000 Community Fund for 2015-2016 will be launched on Tuesday 10th February
Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority’s £110,000 Community Fund for 2015-2016 will be launched on Tuesday 10th February
Merseyside Waste and Recycling Authority 6th February 2015 L to R Cllr Irene Williams, Cllr Laura Robertson-Collins, Cllr Tony Concepcion, Cllr Kevin Cluskey and Cllr Steve Williams
The Merseyside Waste and Recycling Authority met on the 6th February 2015 with most of the meeting being about agreeing next year’s budget and financial matters.
Labour councillors argue for increase in range of Wirral Council’s Chief Executives’ salary to between £155,000 and £175,000
Labour councillors argue for increase in range of Wirral Council’s Chief Executives’ salary to between £155,000 and £175,000
Employment and Appointments Panel (Chief Executive) Committee Room 3, Wallasey Town Hall, 24th November 2014 L to R Martin Denny (LGA), David Slatter (Penna PLC), Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative), Cllr Lesley Rennie (Conservative) and Cllr Phil Gilchrist (Lib Dem)
Employment and Appointments Panel (Chief Executive) Committee Room 3, Wallasey Town Hall, 24th November 2014 L to R Martin Denny (LGA), David Slatter (Penna PLC), Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative councillor), Cllr Lesley Rennie (Conservative councillor) and Cllr Phil Gilchrist (Lib Dem councillor)
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.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Video above is from the Employment and Appointments Panel (Chief Executive) public meeting held on the 24th November 2014 in Committee Room 3, Wallasey Town Hall, Seacombe . This write-up of the public meeting starts at 12:05 in the video above.
Wirral Council’s Employment and Appointments Panel (Chief Executive) met in Committee Room 3, Wallasey Town Hall, Seacombe on Monday afternoon at around 2.30pm. The councillors on the Employment and Appointments Panel (Chief Executive) which had previously been decided by the Employment and Appointments Committee on the 27th October 2014 are:
Cllr Phil Davies (Labour) Chair Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour) Cllr George Davies (Labour) Cllr Adrian Jones (Labour) Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative) Cllr Lesley Rennie (Conservative) Cllr Phil Gilchrist (Lib Dem)
The Chair, Cllr Phil Davies invited Cllr Ann McLachlan to speak. She said, “I think it’s important to recognise where we are in the local government family and what we want to attract here. We want to attract the best in England, so we’ve got to be somewhere in the parameters of being able to say ‘Oh we’re pitching our salary at such an appropriate level, to get the best field of candidates that we possibly can to attract the best in the business’.
I think also it would be fair to say and I’m sure we’ll be doing this, we will be setting, you will Phil within because consultation with the new Chief Executive, you’ll be setting some parameters for them to look at, you know senior management savings across err you know the period of their, their tenure here at Wirral. So and part of the role will also be about saving money, so sometimes you have to invest to save in the longer term and I think also that it’s worth saying that we need to look at comparisons with the rest of the public sector.
It was reported last week that a primary headteacher within an academy was on a salary equivalent to £200,000. The first 150 secondary academies have got heads on over £150,000. You’re talking about a primary head managing a school of two hundred and fifty pupils max, probably about forty staff. There’s no comparison between managing you know a multi-million pound organisation like Wirral!
So I think for those reasons for me, I’ll be saying we need to get this salary in the right range for you know the kind of calibre of the people that we want to work with us.”
Cllr Phil Gilchrist referred to the salary grades. He asked about the salaries of people on the next tier down from Chief Executive and that if they attracted someone who was currently a strategic director in another authority, how much of a salary increase it would be?
Cllr Phil Davies (Chair) replied that they’d have to wait and see what level of candidate they got, but he hoped that they would be attracting not just deputies and strategic directors but actually serving chief executives elsewhere with an “excellent track record” so they could “hit the ground running”. Cllr Phil Gilchrist said he understood.
Cllr Jeff Green said that his parents had told him that “two wrongs don’t make a right”. The other point he wanted to make was that unless they’re going to ask a primary head to run the authority, and there might be one paid £200,000 somewhere around the country, that it wasn’t really a reason for making decisions on the chief executive’s salary. Then again he said, “a primary head might be just what is required!”
Cllr Green continued that his understanding was that a set of proposals were being worked on that were going to save £1.5 million by the current Chief Executive. He said that [Cllr] Ann [McLachlan] had promised that would be delivered in December in terms of Council unless she’d changed her mind and then he revealed “Those savings were already in the works are due to be published in December”. So in terms of some of the points that councillors had been making Cllr Green felt were “extraneous”. He asked them to focus on what would be required, he referred to a saving of £730,000 and referred to a number of issues about the current Chief Executive. He didn’t understand why they’d have to increase it [the Chief Executive’s salary] to £175,000.
Referring to other salaries for Chief Executives in the North West, he said that “to increase to that much seems to be excessive”. He referred to the documents prepared for full Council, how £1.5 million of senior management savings had been identified and how all those things had been delivered off a salary of £130,000. He proposed they seek a Chief Executive on the current salary range of the current Chief Executive of £130,000.
Cllr Phil Davies asked councillors to look at the salaries in appendix 4. He referred to Liverpool City Council’s Chief Executive being paid £197,500, Cheshire West’s £180,000, Cheshire East’s £187,000, Knowsley a “much smaller authority than Wirral” £160,000, St Helens £140,000 and Sefton £152,000. He said “even councils on our doorstep are paying a substantially higher salary than Wirral does.
I think my kind of comments or my reflection on the discussion is, we need to be able to attract the best, but also retain them as well, what we don’t want to do is get somebody here and then because Cheshire West are paying you know a much larger salary, they’ll disappear to Cheshire West in a few years time. So I think we need to just have that in our forefront of our minds as well.”
Cllr Ann McLachlan said, “Completely disingenuous [Cllr] Jeff [Green], because what I was doing was giving a comparison with the public sector that wasn’t a local government chief executive, just to demonstrate that out there the salaries in the public sector in general at that level, you know to get the expertise you want at that level are much more higher than Wirral.
I’m going to ask Chris [Hyams] if she would give us a little bit of background on that £131 or £130 or whatever it is Graham [Burgess]’s in, because how long, what was the previous Chief Executive on? Coz Graham [Burgess] came to us and took his pension, I think he took his pension, .. or has pension arrangements in place or didn’t need to be paid the on costs that we would have to pay.
Well previous chief executives, what kind of salary was he on and how long ago was that? I mean in a sense I think we need to get a bit of a reality check here and get in the real world about what the real costs of salaries at this level are.
So, errm, yeah, I think it’s you know, our salary range here is at the bottom of the tree really. So what’s the history of that and also you know it’s not that two wrongs don’t make a right, it’s not anything like that but what we’re trying to do is demonstrate that here in this Authority we want to get somebody who is going to you know help us in the obviously very clear difficult financial circumstances we’re in, with the financial challenges we’ve got going forward as well and in remodelling and changing this Council. You know, so errm, I’m absolutely of the view that we will have to pay the appropriate level. Thanks Chris.”
Chris Hyams, Head of HR responded by saying, “OK, thank you. The current Chief Executive is paid top of the salary range. As the Deputy Leader’s just intonated, it is in the public domain that he left his last council with a pension which is why we didn’t incur the on costs. So in terms of remuneration, there was an additional salary arrangement through his last job through gaining his pension.
Before that, the salary range that was in place for a previous Chief Executive had his spot salary within that range of £130,000. The range has not been reviewed for a number of years and certainly not reviewed as such or changed previously to this in the time that I’ve been here in the last five years.”
