Expense claim forms for Councillor Harry Smith 2013 to 2014
Expense claim forms for Councillor Harry Smith 2013 to 2014
Councillor Harry Smith is a Labour Party councillor for Bidston & St. James ward. During the period these expense claims cover, he was Cabinet Member for what is now called Highways and Transportation but was previously called Streetscene and Transport.
His expense claim forms cover his work as a Cabinet Member (referred to by the initials CM on the forms), work on Wirral Council’s Pensions Committee (which manage the Merseyside Pension Fund worth billions of pounds), conferences & training, housing association meetings (where he was a Wirral Council representative), an employment appeal (the trade unions are still in dispute over this being decided by officers now and not councillors and this looks like it may have been one of the last decided by councillors), the Beechwood Joint Management Committee (on which he was a Wirral Council representative), full Council meetings, a Cabinet “Away Day” in July 2013 with the Chief Executive Graham Burgess, a meeting of the North Birkenhead Development Trust (which runs the St James Centre in Laird Street), a leadership program meeting in Acre Lane, a site visit in his role as Cabinet Member and a meeting at the Floral Pavilion about the flooding in New Brighton.
The sixteen pages of claim forms covering this period are below.
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 11Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 12Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 13Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 14Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 15Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 16
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Wirral Council pay £172,910 + VAT + expenses to consultants to help find £2.5 million of savings (Future Council)
Wirral Council pay £172,910 + VAT + expenses to consultants to help find £2.5 million of savings (Future Council)
Future Council Wirral logo
Information revealed by Wirral Council in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Councillor Paul Hayes has stated that fifty-three of its staff are working on the “Future Council” project, which is the current consultation (closing on the 31st October 2014) to find £2.5 million of savings. The “Future Council” consultation launch was reported on by this blog earlier this month.
All fifty-three staff were asked to sign “confidentiality statements” and “conflict of interest” forms to do with their “Future Council” work. Councillors on Wirral Council’s three scrutiny committees have recently agreed to behind closed doors meetings to discuss the budget options during the consultation period.
However Wirral Council also revealed that the “Future Council” project is also supported by a team of four consultants from EY (previously called Ernst and Young) at a cost of £172,910 + VAT + expenses. This comes on top of a recent scandal about another set of consultants that Wirral Council hired called V4 being paid more than was authorised by politicians (as revealed by the Liverpool Echo in the last few days).
Certainly Wirral Council paying outside consultants £172,910 + VAT + expenses will not go down well with either the trade unions or staff facing the prospect of being made redundant.
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Expense claim forms for Councillor John Salter 2013 to 2014
Expense claim forms for Councillor John Salter 2013 to 2014
Councillor John Salter is a Labour Party councillor for Seacombe ward. His five expense claims are all for travel to the Manchester Port Health Authority (which are mainly for trips to Runcorn). During this period he was Wirral Council’s only representative on the Manchester Port Health Authority which according to its website is “the local authority for the Manchester Ship Canal and River Weaver including the ports of Eastham, Ellesmere, Manisty, Stanlow, Ince, Weston, Runcorn, Partington, Irlam, and Salford.” Its website goes on to state “The Authority, originally Manchester Port Sanitary Authority, was established in 1896 following the designation of the Manchester Ship Canal as a customs port.”
Councillor John Salter’s expense claims (below) are for travel in his car to and from meetings of the Manchester Port Health Authority as Wirral Council’s representative.
Cllr John Salter expenses claim page 1Cllr John Salter expenses claim page 2Cllr John Salter expenses claim page 3Cllr John Salter expenses claim page 4Cllr John Salter expenses claim page 5
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Expense claim forms for Councillor Cherry Povall, JP 2013 to 2014
Expense claim forms for Councillor Cherry Povall, JP 2013 to 2014
Councillor Cherry Povall is a Conservative Party councillor for Clatterbridge ward and is also a magistrate (also known as Justice of the Peace). However these expense claims are to do with her work as a councillor and not as a magistrate. It does give me the opportunity to ask, will any of her expenses claims be ruled “out-of-order” or is the bench “above reproach”?
Will the “court of public opinion” approve of Councillor Cherry Povall’s expenses or criticise her? Well that’s enough of the legal jokes! Her expenses claims are for going to pension conferences, more pensions meetings, Council meetings, foster panels, training for people on foster panels, overview and scrutiny committee meetings and the Youth and Play Service Advisory Committee.
However not all her expenses claims were allowed! In March 2014, she tried to claim £6.40 for travel (16 miles ~ 40p/mile) to a dedication to HMS Birkenhead (which from leaving her house to coming back she spent three and a half hours at). This £6.40 claim was rejected. Pictures (which include former Mayor Councillor Dave Mitchell) and a write-up about the new memorial to HMS Birkenhead can be read on The Sixth Form College (Birkenhead)’s website as it was one of their students who designed it.
I presume as this wasn’t classed as an “approved duty” that this is why it was turned down (however presumably all councillors received an invite to the unveiling of the memorial).
Her expense claim forms are below (the rejected claim for travel expenses to the HMS Birkenhead memorial is on page eight).
14 councillor Scrutiny Panel created by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
14 councillor Scrutiny Panel created by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
Knowsley Council filming the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 19th September 2014
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Liverpool City Region Combined Authority meeting of 19th September 2014 (Part 1) agenda items 1-8
At the time of writing Wirral Council’s Regeneration and Environment Policy and Performance Committee will be meeting tonight (22nd September 2014 starting at 6pm in Committee Room 1, Wallasey Town Hall) and as well as the emotive issue of car parking (you can read the report of officers and report of the seven councillors who looked into it on Wirral Council’s website, item ten is a verbal update on scrutiny of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
I was present at the meeting on Friday morning of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority which both myself and Knowsley Council filmed. For a bit of background Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council’s population is half the size of Wirral and all of its 63 councillors since 2012 are from the Labour Party.
Thanks in part to a retweet by the Liverpool Local Enterprise Partnership of a tweet on Knowsley Council’s Twitter account (with ~7,000 followers) and Councillor Phil Davies mentioning it during the meeting itself, Knowsley’s video footage of the meeting uploaded at about 4pm that day has had 129 views. This compares to a total of 21 views of our footage (which is in two parts of the same meeting but unlike Knowsley’s in higher quality HD).
Going briefly into the history of filming at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority meetings, I made a request to film the first meeting held on April 1st 2014 (the request was refused by Knowsley’s Chief Executive Sheena Ramsey as the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority constitution puts this decision in the hand of an officer, specifically the Chief Executive of Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council). After that meeting, the Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson then went and briefed the Liverpool Echo about how upset he was at not being picked at Chair instead of Wirral Council’s Leader Cllr Phil Davies.
Possibly as a result of this, the next meeting (when they had to pick a Chair again as it was the Annual General Meeting), on the 13th June 2014 the meeting was broadcast live on the internet in HD by Knowsley Council as a Google Hangout. In the interest of transparency at this point I will point out at this point that I receive a small amount from Google in advertising on Youtube videos I’ve filmed. Once again my request to film this meeting was again refused (somewhat strangely considering that Knowsley Council filmed the meeting and broadcast it live).
On August 6th 2014, as regulars readers of this blog will know, the law changed on the issue. A week later a report of Knowsley Council’s Chief Executive proposed a policy on filming which was agreed to by their Leader Ron Round. This decision was made by their Leader as a delegated decision. However the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is a separate body to Knowsley Council.
Obviously they couldn’t stop me filming the meeting last Friday. However a Knowsley Council officer before the meeting referred to the part (still in Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s constitution) that allows their Chief Executive to refuse requests to film. However if they actually did so now it would be unlawful and therefore the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority constitution should be changed to prevent confusion. I did suggest a change, but the response back from the officer concerned was that they won’t recommend to politicians a change the Liverpool City Region Authority’s constitution which is partly why a Scrutiny Panel for the Combined Authority is needed as a check and balance! The Knowsley Council officer I talked to before the meeting did tell me that a policy on filming (although never formally agreed by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) had been agreed “that morning” and surprise, surprise is the same as Knowsley Council’s policy on the matter.
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Liverpool City Region Combined Authority meeting of 19th September 2014 (Part 2) agenda items 8-16 (Scrutiny Panel item starts at 1m 55s in this clip)
However back to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, there has been criticism of it by some councillors as it is a “one party state” as it comprises the Leaders of the councils on Merseyside (plus the Chair of the Local Enterprise Partnership) and all the Leaders of the councils on Merseyside are all from the Labour Party.
What was agreed on Friday morning by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (the report can be read here was creating a scrutiny panel and appointments of councillors to this scrutiny panel have already been made by the Merseyside councils. The first meeting of the Scrutiny Panel is planned for the 19th October, although there will be a training session before that for councillors on it on the 26th September. I presume it will run along similar lines to the Merseytravel Committee (which is since April part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority).
There will be fourteen councillors on the Scrutiny Panel for the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Two are nominated from each council on Merseyside, with two extra places to represent opposition parties (one of these two opposition places being Councillor John Hale from Wirral Council to represent the Conservatives and the other, Councillor Haydn Preece from Sefton to represent the Liberal Democrats). The two Labour representatives from Wirral Council are Councillor Anita Leech (Labour) and Councillor Mike Sullivan (Labour).
I’m sure councillors will hear something similar in the verbal update given at tonight’s meeting about scrutiny of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
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