Biffa asks Wirral’s Cabinet for a 10 year extension to bins & street cleaning contract worth at least £120 million

Biffa asks Wirral’s Cabinet for a 10 year extension to bins & street cleaning contract worth at least £120 million

Biffa asks Wirral’s Cabinet for a 10 year extension to bins & street cleaning contract worth at least £120 million

                                                      

Biffa Waste Service Limited November 2013 Invoice Wirral Council £1036840.28
Biffa Waste Service Limited November 2013 Invoice Wirral Council £1036840.28
Biffa Waste Service Limited December 2013 Invoice Wirral Council £1032201.28
Biffa Waste Service Limited December 2013 Invoice Wirral Council £1032201.28
Biffa Waste Service Limited January 2014 Invoice Wirral Council £1032201.28
Biffa Waste Service Limited January 2014 Invoice Wirral Council £1032201.28

Above are three of the recent monthly invoices to Wirral Council from Biffa Waste Services Limited for November 2013 (£1,036,840.28), December 2013 (£1,032,201.28) and January 2014 (£1,032,201.28).

I did not request the invoices for other months during that financial year (2013/14), but I would assume that the other nine are for similar amounts of around a million pounds. So why am I writing about this and what does Biffa Waste Services Limited actually do for it’s ~£12 million it receives each year from the taxpayer?

Well as shown on the invoices it’s for collecting the bins, cleaning the streets and extra amounts for working on a Bank Holiday. I’ll be looking more closely at the current contract with Biffa Waste Services Limited (which runs to 2017) tomorrow morning (if all goes well).

However there is some political news on the Biffa front, in fact Wirral Council seems to be bolstering itself for a bit of bad press coverage judging by the Cabinet papers for tonight’s Cabinet meeting (only tonight if you happen to reading this on the 11th September 2014).

If you’re interested in reading the papers yourself on Wirral Council’s website, it’s the Streetscene Environment Services Contract Extension item which is item 4 on Cabinet’s agenda.

I remember Mark Smith (a Wirral Council officer who is Head of Environment and Regulation) getting a grilling by the Chair (Rt Hon Frank Field MP) at a recent Birkenhead Constituency Committee meeting about what the Rt Hon Frank Field MP seemed to see as a lack of openness and transparency in the area of how Wirral Council manages the Biffa contract.

In the Rt Hon Frank Field MP’s view (from my memory of the meeting) he wanted (rather reasonably some might say) to know exactly what the public were getting for the ~£12 million a year that the taxpayer pays Biffa Waste Services Limited through Wirral Council. Sadly there was no one present at the meeting to answer for Biffa Waste Services Limited and Mark Smith seemed to struggle a little to give the kind of answers that Rt Hon Frank Field MP seemed to want to hear. However moving on from the frustrations of Birkenhead’s MP/Chair of the Birkenhead Constituency Committee to more local politics (although isn’t all politics local)?

Rather helpfully Appendix 5 to the Streetscene Environment Services Contract Extension item contains the following two entries on the risk register (copied below):

Risk No Description of risk Risk category Risk Owner Gross likelihood Score Gross impact score Total Gross Score Net Likelihood Score Net Impact Score Total Net Score Proposed Controls Responsibility Target date RAG Status
1 District Audit scrutiny on decision process likely Legal / Regulatory Tara Dumas 3 4 12 3 2 6 Member decision based on thorough analysis of risks. Best value comparison work to be undertaken – Local benchmarking plus APSE/Audit commission comparison Update on market position sought from previous consultants contracted to review Biffa contract. Process to be reviewed by internal audit TD
TD
TD
MGa
07/07/14
completed
07/07/14
07/07/14
G
C
G
G
2 Negative political and
media attention
Political/societal PR team – Kathryn Green 5 3 15 3 2 6 Proactive approach by PR with press releases Confirm offer not linked to service/workforce changes LF Post decision 31/5/2014 G
C

In other words, Wirral Council know (before any decision is formally made tonight to enter into negotiations) that it will cause all kinds of trouble. They’ve already decided (it seems) on a public relations line of telling the press it won’t lead to job losses/workforce changes and giving them the “gift” of a press release in the hope that most of the media will just print the press release more or less verbatim and not ask too many awkward questions about the matter.

They even know their external auditor (Grant Thornton) will be asking them a whole bunch of questions to do with it too but surprisingly there are even bigger risks than the media and Wirral Council’s auditors to tackle, although read the risk register at appendix 5 and hopefully you’ll see what I mean.

So how can I sum up what is proposed to be decided tonight quickly? The current contract will Biffa Waste Services Limited will end on March 2017.

The impression I get from reading between the lines of the Cabinet papers, (a lot of the detail has been kept deliberately secret by officers who are recommending to politicians to keep it secret too on grounds of commercial confidentiality) is that Biffa Waste Services Limited seemed to be somewhat concerned that if their multi-million pound 11 year contract ends on March 2017, that they would have to bid in a competitive tender against other companies and organisations for the new contract.

There’s then uncertainty (from Biffa’s perspective) over whether they would end up being the successful bidder or not. It’s called “competition” and is generally required for such large multi-million pound contracts because of all kinds of laws I won’t go into at this point and competition is therefore required for a whole bunch of good reasons.

So someone as Biffa Waste Services Limited has read through the contract they have with Wirral Council and found a caveat. There was a part in the contract that could extend it a further ten years (current prices of ~£12 million a year but yearly increases and variation are usually built-in). This contract covers “all household waste and recycling collections, street cleansing and fly tip removal, waste collection from schools and council offices and wheeled bin deliveries.”

All Biffa had to do to get a further ten years (at ~£12 million a year) was make a formal offer to Wirral Council (which they did) and have this agreed to by Wirral Council (which hasn’t happened yet with the earliest date expected being October 2014).

Due to the size of the amounts involved it has to be a decision made by politicians, specifically Wirral Council’s Cabinet and the councillor with responsibility for this area is the new(ish) Cabinet Member for Environment and Sustainability Councillor Bernie Mooney (who replaced Brian Kenny earlier this year when he lost an election in May to the Green Party councillor Pat Cleary).

However what’s in the currently exempt appendices?

Well appendix 1 covers the “value and suggested terms of the formal offer from Biffa in return for the Council extending the contract to 2027. In summary the proposal offers the Council a one-off saving split between 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17 followed by a continued annual reduction in the core contract price throughout the remainder of the extended contract period to the equivalent value. Officers asked Biffa to clarify the benefits to Biffa if the contract extension was agreed.”

I’m not allowed to link to appendix 1 (as it’s currently a big secret and you’d get an “access denied” type message from Wirral Council’s website if I did), but as the language used by a Wirral Council officer is rather opaque, it has to boil down to how I imagine a summary of what Biffa offered Wirral Council … “give us a further ten years and we will give you very good price if you pick us. Our price is very reasonable, many savings to be had, very good price, you buy from us again we treat you well. We are very good supplier and will take your bins to tip and keep streets clean for another 10 years for a very reasonable price.”

Wirral Council officers asked Biffa to clarify what Biffa would get out of extending the contract a further ten years.

Biffa responded to this on the 10th February 2014. Again I’m not allowed to show you Biffa’s response either on the instructions of Wirral Council officers!

The summary of this response is again in rather opaque language “Biffa indicated that the savings they could offer arose from avoiding future procurement and mobilisation costs, the ability to re-finance their operations and a reduction in overheads due to the stable nature of the contract. The discount is not linked to any service changes.”

In other words Biffa are saying “grant us a monopoly, save us the cost of having to retender for the contract in 2017, Wirral Council will save money from having to retender the contract” (which is a bit of a debatable point really anyway considering the extra costs this will cause doing it this way) “and Biffa will be able to borrow money cheaper because we’ll have a longer contract.” To be honest I don’t agree entirely with Biffa’s point about overheads being significantly lower to justify this.

Another letter from Biffa (exempt appendix 3) is also currently being kept secret by Wirral Council officers (pending a decision by politicians). This letter is about an offer to redesign the fleet of bin lorries from 2017 to collect things such as food waste (to meet Wirral Council’s recycling targets).

However Biffa make it clear that this is absolutely Biffa’s final offer (well unless Wirral Council’s Cabinet say no to negotiations or no to the offer in October 2014 and Biffa have to bid for the new contract starting in 2017)!

Wirral Council officers seem very keen to have the Labour councillors on Wirral Council’s Cabinet agree to Biffa’s plan. “80p cheaper per a Wirral person than Liverpool” they state in the report, but strangely 15p more per a person than in Sefton!

Of course Wirral Council’s Cabinet could just choose to reject Biffa’s proposal and decide to bring the service in-house from 2017.

The recent street cleansing cuts to the contract, have been the source of both political and media attention in the recent past. However, what’s the officer’s recommendation?

Oh and before I get to that, Wirral Council asked Eunomia (are they consultants?) in 2012 to look at the Biffa contract, the consultants in fact suggested the contract should be retendered! Eunomia also suggested that if Wirral Council did agree to extend the contract by a further ten years than there should be changes to “contract clauses relating to indexation, labour cost inflation and future efficiency gains” which would be extremely sensible to do considering the current contract is linked to RPI (and let’s face it inflation is quite high)! However the Eunomia assessment is now two years out of date and things have changed somewhat since then.

As Wirral Council officers freely admit in 5.3.4 of this report, they don’t really know if this will save any money at all versus retendering the contract, it all just seems to be educated guesswork and unknown quantities.

The estimated savings have been listed, but surprisingly (and isn’t this usually the case?) not the increased costs (such as an increased audit bill from Grant Thornton for extra work).

It’s the report gets to “legal implications” that things start to get interesting!

Here’s a quote from 10.2 “The Legal colleagues have highlighted that it is necessary to limit the amount of material changes to the contract in order to minimise the risk of the Council being challenged on the legalities of the extension.”

In other words, do it right otherwise one of Biffa’s competitors, or in fact anyone could sue Wirral Council over how it was done.

Then entering into catch 22 territory the legal advice continues:

“Due consideration has been given to establishing whether the Biffa proposal offers Value for Money (Sections 4 and 5 refers) as required under the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules. However, it is important to note that the only decisive way to determine whether a more advantageous contract could be secured by the Council would be through retendering the contract.”

In other words, Wirral Council don’t know whether this saves them money without retendering the contract in 2017, but if they agree to Biffa’s proposal they won’t be retendering the contract in 2017 so they’ll never really know or be able to prove “value for money” to their external auditors Grant Thornton.

However let’s see, what do officers want? They want politicians to agree to them to enter into negotiations with Biffa, more specifically the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment (currently Kevin Adderley) and then report back to Cabinet no later than October 2014.

Personally (and this is just an opinion) I think politicians on the Cabinet will probably agree to enter into negotiations with Biffa tonight (even though Labour’s tendency in the past has been to bring back services in-house), if only just to keep their options open in October 2014. Quite what the Rt Hon Frank Field MP’s views on this latest development in the Biffa saga are at the time of writing unknown.

Coming up next today: What Wirral Council’s Cabinet is planning to do about Children’s Centres.

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The incredible story of the Gautby Road Play Area starring 1 press release, 1 padlock, 1 councillor and an MP

The incredible story of the Gautby Road Play area starring 1 press release, 1 padlock, 1 councillor and an MP

The incredible story of the Gautby Road Play Area starring 1 press release, 1 padlock, 1 councillor and an MP

                          

Below is a picture of Gautby Road Play Area (owned by Wirral Council) in Bidston which is next to Gautby Road Community Centre taken on the 5th August at about two o’clock in the afternoon.

Gautby Road Play Area Bidston 5th August 2014
Gautby Road Play Area (5th August 2014)

Here is a photo of the sign (also taken the same day at around two o’clock) which is next to the only gate in and out of the Gautby Road Play Area.

Gautby Road Play Area Bidston 5th August 2014
Gautby Road Play Area sign

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed a padlock on the gate, a close up of which is below. So just to make it perfectly clear, yesterday when the photo was taken the only gate into the Gautby Road Play Area was padlocked. This is the reality of the situation.

Gautby Road Play Area padlock Bidston 5th August 2014
Gautby Road Play Area padlock

However the reality of the situation is not what Wirral Council put in a press release titled “Come and play all day!”. The press release is partly about National Play Day 2014 (which is today) but also states “Youth and Play Service also operate three full-time all year round play facilities located at Beechwood Play & Community centre, Leasowe Adventure Playground and Gautby Road, providing free play provision for children and young people aged from six to 14 years.”

At the last Birkenhead Constituency Committee held on the 24th July, my wife asked why the Gautby Road play area was being kept padlocked. Here’s a transcript of the bit of the meeting which you can also watch the video of starting here.

Leonora Brace
I’ve got two questions to ask.

Rt Hon Frank Field MP
Yeah.

Leonora Brace
I did ask Cllr Crabtree and [Cllr] Harry Smith about the children’s play area in Gautby Road, Bidston.

Rt Hon Frank Field MP
Yes.

Leonora Brace
About it being locked all the time and two children nearly drowned in the lake at the back on the opposite side and he told me I had to ask when I came here.

Rt Hon Frank Field MP
Very good, instead of asking do you think we could actually have an answer for Mrs Brace and err can you do that?

Cllr Ann McLachlan (Cabinet Member for Governance, Commissioning and Improvement)
Chair, through you Chair. The Gautby Road Play Area which has recently just been refurbished actually, is only through the, it’s used predominantly by the Gautby Road Play and Community Centre and they kind of keep the keys and police it, but it is through the summer it’s open. The play centre’s open all through the day. So it is open.

Leonora Brace
No. Sorry it’s not. It’s locked, it’s padlocked!

Cllr Ann McLachlan (Cabinet Member for Governance, Commissioning and Improvement)
It is yes, but the play area is open all through the summer holidays. The play centre is open…

Leonora Brace
It’s the area outside where they go up and you know jumping up.

Cllr Ann McLachlan (Cabinet Member for Governance, Commissioning and Improvement)
Yes.

Leonora Brace
That’s not open! I passed it again today, yesterday I passed it and it’s all padlocked!

Rt Hon Frank Field MP
Will councillors when they next pass…?

Cllr Ann McLachlan (Cabinet Member for Governance, Commissioning and Improvement)
I was down there signing some cheques for somebody yesterday and it was open! The play area was open and there were children playing there.

Rt Hon Frank Field MP
Will councillors who pass Gautby Road, would they please check?

Cllr Ann McLachlan (Cabinet Member for Governance, Commissioning and Improvement)
Well yes, it’s in my ward! Yes I will.

Rt Hon Frank Field MP
Very good.

Cllr Pat Williams responds to this story on Twitter:

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Wirral Council committee appointments for the 2014/15 municipal year

Wirral Council committee appointments for the 2014/15 municipal year

Wirral Council committee appointments for the 2014/15 municipal year

                            

This is a list of which councillor is on which committee for the 2014/15 year. It doesn’t include deputies (but the list of deputies can be found here at pages thirteen to twenty-three). This is the original list as agreed at the Annual Meeting (Part 2) of the Council on the 9th June 2014 (and published on the 23rd June 2014). Changes can be made throughout the 2014/15 year.

Cabinet (10 councillors)

Cllr Phil Davies (Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Finance)
Cllr Ann McLachlan (Governance, Commissioning and Improvement & Joint Deputy Leader of the Council)
Cllr George Davies (Neighbourhoods, Housing and Engagement & Joint Deputy Leader of the Council)
Cllr Adrian Jones (Support Services)
Cllr Christine Jones (Adult Social Care and Public Health)
Cllr Chris Meaden (Leisure, Sport and Culture)
Cllr Pat Hackett (Economy)
Cllr Tony Smith (Children and Family Services)
Cllr Bernie Mooney (Environment and Sustainability)
Cllr Stuart Whittingham (Highways and Transport)

Although there are no deputies for Cabinet, there are ten assistant portfolio holders.

Audit and Risk Management Committee (9 councillors)

Councillor John Hale (Conservative spokesperson)
Councillor David Elderton (Conservative)
Councillor Adam Sykes (Conservative)
Councillor Jim Crabtree (Labour & Chair)
Councillor Ron Abbey (Labour & Vice-Chair)
Councillor Paul Doughty (Labour)
Councillor Matthew Patrick (Labour)
Councillor Joe Walsh (Labour)
Councillor Stuart Kelly (Liberal Democrat spokesperson)

In addition to the above there are eight Conservative deputies, eight Labour deputies and five Liberal Democrat deputies.

Employment and Appointments Committee (8 councillors)

Councillor Jeff Green (Conservative spokesperson)
Councillor Lesley Rennie (Conservative)
Councillor Adrian Jones (Labour & Chair)
Councillor Phil Davies (Labour & Vice-Chair)
Councillor George Davies (Labour)
Councillor Ann McLachlan (Labour)
Councillor Moira McLaughlin (Labour)
Councillor Phil Gilchrist (Liberal Democrat spokesperson)

In addition to the above there are eight Conservative deputies, eight Labour deputies and five Liberal Democrat deputies.

Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee (9 councillors)

Councillor Andrew Hodson (Conservative spokesperson)
Councillor Leah Fraser (Conservative)
Councillor Geoffrey Watt (Conservative)
Councillor Bill Davies (Labour & Chair)
Councillor Steve Niblock (Labour & Vice-Chair)
Councillor John Salter (Labour)
Councillor Christine Spriggs (Labour)
Councillor Mike Sullivan (Labour)
Councillor Pat Williams (Liberal Democrat spokesperson)

In addition to the above there are eight Conservative deputies, eight Labour deputies and five Liberal Democrat deputies.

Licensing Act 2003 Committee (15 councillors)

Councillor Eddie Boult (Conservative)
Councillor Gerry Ellis (Conservative)
Councillor Andrew Hodson (Conservative)
Councillor Mike Hornby (Conservative)
Councillor Bill Davies (Labour, Chair)
Councillor Steve Niblock (Labour, Vice-Chair (from 18th June 2014))
Councillor George Davies (Labour)
Councillor Tony Norbury (Labour)
Councillor Louise Reecejones (Labour)
Councillor Denise Roberts (Labour)
Councillor John Salter (Labour)
Councillor Harry Smith (Labour)
Councillor Mike Sullivan (Labour)
Councillor Dave Mitchell (Liberal Democrat)
Councillor Pat Williams (Liberal Democrat)

There are no deputies for this committee.

Pensions Committee (10 Wirral Council councillors plus 5 co-opted members)

Councillor Geoffrey Watt (Conservative spokesperson)
Councillor Mike Hornby (Conservative)
Councillor Cherry Povall (Conservative)
Councillor Paul Doughty (Labour, Chair)
Councillor Ann McLachlan (Labour, Vice-Chair)
Councillor George Davies (Labour)
Councillor Treena Johnson (Labour)
Councillor Adrian Jones (Labour)
Councillor Harry Smith (Labour)
Councillor Chris Carubia (Liberal Democrat spokesperson)

Co-opted members
Councillor Norman F Keats (Labour, Knowsley Council)
Councillor John Fulham (Labour, St Helens Council)
Councillor Paul Tweed (Labour, Sefton Council)
Councillor Patrick Hurley (Labour, Liverpool City Council)
Patrick McCarthy

In addition to the above there are eight Conservative deputies, eight Labour deputies and four Liberal Democrat deputies.

Planning Committee (13 councillors)

Councillor David Elderton (Conservative spokesperson)
Councillor Eddie Boult (Conservative)
Councillor Paul Hayes (Conservative)
Councillor Kathy Hodson (Conservative)
Councillor Anita Leech (Labour, Chair)
Councillor Denise Realey (Labour, Vice-Chair)
Councillor Phillip Brightmore (Labour)
Councillor Matt Daniel (Labour)
Councillor Christine Spriggs (Labour)
Councillor Joe Walsh (Labour)
Councillor Irene Williams (Labour)
Councillor Stuart Kelly (Liberal Democrat spokesperson)
Councillor Pat Cleary (Green Party spokesperson)

In addition to the above there are eight Conservative deputies, eight Labour deputies and five Liberal Democrat deputies.

Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee (9 councillors, 4 independent persons)

Councillor Les Rowlands (Conservative spokesperson)
Councillor Gerry Ellis (Conservative)
Councillor John Hale (Conservative)
Councillor Bill Davies (Labour, Chair)
Councillor Moira McLaughlin (Labour, Vice-Chair)
Councillor Rob Gregson (Labour)
Councillor Denise Roberts (Labour)
Councillor John Salter (Labour)
Councillor Pat Williams (Liberal Democrat spokesperson)

Independent persons
Professor R S Jones (until 15th July 2016)
Mr C Jones (until 15th July 2016)
Mr D Burgess-Joyce (until 15th July 2016)
Mr B Cummings (until 15th July 2016)

In addition to the above there are eight Conservative deputies, eight Labour deputies and five Liberal Democrat deputies.

Coordinating Committee (15 councillors, 4 co-opted members)

Councillor Chris Blakeley (Conservative spokesperson)
Councillor Tom Anderson (Conservative)
Councillor Wendy Clements (Conservative)
Councillor Mike Hornby (Conservative)
Councillor Steve Williams (Conservative)
Councillor Moira McLaughlin (Labour, Chair)
Councillor Paul Doughty (Labour, Vice-Chair)
Councillor Phillip Brightmore (Labour)
Councillor Anita Leech (Labour)
Councillor Christina Muspratt (Labour)
Councillor Walter Smith (Labour)
Councillor Mike Sullivan (Labour)
Councillor Jerry Williams (Labour)
Councillor Janette Williamson (Labour)
Councillor Phil Gilchrist (Liberal Democrat spokesperson)

Co-opted members (when dealing with education matters with voting rights)
Roman Catholic Diocese Mr Damian Cunningham
Church of England Vacancy
Mrs H Shoebridge (parent governor) until 28th October 2015
Mrs Nicola Smith (parent governor) until 8 February 2017

In addition to the above there are eight Conservative deputies, eight Labour deputies and five Liberal Democrat deputies.

Families and Wellbeing Policy and Performance Committee (15 councillors, 4 co-opted members)

Councillor Wendy Clements (Conservative spokesperson)
Councillor Bruce Berry (Conservative)
Councillor Paul Hayes (Conservative)
Councillor Mike Hornby (Conservative)
Councillor Cherry Povall (Conservative)
Councillor Moira McLaughlin (Labour, Chair)
Councillor Denise Roberts (Labour, Vice-Chair)
Councillor Phillip Brightmore (Labour)
Councillor Treena Johnson (Labour)
Councillor Tony Norbury (Labour)
Councillor Walter Smith (Labour)
Councillor Christine Spriggs (Labour)
Councillor Janette Williamson (Labour)
Councillor Alan Brighouse (Liberal Democrat spokesperson)
Councillor Pat Cleary (Green Party spokesperson)

Co-opted members (with voting rights)
Roman Catholic Diocese Mr Damian Cunningham
Church of England Vacancy
Mrs H Shoebridge (parent governor) until 28th October 2015
Mrs Nicola Smith (parent governor) until 8 February 2017

In addition to the above there are eight Conservative deputies, eight Labour deputies and five Liberal Democrat deputies.

Regeneration and Environment Policy and Performance Committee (15 councillors)

Councillor Steve Williams (Conservative spokesperson)
Councillor Gerry Ellis (Conservative)
Councillor John Hale (Conservative)
Councillor Andrew Hodson (Conservative)
Councillor Tracey Smith (Conservative)
Councillor Mike Sullivan (Labour, Chair)
Councillor Jerry Williams (Labour, Vice-Chair)
Councillor Jim Crabtree (Labour)
Councillor Matt Daniel (Labour)
Councillor Rob Gregson (Labour)
Councillor Anita Leech (Labour)
Councillor Steve Niblock (Labour)
Councillor Denise Realey (Labour)
Councillor Jean Stapleton (Labour)
Councillor Dave Mitchell (Liberal Democrat spokesperson)

In addition to the above there are eight Conservative deputies, eight Labour deputies and five Liberal Democrat deputies.

Transformation and Resources Policy and Performance Committee (15 councillors)

Councillor Adam Sykes (Conservative spokesperson)
Councillor Tom Anderson (Conservative)
Councillor Bruce Berry (Conservative)
Councillor Kathy Hodson (Conservative)
Councillor Tracey Smith (Conservative)
Councillor Janette Williamson (Labour, Chair)
Councillor Paul Doughty (Labour, Vice-Chair)
Councillor Matt Daniel (Labour)
Councillor Rob Gregson (Labour)
Councillor Matthew Patrick (Labour)
Councillor Christina Muspratt (Labour)
Councillor Louise Reecejones (Labour)
Councillor Joe Walsh (Labour)
Councillor Irene Williams (Labour)
Councillor Phil Gilchrist (Liberal Democrat spokesperson)

In addition to the above there are eight Conservative deputies, eight Labour deputies and five Liberal Democrat deputies.

Birkenhead Constituency Committee (18 councillors, 1 co-opted member)

Councillor Jim Crabtree (Labour, Bidston & St. James)
Councillor Ann McLachlan (Labour, Bidston & St. James)
Councillor Harry Smith (Labour, Bidston & St. James)
Councillor Pat Cleary (Green, Birkenhead & Tranmere)
Councillor Phil Davies (Labour, Birkenhead & Tranmere)
Councillor Jean Stapleton (Labour, Birkenhead & Tranmere)
Councillor George Davies (Labour, Claughton)
Councillor Steve Foulkes (Labour, Claughton)
Councillor Denise Roberts (Labour, Claughton)
Councillor Alan Brighouse (Liberal Democrat, Oxton)
Councillor Stuart Kelly (Liberal Democrat, Oxton)
Councillor Pat Williams (Liberal Democrat, Oxton)
Councillor Paul Doughty (Labour, Prenton)
Councillor Tony Norbury (Labour, Prenton)
Councillor Denise Realey (Labour, Prenton)
Councillor Bill Davies (Labour, Rock Ferry)
Councillor Chris Meaden (Labour, Rock Ferry)
Councillor Moira McLaughlin (Labour, Rock Ferry)

Co-opted Member
Rt Hon Frank Field MP (Chair)

Wallasey Constituency Committee (18 councillors, 6 community representatives)

Councillor Ron Abbey (Labour, Leasowe and Moreton East)
Councillor Treena Johnson (Labour, Leasowe and Moreton East)
Councillor Anita Leech (Labour, Leasowe and Moreton East)
Councillor Matt Daniel (Labour, Liscard)
Councillor Bernie Mooney (Labour, Liscard)
Councillor Janette Williamson (Labour, Liscard)
Councillor Bruce Berry (Conservative, Moreton West and Saughall Massie)
Councillor Chris Blakeley (Conservative, Moreton West and Saughall Massie)
Councillor Steve Williams (Conservative, Moreton West and Saughall Massie)
Councillor Rob Gregson (Labour, New Brighton)
Councillor Pat Hackett (Labour, New Brighton)
Councillor Christine Spriggs (Labour, New Brighton)
Councillor Adrian Jones (Labour, Seacombe)
Councillor Chris Jones (Labour, Seacombe)
Councillor John Salter (Labour, Seacombe)
Councillor Leah Fraser (Conservative, Wallasey)
Councillor Paul Hayes (Conservative, Wallasey)
Councillor Lesley Rennie (Conservative, Wallasey)

Community Representatives
Mr Ken Harrison
Mr Brian Higgins
Mr Tony Jones
Mr Keith Raybould
Mr Paul Roberts
Mr Lewis Collins

Wirral South Constituency Committee (15 councillors, up to 6 community representatives)

Councillor Christina Muspratt (Labour, Bebington)
Councillor Walter Smith (Labour, Bebington)
Councillor Jerry Williams (Labour, Bebington)
Councillor Steve Niblock (Labour, Bromborough)
Councillor Joe Walsh (Labour, Bromborough)
Councillor Irene Williams (Labour, Bromborough)
Councillor Cherry Povall (Conservative, Clatterbridge)
Councillor Tracey Smith (Conservative, Clatterbridge)
Councillor Adam Sykes (Conservative, Clatterbridge)
Councillor Chris Carubia (Liberal Democrat, Eastham)
Councillor Phil Gilchrist (Liberal Democrat, Eastham)
Councillor Dave Mitchell (Liberal Democrat, Eastham)
Councillor Andrew Hodson (Conservative, Heswall)
Councillor Kathy Hodson (Conservative, Heswall)
Councillor Les Rowlands (Conservative, Heswall)

Community representatives
Unknown

Wirral West Constituency Committee (15 councillors plus six co-opted community representatives)

Councillor Tom Anderson (Conservative, Greasby, Frankby & Irby)
Councillor Wendy Clements (Conservative, Greasby, Frankby & Irby)
Councillor Mike Hornby (Conservative, Greasby, Frankby & Irby)
Councillor Eddie Boult (Conservative, Hoylake & Meols)
Councillor Gerry Ellis (Conservative, Hoylake & Meols)
Councillor John Hale (Conservative, Hoylake & Meols)
Councillor Phillip Brightmore (Labour, Pensby & Thingwall)
Councillor Louise Reecejones (Labour, Pensby & Thingwall)
Councillor Michael Sullivan (Labour, Pensby & Thingwall)
Councillor Matthew Patrick (Labour, Upton)
Councillor Tony Smith (Labour, Upton)
Councillor Stuart Whittingham (Labour, Upton)
Councillor David Elderton (Conservative, West Kirby & Thurstaston)
Councillor Jeff Green (Conservative, West Kirby & Thurstaston)
Councillor Geoffrey Watt (Conservative, West Kirby & Thurstaston)

Community Representatives
Jackie Hall (Hoylake and Meols)
John Smith (Greasby, Frankby & Irby)
Lynn Collier (Pensby & Thingwall)
Elise Wong (Upton)
David Wade (West Kirby & Thurstaston)

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Does Pickles think that Wirral Council’s £22,500 newspaper plan “pours taxpayers’ money down the drain”?

Does Pickles think that Wirral Council’s £22,500 newspaper plan “pours taxpayers’ money down the drain”?

Does Pickles think that Wirral Council’s £22,500 newspaper plan “pours taxpayers’ money down the drain”?

                         

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The point in the video above of the Birkenhead Constituency Committee meeting where the “community newspaper” proposals starts is at 21:28

Birkenhead Constituency Committee (10th April 2014) Birkenhead Town Hall
Left to Right Surjit Tour (Head of Legal and Member Services), Councillor George Davies, Rt Hon Frank Field MP (Chair), Dawn Tolcher (Birkenhead Constituency Manager)

Prior to the Birkenhead Constituency Committee meeting held on the 10th April that decided to go ahead with the “community newspaper” idea, Graham Burgess (Wirral Council’s Chief Executive) would have received this letter from the Department of Communities and Local Government about council’s compliance with the Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity.

I won’t include the letter here as you can click on the link and read it in its entirety yourself, but I will quote some sections “The background to the new power is that whilst the majority of local authorities comply fully with the Publicity Code’s provisions, it is a matter of concern to the Government that there are still cases where this is not so, for example, local authorities issuing publicity that is political in nature or continuing to publish newspapers more frequently than stated in the Code’s provisions. The Secretary of State being able to direct compliance with the Publicity Code is a means whereby these concerns can be addressed” and “The Secretary of State intends to adopt the following approach to this consideration. Where on the basis of any material or information currently available to him, the Secretary of State considers that there is some evidence of non-compliance since the Publicity Code was issued in March 2011, and there is no current unambiguous evidence available to him that the non-compliance has ceased and that there is no risk of future non compliance, he will be minded to give a direction to the authority concerned.”

So what does the code state on frequency?

Section 28 quite clearly states “Where local authorities do commission or publish newsletters, news-sheets or similar communications, they should not issue them more frequently than quarterly, apart from parish councils which should not issue them more frequently than monthly.”

So what frequency was approved by the Birkenhead Constituency Committee? I quote from the report on it, “It was proposed to produce a monthly publication to include information residents want to read about.” and later on it describes the frequency of the issues as “The pilot would be to produce an 8 page publication, bi-monthly for 6 months (3 editions) working in partnership with Lairdside Communities Together.”

Moving to the bit in the letter that states “it is a matter of concern to the Government that there are still cases where this is not so, for example, local authorities issuing publicity that is political in nature” the report to the Birkenhead Constituency Committee states “The content of the publication would be devised from the committee and community requests.” Everyone on the Birkenhead Constituency Committee is a politician (whether councillor or MP), does the public expect their requests for what goes in it not to be political. As there won’t be any advertising in the first three editions personally I don’t think there will be enough “community requests” for three eight page editions so the majority of the content is likely to be suggested by politicians.

Here was what was said at the Birkenhead Constituency Committee meeting on this item which starts at 21:28 in the video above.

=======================================================================================================DAWN TOLCHER (BIRKENHEAD CONSTITUENCY MANAGER)
The second item on this Councillor Doughty talked to last time was around a local publication, so we’ve done some further thinking around this and just to clarify what this will be, it will be a community focussed publication supporting people with what’s on in the community. The data shows that the feedback that a lot of Members get is not all our residents get the local newspaper currently.

It will be a focus on work with other public sector organisations and we’ve got a group together called of the Birkenhead public services. What I’ve asked from them is what they currently do around their communication, what spend, what tools they use and I’m collating that together to look at across us all what we use and what we’re spending, what are we doing and is there any way we can pull that together.

What we’re asking from the Committee is a pilot of three editions to see if it works and to monitor that pilot there will be two subgroups and one will look at it will be an editorial board that will ensure the content is non political and it’s what people want to read on the feedback we’re getting.

It’ll aim to recruit an apprentice for nine to twelve months and involve the community around the community news and how that’s developed. So we’re talking as people have been appearing through this there’s been a really positive feedback from some, from a lot of people saying we’ve had for example a few of have been today at a conference around food planning and how people are struggling accessing food and what, there’s massive support out there with people saying I don’t know where it is around initiatives such as somebody wrote to Councillor Kenny saying that we’ve got an initiative around supporting to access free bikes and that’s the sort of information to go in there. Any questions?

RT HON FRANK FIELD MP (CHAIR)
Questions on that? Yes please, yep?

MEMBER OF PUBLIC
Did you find out about whether the Council actually paid additional money to have the newspapers circulated everywhere? Did that actually happen?

DAWN TOLCHER (BIRKENHEAD CONSTITUENCY MANAGER)
My understanding was that it used to happen, it doesn’t happen now.

MEMBER OF PUBLIC
So it’s too late to have any redress for it?

RT HON FRANK FIELD MP (CHAIR)
Phillip I think we should actually follow that up, it’s a serious point. Can we actually have that in the minutes please and follow it up? What happened to that?

COUNCILLOR CHRIS MEADEN
As I understand it, that’s what we used to do.

RT HON FRANK FIELD MP (CHAIR)
Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

DAWN TOLCHER (BIRKENHEAD CONSTITUENCY MANAGER)
What we have got since the last meeting is a breakdown of where it is going and where it isn’t going so we can help with that.

RT HON FRANK FIELD MP (CHAIR)
So what we’re going to be doing, again it comes back to this whole point what does the contract say and is it actually being fulfilled, if not what do we do about it? (At this point he looks at officers to his left and says sotto voce “answer this evening”)? Really, thanks.

=======================================================================================================

What’s interesting is Dawn Tolcher states that the community newspaper will have a “focus on work with other public sector organisations and we’ve got a group together called of the Birkenhead public services. What I’ve asked from them is what they currently do around their communication, what spend, what tools they use and I’m collating that together to look at across us all what we use and what we’re spending, what are we doing and is there any way we can pull that together.”

There’s something called the Wirral Public Service Board. Last year I made a Freedom of Information request to Wirral Council for the agendas and minutes of their meetings over the previous year. That request was refused by Surjit Tour under s.36 (2) (b) (ii) of the Act stating that releasing the agendas and minutes would (or would be likely to) inhibit “the free and frank exchange of views for the purpose of deliberation.” and have a “chilling effect” on their discussions. He also refused it on the basis that the minutes would contain the names of people (data protection grounds).

So just to recap, Wirral Council won’t release the agendas and minutes of meetings held with other public sector organisations at which the decisions and discussion about joint working are made. However they plan to write articles about the decisions made at these meetings and the joint work that Wirral Council is doing in a publication they plan to send out to 39,823 properties in Birkenhead? Oh and after the third edition Wirral Council will charge these other public sector organisations to include details about these projects in their “community newspaper”?

I don’t believe there is as much support for this community newspaper idea as was claimed at the Birkenhead Constituency Committee meeting. I previously wrote about this proposal and included a poll. The poll’s question was “Do you think Wirral Council should spend £22,500 to start a community newspaper in Birkenhead?” with the three following answers to choose from yes, no and don’t know. At the time of writing nineteen people had answered the question. The results were clear, eighteen said no and one answered don’t know.

So did Wirral Council’s Chief Legal Eagle Surjit Tour point out Eric Pickle’s new legal power (which has been in force since the 30th March 2014) to direct Wirral Council to comply with the code (which as outlined above the proposal as it stands doesn’t)? No Mr. Tour didn’t (but then he wasn’t asked for any legal advice on this item). The taxpayer pays him a salary of £73,352 a year. His role (according to Wirral Council’s constitution at 2.3 of Wirral Council’s financial regulations) is defined as follows “The Monitoring Officer is responsible for reporting any actual or potential breaches of the law or maladministration to the Council and/or to the Executive”.

No councillor or MP asked Surjit Tour during the meeting whether aspects of the proposal for a community newspaper were lawful and for his advice. Surjit Tour didn’t say anything during this item and the letter from the Department of Communities and Local Government went to Graham Burgess (so it seems likely that Surjit Tour hasn’t seen it).

The letter from DCLG finishes with “If you have any questions about the new powers, please contact ConductCode@communities.gsi.gov.uk. You can also contact the Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP directly at eric.pickles@communities.gsi.gov.uk.

The Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP said about the very issue of Council newspapers “The spread of the town hall ‘Pravda’ is manifestly unfair because they offer cut price local news, but mixed in with council propaganda that pours taxpayers money down the drain.

These free-sheets are often confused for the real thing by residents. I want our news to be told and sold under the masthead of an independent and free press, not through a knock-off Rolex imitation.”

The press release goes on to state “Where a council ignores the statutory code, the government or a concerned member of the public could seek a court order to enforce it. Disregard for that would result in contempt of court.”

So is Wirral Council going to change its plans or run the risk of a showdown with the Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP over their newspaper plans? The Liverpool Echo also ran a story about this on the 26th March using the headline FURY OVER TOWN HALL PAPER PLAN; Town could see launch of newsletter.

I’d be interested to read your thoughts on this issue which you can leave as a comment (even anonymously if you wish) or contact the Department for Communities and Local Government or the Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP directly yourself to let them know your views on what Wirral Council is proposing to do.

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Wirral Council plan to spend £22,500 on a Birkenhead community newspaper. Will it fall foul of Pickles’ publicity law?

Wirral Council plan to spend £22,500 on a Birkenhead community newspaper. Will it fall foul of Pickles’ publicity law?

Wirral Council plan to spend £22,500 on a Birkenhead community newspaper. Will it fall foul of Pickles’ publicity law?

                             
A recent meeting of the Birkenhead Constituency Committee who will consider proposals to spend £22,500 on a Birkenheadcommunity newspaper
A recent meeting of the Birkenhead Constituency Committee who will consider proposals to spend £22,500 on a Birkenhead community newspaper

Buried among the appendices published ahead of the Birkenhead Constituency Committee on Thursday are two interesting reports.

The first report is the result of a Surveymonkey survey sent out to all residents that Wirral Council has an email address for in the “CH41, CH42 or CH42 postcode” areas. It seems however this is just a typo and residents in CH43 (which covers Bidston & St. James, Claughton, Oxton and Prenton) were also included as I received an email about the survey with the subject “Would you like to receive a community news update?” on 27th February.

Most people responding to the survey stated that what they liked most about the local free newspapers was local news, however question three revealed that around half responding to that question said that they don’t read the local free newspaper as it isn’t delivered to them any more. This answers concurs with statistics in the other report that states that out of the 39,823 households in Birkenhead, 24,962 receive the Wirral News (62.7%) and 22,091 the Wirral Globe (55.5%).

The survey continues with asking what people want they would want included in a “Birkenhead Constituency Committee news update” and the top answer was “unbiased, relevant local news” closely followed by finding out about local services, events and activities.

Interestingly there were also responses about why people didn’t currently read the newspapers from surveys in public locations where people gave responses such as “Council matters only appear if news editors think that they are controversial” and “fed up of hearing about bad people doing bad things and getting away with it”.

When asked about what information they thought should be included in a Birkenhead Constituency Community Newspaper there were a range of responses such as “find out about positive local news and important council information concerning regeneration and development”, “main council committee decisions – with commentary if necessary”, “planning applications”, “proposed road & transport information” but interestingly and this one seems to be a reference to Labour Rose/Lib Dem Focus “but not of councillors’ photographs at places where council work has been done at their behest”.

Not unsurprisingly not one of the questions asked residents if they thought that spending £22,500 of taxpayer’s money for three editions was a good idea. What is proposed is a pilot of three editions over six months (each edition being bi-monthly) of an eight page publication (whether it would be colour or black and white is not mentioned). It’s stated that “It will be non political and inform people of news they are interested in.” Quite how it will manage to write anything about Wirral Council that people are interested in (which means the more controversial political news), yet remain “non political” remains to be seen. The long term aim is to have advertising from “public sector partners”, grants and “appropriate advertising” cover its costs for future editions.

It will be edited by Lairdside Community Together, who will be recruiting an apprentice to work on it through Wirral Metropolitan College. Interestingly it won’t be delivered by paid deliverers but by volunteers with ward councillors suggesting an organisation in their ward (sports clubs and scout groups are mentioned in the report). These organisations would then receive “an incentive”.

However the future is not looking particularly rosy for such Council run publications. Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP is not as keen on them as the Birkenhead Constituency Committee. In approximately a week (30th March 2014) s.39 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 on the code of practice on local authority publicity comes into force. This section gives Eric Pickles the legal power to tell Councils off who aren’t complying with the “Code of practice on local authority publicity” and force them to comply. This section also allows the Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP to create a new law making it a legal duty for all local Councils to comply with the Code of Practice on Local Authority Publicity.

So what is the Code of Practice on Local Authority Publicity (which also comes with an explanatory memorandum and how could the proposed Birkenhead Constituency Community Newspaper fall foul of it?

Section 2 of the code makes it quite clear that it applies to such publications “The code therefore applies in relation to all decisions by local authorities relating to paid advertising and leaflet campaigns, publication of free newspapers and newssheets and maintenance of websites – including the hosting of material which is created by third parties.”

Section 4 outlines some principles applying to “publicity by local authorities”. These are that it should be cost effective, objective, even-handed, appropriate and “be issued with care during periods of heightened sensitivity”. I think that last bit refers to the period in the lead up to elections.

Going back to what somebody wanted in such a newspaper being “main council committee decisions – with commentary if necessary” section 15 would appear to rule that out “Such publicity may set out the local authority’s views and reasons for holding those views, but should avoid anything likely to be perceived by readers as constituting a political statement, or being a commentary on contentious areas of public policy.”

Section 28 is specifically about such newspapers, restricts their frequency to quarterly and restricts what can be put in it “Local authorities should not publish or incur expenditure in commissioning in hard copy or on any website, newsletters, newssheets or similar communications which seek to emulate commercial newspapers in style or content. Where local authorities do commission or publish newsletters, newssheets or similar communications, they should not issue them more frequently than quarterly, apart from parish councils which should not issue them more frequently than monthly. Such communications should not include material other than information for the public about the business, services and amenities of the council or other local service providers.”

Section 34 bans such publications in the lead up to elections “During the period between the notice of an election and the election itself, local authorities should not publish any publicity on controversial issues or report views or proposals in such a way that identifies them with any individual members or groups of members. Publicity relating to individuals involved directly in the election should not be published by local authorities during this period unless expressly authorised by or under statute. It is permissible for local authorities to publish factual information which identifies the names, wards and parties of candidates at elections.”

As it states in the explanatory memorandum “Council newspapers, issued frequently and designed to resemble a local newspaper can mislead members of the public reading them that they are local newspapers covering council events and give communities a biased view of the activities of the council.” There’s also the concern that such publications (as this one is expected to be funded after the first three issues through advertising) will take advertising away from local newspapers and make them less financially viable.

So I’m starting a poll to see what readers think about the community newspaper proposal ahead of the Birkenhead Constituency Committee on Thursday which will consider it.

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