Category: Wirral Council

Casino in Birkenhead? Cabinet decides next week.

Casino in Birkenhead? Cabinet decides next week.                                                                   Having reread the agenda for next week’s Cabinet meeting specifically item 4 I notice there’s a plan to sell off two pieces of land that provide revenue through on-street car parking to a William Tar Holdings Limited for eventual use as a casino. Even more worryingly the … Continue reading “Casino in Birkenhead? Cabinet decides next week.”

Casino in Birkenhead? Cabinet decides next week.

                                                                 

Having reread the agenda for next week’s Cabinet meeting specifically item 4 I notice there’s a plan to sell off two pieces of land that provide revenue through on-street car parking to a William Tar Holdings Limited for eventual use as a casino.

Even more worryingly the developer already has Planning Permission from 2008 (which was amended this year). I know Birkenhead already has one casino; but does it need another?

Birkenhead Town Centre has already lost two large council car parks to the Asda development and whereas I would always encourage people to use public transport (this area is well serve with Conway Park train station and the bus station); is a casino right for Birkenhead? What do the users of Europa Pools leisure centre think of car parking spaces going; will any Blue Badge spaces be replaced elsewhere?

Are councillors trying to make Birkenhead like Blackpool or Las Vegas? There are many people in Birkenhead who have gambling problems; won’t the presence of a new casino just make things worse?

As the planning permission expires in March 2011 is this being rushed through before Christmas?

Update: The Cabinet eventually decided against the idea of another casino in Birkenhead. However there is one planned for New Brighton if you are interested.

Oldham East & Saddleworth – elections & election law

UPDATE (half an hour after I wrote this): Phil Woolas’ appeal dismissed, the full judgement can be read here. Byelection expected in New Year.

First a brief history, although this has already been covered in the media.

There was a general election in Oldham East & Saddleworth in May. The Lib Dem candidate came 2nd to the Labour candidate Phil Woolas by 103 votes (with 14,083 votes).

Following the result the Lib Dem candidate took the Labour candidate to court and won over lies he’d told about the Lib Dem candidate over the election campaign. This court case was held in November (after Phil Woolas had been an MP for 6 months). The election was declared void, Phil Woolas was thrown out as an MP, barred from standing as a candidate for three years (and banned from the Labour party).

So for the last month the people of Oldham East and Saddleworth have not had an MP because Mr. Woolas decided to drag things out (supported financially by Labour MPs). Interestingly the legal argument being used is anyone should be able to say anything they like in a leaflet (even libellous) to win an election.

Whereas I believe in freedom of speech; this country does have laws to prevent people being elected through lies, “buying an election” imposed through spending limits and all sorts of other restrictions. However for some time political parties of every colour have turned a blind eye to electoral malpractice (especially the “grey areas”) as legal action following an election is rare & expensive. For a case similar in ways to what Phil Woolas did one only has to look at ex-Labour Cllr Miranda Grell and the lies she spread about her opponent which helped her win her seat.

The police and CPS are from my past experience always reluctant to investigate crimes surrounding elections due to accusations that they’re taking one political party’s side over another. The view I got from one police officer after pointing out a breach years ago was that it was for political parties to police themselves. His view was that it wasn’t a crime to break the law and as such shouldn’t be recorded as such.

When is it not in the public interest to investigate crimes against our country’s democracy?

The only time I’ve known crimes be investigated is either when it’s extremely flagrant such as when Labour councillors tried to rig the vote in Birmingham, when the media shows an interest or similar situations where the police feel they have little choice.

Of course some of the complaints each year are down to official error. I know of a story of a person going to vote, to be told they’d already voted. A polling clerk can quite easily cross the wrong name off the list.

However this year I was not only told in my local polling station I wasn’t allowed to vote on polling day in both the local election & General Election (that took about 3 hours to sort out) but when I got the list of people that’d voted in the election after I finally got to vote I wasn’t on it!!!

I brought this up with the Returning Officer (who’s recently been awarded Freedom of the Borough), he said that there was a list of postal voters and those who voted at a polling station. However those who handed in a postal vote at a polling station weren’t recorded on either list!

At the end of polling day, eight people had voted this way and there are six polling stations in this ward. How can the public know where these fifty or so votes appeared and who they were from? How can we tell if anyone voted by post twice (eg voted then asked for a replacement ballot pack which they took to their polling system) under this system?

Clearly there are problems that Wirral Council has with elections ranging from postal votes that weren’t received this year. These people were then told at their local polling station they weren’t allowed to vote or to go to Wallasey Town Hall to get a replacement ballot paper.

The strangeness of the situation was that between 7am and 9am the polling stations were open, but Wallasey Town Hall wasn’t; so how could people get replacement ballot papers?

There weren’t enough people at the count to count due to the increased turnout.

My agent also tells me (which is a legal requirement) that she wasn’t invited to the opening of the postal ballots.

Initially at the counting place (Pacific Road Theatre) there were no people to count the votes for Bidston & St. James ward as they’d been diverted to count Prenton ward! It was only thanks to my agent being persistent that the count wasn’t held hours later.

These problems desperately need to be sorted out by next year if anyone is going to have confidence that the result reflects how people voted.

I can fully understand the view of the police (although when I made a complaint the inspector pointed out the policeman hadn’t followed procedure); however all parties are unlikely to take their own elected members to task over illegal practices, but such practices need to stop if people are going to have confidence that our councillors, MPs and other representatives are elected legitimately.

Planning Committee – 1st December 2010 – Part 1

Planning Committee – 1st December 2010 – Part 1

                                                  

The agenda for last night’s meeting can be found here.

The meeting started late. Prior to the meeting the officers had insisted they were having a briefing (despite none of the Committee being present). Quite how officers larking around and hitting each other over the head with the plan for Birkenhead High School Academy constitutes a briefing is anyone’s guess but Matthew Rushton was quite adamant that this was a briefing. He got quite annoyed when I pointed out the briefing started at 3.15pm and therefore by that time it was finished. Strangely, he said we can’t treat you (referring to myself and my wife) differently to any other member of the public.

However, officers are often under deliberate instructions from councillors to treat different members of the public differently. We only have to go to yesterday when the thirty members of the public were all ushered for drinks in the Mayor’s Parlour and a reception (before and after) whereas myself and Leonora were told (as far as I know no one else was) not to sit on the first three rows of the public gallery.

Minutes of the meetings on the 27th October and 9th November were agreed. There were no declarations of interest. Item 5 (an extension of Melrose, Oldfield Road, Heswall) was deferred for a site visit. Item 7 (57 Argyle Street South, Tranmere) was also deferred as officers had asked the applicant for extra info. The petition regarding item 7 was mentioned; it was asked whether it was fair for the petitioners to be denied extra time when the applicant had more time. Matthew answered that the last date for comments had passed.

The agenda was then reordered to take into account the numbers of the public present for each item with the item on Birkenhead High School first.

Wirral Council – Steve Maddox awarded Freedom of the Borough

Wirral Council – Steve Maddox awarded Freedom of the Borough

                                 

In a well attended meeting at Wallasey Town Hall last night, attended by councillors, senior officers, Steve Maddox (and family), assorted invited guests and about thirty members of the public Steve Maddox was awarded Freedom of the Borough.

Despite his microphone not working, the Mayor of Wirral, Cllr Alan Jennings gave a speech detailing Steve’s service to Wirral Council and the people of Wirral referring to Mr. Maddox as an exceptional public servant. The Mayor went on to detail Steve’s career from Council trainee to Chief Executive and said that it was a "most appropriate tribute" to a "true public servant". He went on to call Mr. Maddox an "innovative forward thinker" who would insist on seeing every employee once a year at a roadshow. He went on to refer to Mr. Maddox as modest, thoughtful and supportive of the Council and colleagues. He said Mr. Maddox had integrity and that to be awarded an Honorary Freeman was very rare and only happened to exceptional people. He said that he had rendered eminent service to the Borough and mentioned Mr. Maddox’s OBE. He then proposed the motion to make Mr. Maddox an Honorary Freeman of the Borough.

The Conservative leader Cllr Green spoke first, seconding the motion. He called Mr. Maddox a "shining example of a man dedicated to public service" who had "impressed me with his commitment to excellent local services". Cllr Green went on to talk about the Open Gold scheme and Wirral Waters. He told those present about how Mr. Maddox is the current tourism ambassador and Mr. Maddox’s earlier work with Merseytravel, NHS and support for schools in special measures. He said that Mr. Maddox was a shy and modest man and stated that he had started a charity into which he had donated his fee he received as Returning Officer.

The Labour leader Cllr Foulkes spoke next, jointly seconding the motion. He brought up Mr. Maddox’s humble background and mentioned his passionate determination. He referred to Mr. Maddox’s work on the governing body of a primary school and mentioned the Open Golf tournament. He joked that the one thing the Conservative Minister Eric Pickles had got right was his recent decision over Wirral Waters. Cllr Foulkes also referred to HMS Astute and said that Mr. Maddox had had a "great career". He said Mr. Maddox was backed up by his family (who were with him).

The Lib Dem leader Cllr Holbrook then spoke about the winter maintenance arrangements, public health, Youth Forums, Older Peoples Parliament.

The motion was unanimously approved with calls for a card vote. Mr. Maddox was awarded a small token of esteem from the Mayor and other councillors in a John Lewis bag and his wife was given a bunch of flowers.

Mr. Maddox was then invited to speak. He said that it’d be 36 years next week since he started at Wirral Council and expressed regret that his father couldn’t come. He said he’d been attended council meetings as a senior officer for 20 years; with about 8 council meetings a year that made about 160 council meetings. He said this had been the first time he had been asked to say anything after listening to 700 to 800 hours of debate. He joked in saying does how long he’s had to listen reflect how long you’d have to listen to his speech. He expressed his thanks and said he would be eternally grateful. He mentioned how other distinguished people had been awarded this honour and that he had recommended one or two people. He said he was not awfully sure what he’d done to qualify for it.

He went on to say that he was received the award for the staff and the thousands of people he had worked with. He said he was proud to be associated with every member of Wirral Council. He said he truly appreciated the political differences among councillors and of the need to support democracy which involves challenge and disagreement. He talked about tough decision and it had been an absolute honour. A photo was taken of Steve, the Mayor and the certificate followed by the Mayor closing the meeting.

Full Council last night & Scrutiny Programme Board

Full Council last night & Scrutiny Programme Board

Full Council last night & Scrutiny Programme Board

                                     

The Scrutiny Programme Board in a three-minute meeting decided to send the Hoylake lifeboat call-in to the Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

All the stops were pulled out an hour later for invited guests (and councillors) at Wirral Council’s meeting last night, where Steve Maddox was awarded Freedom of the Borough. Before the meeting from the public gallery you could hear drunken laughter echoing through the corridors of the Town Hall.

Despite myself and Leonora being invited; we were both prevented from speaking to councillors or Steve as Town Hall staff had been left with instructions as usual. All I managed to get was a hello to Steve as he walked past through the lobby.

For the first time in a long time, Labour councillors behaved and didn’t jeer/heckle through anybody’s speeches. After the last full council meeting where Cllr Harry Smith got two people booted out of the Council Chamber I half thought he’d jump up and say, "I object to the dozen or so member of the public sitting in the Council Chamber (some in front of the Labour benches obscuring our view of Tory councillors) including Steve Maddox, his family, the High Sheriff, Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant, Mayoress and others and insist they’re thrown out of the Council Chamber and sit in the public gallery." but he didn’t.

So much for Harry’s assertion last time that it was usual procedure of members of the public to be bullied into moving about contrary to Wirral’s constitution!

However, someone must have told Harry to behave because I didn’t even hear one heckle or jeer out of him.

There were around thirty in the public gallery, I’ll write a longer report on last night including a summary of the speeches by the three leaders. The atmosphere was quite different to usual; partly because all the political parties agreed.

The only thing that seemed to go wrong (with a night that was meticulously planned by officers who got rather stressed) was the Mayor’s microphone wasn’t working.