EXCLUSIVE: Dan Stephens (Chief Fire Officer) states altered plans for Saughall Massie Fire Station will be submitted “either this month or early January [2016]”
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Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority meeting 17th December 2015 L to R Treasurer, Deputy Chief Fire Officer Phil Garrigan, Chief Fire Officer Dan Stephens, Chair Cllr Dave Hanratty
At a meeting of councillors, on the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority held on the 17th of December 2015, Dan Stephens (Chief Fire Officer), gave an update on the progress of plans for a new fire station at Saughall Massie. You can read his report on this matter on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority’s website.
Dan Stephens said, “Paragraphs twenty-one to thirty on pages sixteen to eighteen provide an update on the Saughall Massie merger.
A pre-application for advice has been submitted to Wirral Borough Council on the 8th October and a planning meeting was held with planning officers from Wirral on the 4th of November.
Following on from this meeting a letter from Wirral planning officers was sent to the agents acting on behalf of the Authority, but unfortunately was given to a Wirral councillor beforehand.
That letter was subsequently passed on to the Liverpool Echo and the Wirral Globe who ran a story quoting sections of the letter. Clearly that was before we’d had sight of that.
I’ve since written to the Head of Regeneration and Planning at Wirral raising a number of issues that relate to that, and they are outlined within paragraphs twenty-six. Paragraph twenty-seven details the position over the medium pressure gas main which runs under the land.
Following on from the planning advice, the size of the station and the design that we would intend to submit a planning application on, has been significantly reduced to the point where the medium pressure gas main would no longer run underneath the main building, thus negating the requirement for it to be rerouted.
It is our intention to submit a full planning application, taking into account the pre-planning advice that we’ve received from Wirral at some point either this month or early January which would allow for consideration by the Planning Committee at some point next year possibly in April.
Paragraph thirty makes the point that any decision by Wirral to grant planning permission will almost certainly be referred to the Secretary of State. I need to make it clear to Members at this point that if planning permission is not granted, then the inevitable consequence will be the outright closure of West Kirby fire station with the resulting increase in response times.”
The reference to Secretary of State above refers to a government minister (however generally such decisions although taken in a minister’s name are decided by civil servants following the policy the minister decides upon).
The Chair of the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority referred later in the meeting to his desire that the press would write "good news" stories about Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service. The above story is either good or bad news depending on your political viewpoint.
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Where are the Remembrance Sunday services on the Wirral on the 8th November 2015?
Where are the Remembrance Sunday services on the Wirral on the 8th November 2015?
Remembrance Sunday 2012 at the War Memorial Birkenhead Hamilton Square
There will be many services to mark Remembrance Sunday on the Wirral on the morning and afternoon of the 8th November 2015.
The Mayor of Wirral, Cllr Les Rowlands will be attending the service held at The Cenotaph in Hamilton Square, Birkenhead in the morning and the service at the War Memorial in Thornton Hough in the afternoon.
These are details of when and where the Remembrance Day Services for 2015 will be:
Morning
10.55 The Cenotaph, Hamilton Square, Birkenhead
10 o’clock Christ Church, Kings Road, Bebington, followed by a service at the Higher Bebington British Legion at noon.
10 o’clock St Mary’s Church, Eastham
10.15 St. Barnabas Church, Bromborough
10.30 St. Oswald’s Church, Bidston
10.45 Grange Hill, West Kirby
10.45 St. Peter’s Church, Lower Village, Heswall, followed by wreath laying at The Cenotaph, Heswall
10.30 for The Cenotaph, corner of Maryland Lane and Pasture Road
10.15 for The Parade will leave the Royal British Legion, Wallasey for a 10.55 am Service at the War Memorial, Magazines Promenade, New Brighton
10.00 for Short Service at St. Stephen’s Church followed by 10.45 a.m. War Memorial at Junction of Osmaston Road and Prenton Lane, Prenton
10.45 War Memorial outside the Public Library, Ford Road, Upton
10.45 War Memorial, Port Sunlight Village followed by a service at Christ Church, Port Sunlight Village
If crossing the River Mersey to Liverpool on Remembrance Sunday, larger crowds than usual are expected for the Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph, St George’s Plateau because of the ceramic poppy art installation "The Weeping Window" at St Georges Hall. It’s expected there will be large numbers of people there and road closures will be in place by 9.30 in the morning.
Afternoon
2.20 for Service at the War Memorial, Thornton Hough 2.45
The Merseytravel journey planner is useful for the times of public transport when travelling to and from Remembrance Sunday services.
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EXCLUSIVE: What do the plans for a new fire station at Saughall Massie look like?
EXCLUSIVE: What do the plans for a new fire station at Saughall Massie look like?
Dan Stephens (Chief Fire Officer) answers questions at a public consultation meeting in Saughall Massie to discuss proposals for a new fire station (20th April 2015)
The story of the possibility of a new fire station in Saughall Massie has rumbled on to a new phase as Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service has requested pre application planning advice from Wirral Council. Pictured above is Dan Stephens in Saughall Massie trying to explain the need for a fire station earlier in the year to residents.
In the interests of openness and transparency (and if the Chair of the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority Cllr Hanratty is reading and deplores the drain on financial resources providing the information I’m about to show on this blog I might point out it was emailed to this blog I didn’t ask for it so no cost to the public purse whatsoever), I’m publishing here some documents to do with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service’s request for pre-application planning advice.
Just before I get to the documents (I’m sure someone will eventually reveal what the advice is that Wirral Council receives in response to this) I will point out the way the project is described by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service’s contractors is that this is all going through the formalities and this this is essentially a done deal. Although like Cllr Blakeley I will make it clear that is merely how anybody reading these documents would think and it may just be MFRS’s contractors getting ahead of themselves in documents that I think they wouldn’t assume would be published.
However a decision is yet to be made on the land and yet to be made over planning permission. So that’s the caveat I will put here as from the tone of some of the way these are written you’d guess that these decisions had already been made.
The purpose of pre-application planning advice is so that if there are any problems plans can be changed. So therefore it is possible the planning application will vary from the above.
As detailed by the Chief Fire Officer Dan Stephens during the consultation, once a planning application is submitted there will be a period of consultation before any decisions are made.
However if you have any comments, please feel free to leave a comment.
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Why is the government consulting on abolishing fire and rescue authorities in England?
Why is the government consulting on abolishing fire and rescue authorities in England?
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority Police and Fire Collaboration Committee 1st September 2015 Left Jane Kennedy (Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside) Right Sir John Murphy (Chief Constable, Merseyside Police)
This article in the Guardian about the consultation on the proposals has the opening two sentences which sum things up, "What do you do if you’re part of a government that believes in decimating the fire and rescue service as a means to making "efficiency savings", only to find yourself regularly thwarted by elected councillors who sit on the local fire and rescue authority? Answer: abolish the fire and rescue authority."
It 2012 the Merseyside Police Authority (made up half of local councillors and half of independents) was scrapped and replaced with a Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner. It would seem the Conservative government wants to do something similar to what the Coalition government did to the police authorities in 2012, but this time to the fire and rescue authorities in England.
What happened to the police authorities and their replacement with police and crime commissioners plus police and crime panels was part of the Coalition agreement:
"We will introduce measures to make the police more accountable through oversight by a directly elected individual, who will be subject to strict checks and balances by locally elected representatives."
The Conservative 2015 manifesto stated "We will enable fire and police services to work more closely together and develop the role of our elected and accountable Police and Crime Commissioners." but didn’t go as far as stating the fire and rescue authorities would be abolished and their functions transferred to the police and crime commissioners.
Why did Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority pay a PR company £250 a day?
Why did Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority pay a PR company £250 a day?
Peter Rushton Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority fire station merger consultation meeting Greasby 10th November 2014
On the right of the photo above is Peter Rushton. He’s chairing a public consultation meeting in Greasby last year, one of the public meetings held to consult with the public on the closure of West Kirby and Upton stations and a replacement fire station at Greasby. It’s a still from this video I took of the public consultation meeting.
He introduces himself as “I’m Peter Rushton from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service”. What I don’t think the public knew then (or perhaps know now) is that Peter Rushton had a contract with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority through his service company Peter Rushton Consultancy Limited.
His contract has a secrecy clause which states:
"Publicity
10.8 Neither the Authority nor the Supplier shall publicise in any media or public announcement information regarding the terms of the Contract, or the Service supplied, without the prior written consent of the other party in either case such consent not to be unreasonably withheld."
However I’m skipping ahead a little here and I’d like to briefly make a point about how this contract was awarded. The contract originally for six months (although it was later extended for a further six months) was for a value of £12,500 and started on the 8th April 2014.
Peter Rushton Consultancy Limited was only incorporated a fortnight before being awarded the contract. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority’s constitution at the time required that for contracts of this value that two written quotations had to be obtained first. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority’s constitution required there to be a report if this isn’t the case and 3.3 of their contract standing orders detailed the procedure to be followed:
"For procurement projects under £172,514 for Goods and Services and £4,322,012 for Works, the Head of Procurement or their nominated deputy, and a Director must approve any exemption, prior to any commitment being given by the Authority to any supplier. The Chief Fire Officer will keep a register of exemptions granted detailing the nature and value of the contract, the circumstances justifying the exemption and the name of the contractor awarded the contract."
However what was the contract actually for? That’s detailed in an attachment to the contract. A day was defined earlier in the contract as meaning 7 hours of work.
Contract Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority and Peter Rushton Consultancy Limited page 11
Contract Ref: RFQ/15/14
ATTACHMENT 1
SPECIFICATION OF SERVICES
Background
MFRA is in the process of merging 8 fire stations into 4 as part of a major service reengineering exercise to deliver large scale savings. This will necessitate a large programme of internal and external consultancy.
Project Scope/Deliverables
The service required is to deliver professional communications expertise, a communications strategy and support to the following people during the process:-
CFO and Exec team
Director of Strategy and Performance who leads the restructured corporate communications team in house
It will include devising and over-seeing the implementation of a comprehensive communication strategy with all stakeholders to effectively help deliver 4 fire station mergers.
The work will require (but is not limited to) attendance at the following meetings which may take place outside normal office hours:-
Internal PO briefings
Public consultation meetings both open and facilitated
To chair open public consultation meetings
Briefings with stakeholders in the area including MPs, councillors
IRMP meetings
The services will also provide for the following:-
Play a leading role in delivering two events
Long Service & Bravery Awards
The official opening of the Joint Control Centre
Assist Principle Officers on all PO Briefings
Provide strategic communication advice to Principle Officers
Plus any other duties in relation to the station merger programmes as requested by the Director of Strategy and Performance.
Timescales and fees
Timescales
The Services will be provided over a maximum of 8 days per a calendar month for a period of six months from the commencement date with an option to extend on the same or different terms which would be agreed between the parties prior to any extension period.
Times, days and hours of the service to be agreed between the parties in advance of any attendance.
Fees
The daily rate for the provision of the Services is £250 plus any pre-agreed expenses.
Total fee is £12,000 + expenses.
Contract Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority and Peter Rushton Consultancy Limited page 12
Contract Ref: RFQ/15/14
ATTACHMENT 2
FEES AND INVOICING SCHEDULE
Peter Rushton will undertake the activities as per the Specification in Attachment 1 during the period 8th April 2014 to 7th October 2014 based on a commitment of 8 days per a calendar month. For the avoidance of doubt, the Authority shall only be charged for days actually undertaken by the Supplier.
48 days will be undertaken during the six month period at the standard day rate of £250. The total value of this contract (including any pre-agreed expenses) is therefore £12,000.
The Authority will apply a ceiling to the Travel & Accommodation Expenses Rates payable to the Supplier of £500 for the six month period. Expenses must be approved by the Authority in advance of being incurred and shall be payable at the Authority’s approved rates in force at the time of Contract award. The Supplier will be required to provide copies of relevant accommodation and travel receipts.
Consolidated invoices shall be presented every 4 weeks clearly detailing the dates on which activities were undertaken and itemising any expenses claimed which were incurred during the same 4 week period.
The Authority shall pay the Supplier the sums due under the Contract, on 30 day payment terms, from receipt of a true and valid invoice.
All invoices should be submitted to:
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority
Exchequer Services Department
Bridle Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L30 4YD
Contract Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority and Peter Rushton Consultancy Limited page 13
Contract Ref: RFQ/15/14
AS WITNESS the hands of the parties
Signed by and on behalf of the Authority (In Caps): MERSEYSIDE FIRE AND RESCUE AUTHORITY JANET HENSHAW
Signature: (Janet Henshaw’s signature)
Date: 08/04/2014
Signed by the Supplier (In Caps): PETER RUSHTON CONSULTANCY LIMITED
Signature: (Peter Rushton’s signature)
Date: 08.04.2014
The six month contract was then extended for a further six months (see below).
Contract Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority and Peter Rushton Consultancy Limited addendum page 1 of 2Contract Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority and Peter Rushton Consultancy Limited addendum page 2 of 2
Finally, the last report to the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority on the outcome of the consultation to close Upton and West Kirby fire stations with a new fire station at Saughall Massie mentioned many of the expenses that related to the consultation, but nothing was in that report about this contract. If the cost of this contract had been included in the report, there should’ve been an extra £6,250 mentioned in the report (£25,000 divided by four is £6,250).
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