Why did Wirral Council councillors vote for a just over 4.5% council tax rise?

Why did Wirral Council councillors vote for a just over 4.5% council tax rise?

Why did Wirral Council councillors vote for a just over 4.5% council tax rise?

                               

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Wirral Council (Budget) 6th March 2017 Part 1 of 5

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Wirral Council (Budget) 6th March 2017 Part 2 of 5

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Wirral Council (Budget) 6th March 2017 Part 3 of 5

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Wirral Council (Budget) 6th March 2017 Part 4 of 5

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Wirral Council (Budget) 6th March 2017 Part 4 of 5

Cllr Phil Gilchrist (right) (Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group of councillors on Wirral Council) speaking at the Budget meeting of Wirral Council (6th March 2017)
Cllr Phil Gilchrist (right) (Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group of councillors on Wirral Council) speaking at the Budget meeting of Wirral Council (6th March 2017)

It’s been misreported in the press that both Wirral Council and Liverpool City Council agreed a 4.99% council tax rise.

Continue reading “Why did Wirral Council councillors vote for a just over 4.5% council tax rise?”

What were the top 10 most popular stories on this blog last month in June 2016?

What were the top 10 most popular stories on this blog last month in June 2016?

What were the top 10 most popular stories on this blog last month in June 2016?

                              

Below are links to the ten most popular stories read on this blog last month (June 2016). Eight involve Wirral Council, one Liverpool City Council and the other Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service/Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority. All except one (the one about the regeneration of Birkenhead Town Centre) were published in June 2016. Two are on the topic of the recent First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) public hearing involving myself and Wirral Council.

I’m surprised the EU Referendum stories didn’t feature higher up in the list, but as the EU Referendum was held in the last week of June, those stories have had less time to be read than articles published nearer the start of June.

Councillor Steve Foulkes (left) at a Merseytravel Committee meeting (7th January 2016)
Councillor Steve Foulkes (left) at a Merseytravel Committee meeting (7th January 2016)

1. Why has Wirral Council sunk deeper into the quagmire of poor corporate governance surrounding a complaint about Cllr Steve Foulkes? (published 29th June 2016)

2. Secrets about Wirral Council’s Birkenhead Town Centre Regeneration revealed (published 27th December 2013)

3. Labour councillors reject Green Party proposal to reduce Mayor of Liverpool’s Allowance by £89,000 over a 4 year period (published 1st June 2016)

4. Surjit Tour asks Wirral councillors to agree to changes to how complaints about councillors are dealt with (published 3rd June 2016)

5. £206,000 extra for Wirral’s potholes, £170,000 for selling “ornamental pleasure gardens” and a land swap to a body that doesn’t exist! (published 13th June 2016)

6. What did Surjit Tour answer to questions about a Freedom of Information request to Wirral Council at the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) hearing (EA/2016/0033) (continued)? (published 22nd June 2016)

7. Disclosure of 46 pages of PFI contractor’s banking details by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service described as “oversight” (published 14th June 2016)

8. What was in the 11 A4 page witness statement of Surjit Tour (Wirral Council) about a Freedom of Information request for the minutes of a meeting of the Headteachers’ and Teachers’ Joint Consultative Committee (EA/2016/0033)? (published 17th June 2016)

9. Where is your polling station (for Wirral voters) for the 2016 EU Referendum vote? (published 23rd June 2016)

10. Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr Phil Gilchrist calls for cross-party unity on Wirral Council on issue of EU funding withdrawal (published 27th June 2016)

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What was the 2016 EU Referendum result on the Wirral and the UK?

What was the 2016 EU Referendum result on the Wirral and the UK?

                            

front of polling card EU Referendum 2016
front of polling card EU Referendum 2016

The 2016 EU Referendum result on Wirral was as follows:

Remain 88,931 (51.6%)
Leave 83,069 (48.4%)

137 ballot papers were rejected.

Total votes cast 172,137 (turnout 70.96%).

However nationally the result was different:

Leave 17,410,742
Remain 16,141,241

25,359 ballot papers were rejected.

Total votes cast 33,577,342. You can find a more detailed breakdown of the EU Referendum result on the Electoral Commission’s website.

However there were a number of things that happened during the EU Referendum campaign that could trigger a legal challenge to the result.

I outline below an email I sent yesterday to the Returning Officer Eric Robinson here on Wirral about a UKIP poster telling me to vote Leave propped up on the wall of my local polling station.

He sent me a very quick and polite reply back!



Dear Eric Robinson,

I went to vote today this morning at my polling station at

Holy Cross Catholic Primary School
Gautby Road
Bidston
Wirral
CH41 7DU

which is a polling station for polling district AC in the Bidston and St. James ward.

When I left the polling station, I saw outside a few yards from the entrance to the polling station (still in the grounds of the school being used as a polling station) against a wall a large UKIP poster on corrugated plastic suggesting I vote leave.

Obviously it didn’t influence me as I have already voted, but I immediately brought it to the attention of one of your election staff who was in the corridor outside the room used for voting.

She immediately came with me and removed the UKIP poster which shouldn’t have been there and commented that "they keep sneaking in".

It was in a position that people had to pass to get in to the polling station, however I will point out it wasn’t there when I entered the polling station.

Please could you regard this as a recorded compliment to that member of staff for the efficient and effective way that they dealt with my query and removal of the poster.

I would also be keen to know if you in your capacity as Returning Officer will be writing to UKIP (and/or referring this matter to the police) reminding them that leaving posters outside polling station entrances propped up against walls suggesting which way people vote is not allowed!

Thank you,


John Brace


3/10/2016 UKIP have been in touch to state that they wouldn’t sanction what happened at the polling station detailed above.

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EU Referendum: A look back to 1975, the AV Referendum and what will happen next?

EU Referendum: A look back to 1975, the AV Referendum and what will happen next?

The big political story that seems to completely dominate the news cycle now is the EU Referendum (in which Wirral Council are running the election here on the Wirral).

I was present six years ago at the count in Wallasey Town Hall for the AV Referendum (you can see below the photos I took) and it was obvious before the result was declared which way people felt on that issue.

AV Referendum count Civic Hall Wallasey May 2011 photo 2 resized
AV Referendum count Civic Hall Wallasey May 2011 photo 2 resized
AV Referendum count Civic Hall Wallasey May 2011 resized
AV Referendum count Civic Hall Wallasey May 2011 resized

However in around a fortnight we’ll know the outcome of the EU Referendum and I’ve seriously (although I’ve made my mind up which way I’m voting) no idea which way it’ll go.

The opinion polls are so close that the difference between remain and leave is within the margin of error of the poll. Essentially what this means is that the EU Referendum will be decided by people who haven’t made their mind up yet.

I am also sensing a generational divide in how people talk about the EU Referendum. My generation was born in a UK that was part of the EU. We have no personal experience of what it was like before the UK joined. We’ve never been asked to vote on it. We also never lived through a European war (apart from the Yugoslav wars).

The older generation (who are more likely to vote and pensioners also have the time to be politically active) still remember the horrors of World War II. Some of them lived through it. It was something that deeply affected them and their families.

Yet it was out of people who had known the horrors of war that the European dream was created. So what did the dreamers of the European dream want?

They wanted countries to work together for the common good, to respect human rights so the horrors that happened during two world wars wouldn’t happen again (or at least if any tried something similar they’d be punished), for European people to respect the rule of law, for there to be democracy, justice, free trade, to eradicate poverty* and to promote peace.

*No James, they didn’t want Wirral Council to bungle the handling of European money for economic regeneration.

Fine ideals in principle that not many would argue are a “bad idea”.

However either it hasn’t worked out quite how the idealists planned it to and/or Europe just gets a bad press in this country?

People in this country (including myself) campaigned against going into Iraq again in 2003 (yes I had a political past as an activist). I’m still not holding my breath over the publication of the Chilcot report, however I did at the time when I read the "dodgy dossier" describe it as propaganda, but as the cliché goes lessons need to be learnt (albeit 13 years after it happened). However that is besides the point.

The outcome of the AV Referendum on Wirral five years ago was very clear-cut.

Yes – 28,627 (28.1%)
No – 73,120 (71.9%)
 

It was a vote for keeping things the same, for the status quo. Lots of people had voted using first past the post for generations and even those pressing for voting reform really wanted STV (Single Transferable Vote) not AV (which was seen as a compromise).

However, back to the EU Referendum. Personally I don’t know what will happen next if a majority vote to leave. If truth be told, nobody really does. Predictions seem to be the verbal equivalent of crystal ball gazing dressed up in soundbites designed to arouse an emotional response from voters and attract press coverage.

For my generation a vote for the status quo, therefore the situation they’ve known all their lives is a vote to remain. For others who have known more of their life in the UK outside the EU the status quo is different.

So what was the result in 1975?

This was what was asked then (seems very similar to what’s been asked now really).

The Government has announced the results of the renegotiation of the United Kingdom’s terms of membership of the European Community.

Do you think the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (the Common Market)?

Yes 17,378,581
No 8,470,073

The Tory infighting over this issue has however damaged them as a political party. To be fair though, they’re not the only political party that has been split on the European issue.

On the 23rd of this month when people will be voting in the polling stations I hope they will think through their decision.

Although I have made up which way I am voting, the choice is down to you (or at least the readers of this who have a vote or some influence in it). Think through what will happen next after the votes are counted.

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