What will councillors say tonight about enforcement of environmental laws now the contract with Kingdom has been cancelled?

What will councillors say tonight about enforcement of environmental laws now the contract with Kingdom has been cancelled?

What will councillors say tonight about enforcement of environmental laws now the contract with Kingdom has been cancelled?

                                       

Cllr Anita Leech (Cabinet Member for the Environment) Wirral Council
Cllr Anita Leech (Cabinet Member for the Environment) (Wirral Council)

Tonight will be another Extraordinary public meeting of Wirral Council councillors. This one was called by five Liberal Democrat councillors (Councillors Brame, Carubia, Gilchrist, Kelly and Mitchell) on the 21st February 2019. The councillors asked for an end to the Environmental Enforcement Contract between Wirral Council and Kingdom Services Group Limited.

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

YouTube privacy policy

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

Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Wirral Council) 13th March 2019 Overview of Trade Waste Enforcement
Continue reading “What will councillors say tonight about enforcement of environmental laws now the contract with Kingdom has been cancelled?”

What’s in Wirral Council’s 96 page Hoylake Golf Resort contract?

What’s in Wirral Council’s 96 page Hoylake Golf Resort contract?

What’s in Wirral Council’s 96 page Hoylake Golf Resort contract?

                                       

Continuing from yesterday’s post about the cancelled hearing, I’d better once again state I was the person who made the information request.

Here however is a brief chronology of what has happened so far.

12th December 2016 – EIR request made to Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council by myself for 122 pages of information. Continue reading “What’s in Wirral Council’s 96 page Hoylake Golf Resort contract?”

How are 275 invoices connected to Wirral Council’s plans to change food waste and green bin collections?

How are 275 invoices connected to Wirral Council’s plans to change food waste and green bin collections?

How are 275 invoices connected to Wirral Council’s plans to change food waste and green bin collections?

                                

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

YouTube privacy policy

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

Wirral Council’s Cabinet meeting 27th June 2016 (item 9 Domestic Refuse Collection Outline Business Case starts at 25 minutes 21 seconds)

Wirral Council Cabinet meeting at Birkenhead Town Hall Thursday 12th March 2015 Left to right Surjit Tour, Cllr Phil Davies and Joe Blott
Cllr Phil Davies (centre) chairs Wirral Council’s Cabinet who will decide whether to change green bin collections later this year

When I read the Wirral Globe article about the proposed changes to bin collections (which may include a new food waste collection and possibly changes to the green bin collection) that have been delayed, I remembered that I received invoices from Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority (also known as Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority) earlier this week.

Wirral Council have the legal responsibility for collecting rubbish from households on the Wirral (which they do through a contract with Biffa), but Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority then deal with what to do with the rubbish (and charge a levy to Wirral Council and other local councils).

Earlier this year, during the 30 working day period when you can do so, I requested copies of 275 invoices paid by Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority over the last financial year (2016-17).

Out of the invoices supplied electronically, one was missing and one was a duplicate. I flagged this up with Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority and have since been supplied with the correct invoices.

This is invoice 186 (that was missing originally from what I was sent).

This is invoice 67 (that was originally duplicated with a different invoice already supplied.

The invoices are supplied in batches of fifty due to file size limits on emails. One of the invoices is for MWDA’s share for this study by Local Partnerships which included Wirral. At Wirral Council’s Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee last month it was stated that changes to Wirral’s waste collection were on hold while a regional study was being finished.

Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority 2016-17 Invoices 1-50

Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority 2016-17 Invoices 51-100

Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority 2016-17 Invoices 101-150

Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority 2016-17 Invoices 151-200

Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority 2016-17 Invoices 201-250

Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority 2016-17 Invoices 251-275

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

What are the details of the recommendation to Wirral councillors about a senior management restructure at Wirral Council (1 redundancy, 5 promotions, 4 posts created and 4 vacant posts deleted)?

What are the details of the recommendation to Wirral councillors about a senior management restructure at Wirral Council (1 redundancy, 5 promotions, 4 posts created and 4 vacant posts deleted)?

What are the details of the recommendation to Wirral councillors about a senior management restructure at Wirral Council (1 redundancy, 5 promotions, 4 posts created and 4 vacant posts deleted)?

Surjit Tour (Monitoring Officer (Wirral Council)) at the Coordinating Committee held on 15th June 2016
Surjit Tour (Monitoring Officer (Wirral Council)) at the Coordinating Committee held on 15th June 2016 (who is one of the employees recommended for an increase in pay)

Councillors on Wirral Council’s Employment and Appointments Committee will decide on changes to Wirral Council’s senior management next week on Monday 25th July 2016. If approved by councillors the restructure will take effect from November 2016.

This senior management restructure had been put on hold until Eric Robinson’s appointment by councillors as Chief Executive of Wirral Council in February 2015.

However these are the changes recommended to councillors and you can read the full details on Wirral Council’s website.

Redundancy (1)

There is a recommendation that one senior manager (the Head of Housing and Community Safety Ian Platt) be made redundant, offered early retirement and his post is deleted. However the recommendation from officers is that his name and the financial details of how much this will cost are kept out of the public domain before the public meeting and that councillors decide on whether to release the information about Ian Platt after the meeting has been held.

For comparison the early retirement of Kevin Adderley last year cost ~£49k in redundancy plus ~£207k in pension costs for early retirement but as Ian Platt is on a lower salary grade I estimate the costs to Wirral Council are roughly ~£30k in redundancy and ~£127k in pension costs total £157k.

Promotions (5)

The following senior managers are recommended to receive a promotion:

Tom Sault (who has been acting up to the s.151 officer role will be permanently appointed to it)

Surjit Tour (who has been Monitoring Officer since shortly after Bill Norman was suspended in 2012 will now receive extra pay for being Monitoring Officer too in addition to his other job)

Mark Smith (promoted from Head of Environment and Regulation to Strategic Commissioner for Environment)

Alan Evans (promoted from Investment and Business Manager to Strategic Commissioner for Growth)

Sue Talbot (promoted from Schools Commissioning Manager to Lead Commissioner for Schools)

Vacant posts deleted (4)

Strategic Director for Regeneration and Environment (formerly Kevin Adderley)

Director of Resources (formerly Vivienne Quayle)

Head of Neighbourhoods and Engagement (formerly Emma Degg)

Head of Business Processes (formerly Malcolm Flanagan)

Posts deleted because postholder being promoted (3)

Investment and Business Manager (current postholder Alan Evans)
Schools Commissioner Manager (current postholder Sue Talbot)
Senior Manager (current postholder unknown)

Posts created (if approved by councillors) 4

Transformation Director (grade HS2 (£68,011 to £75,567))
Assistant Director: Commissioning Support (grade HS2 (£68,011 to £75,567))
Assistant Director: Community Services* (grade HS2 (£68,011 to £75,567))
Assistant Director: Adult and Disability Services* (grade HS2 (£68,011 to £75,567))

*Note new posts marked with * are recommended to be recruited internally from existing Wirral Council employees.

Penna will be advising Wirral Council’s Employment and Appointments Committee &Wirral Council officers on appointments to these four posts at a cost of £thousands per each post. If the creation of the new posts is agreed by councillors, councillors will also decide who the successful applicants are.

The councillors on Wirral Council’s Employment and Appointments Committee (although the councillors below can send a deputy in their place if they can’t make a particular meeting) are:

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

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