Councillors meet next week to discuss fire station mergers project including Saughall Massie
Councillors meet next week to discuss fire station mergers project including Saughall Massie
Land off Saughall Massie Road Saughall Massie 13th December 2016 SAVE OUR GREEN BELT SAY NO TO THE FIRE STATION banner
A public meeting of councillors on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority next week (MFRA’s Wirral Council nominated councillors are Councillor Brian Kenny, Councillor Chris Meaden, Cllr Lesley Rennie and Councillor Jean Stapleton) has as its last agenda item the fire station mergers project.
A report to councillors states that the Prescot fire station will cost a further £145,000 than planned due to “discovery and eradication of Japanese Knotweed; grouting of shallow mining workings; requirement for further boreholes and trial pits due to inaccurately plotted co-ordinates; and the discovery of further asbestos contamination”. A break-in to the site compound over Easter also led to a loss of £2,000 of plant and equipment.
The report states that in St Helens, Pilkington have withdrawn their offer of a two acre site in Canal Street as someone else has offered Pilkington more money than Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority, so MFRA have been forced to switch to another Pilkington owned site in the Watson Street works (which may require a further consultation).
A revised planning application for the Saughall Massie site (which is owned by Wirral Council) has been submitted to Wirral Council and the report author had been hoping that it would be decided at the Planning Committee scheduled for the 1st June 2017.
Due to the general election, it looks unlikely that a decision will be made a week before people vote, so Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service have told councillors it will probably go to a Planning Committee meeting to be decided on the 22nd June 2017.
Interestingly, despite an “intention” expressed to councillors in January to appeal the original refusal of planning permission, this has now been changed to an appeal of the decision to the Planning Inspectorate of the revised planning application (should it be refused again).
Wirral Council planning officer decides environmental impact assessment not required for controversial Saughall Massie greenbelt fire station planning application
Wirral Council planning officer decides environmental impact assessment not required for controversial Saughall Massie greenbelt fire station planning application
photo 15 Land off Saughall Massie Road Saughall Massie 13th December 2016 SAVE OUR GREEN BELT SAY NO TO THE FIRE STATION banner
The Saughall Massie fire station saga, already as long as Beowulf but with less dragons, reached another stage in the planning decision-making process this week.
No date has been set for a Planning Committee decision on the revised linked planning application (after the first one was refused last year), but a decision is expected on this revised planning application by mid-September 2017.
The nearby Girtrell Court site received permission for demolition in late April 2017. The Girtrell Court site nearby (although it does not have main road access) is roughly the same size as land Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority want in the greenbelt for their new fire station.
Applications for planning permission in the greenbelt can be refused if other suitable alternative brownfield sites are available.
One of the justifications for a new fire station in Saughall Massie is the proposed Hoylake Golf Resort.
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Why did a ferris wheel in New Brighton and a Wirral Globe article about it disappear?
Why did a ferris wheel in New Brighton and a Wirral Globe article about it disappear?
Fort Perch Rock car park (New Brighton) 29th June 2015 (before the Wheel)
With spin machines in overdrive on the second of two election cycles this year, how about a story about the New Brighton Wheel?
Regular readers of this blog will be aware that the issue of Wirral Council charging for car parking on Fort Perch Rock car park has been a political issue in the recent past which led to a U-turn by Wirral Council on the issue of charging.
Relatively recently part of the Fort Perch Rock car park (owned by Wirral Council) was cordoned off for a ferris wheel and associated facilities run by a limited company.
The Chief Executive of Wilkie Leisure Group Limited, who manages a business close to the Fort Perch Rock car park had concerns about how Wirral Council had run the tendering process for the ferris wheel.
He instructed Kirwans Solicitors (David Kirwan is a former councillor at Wirral Council) to help Wilkie Leisure Group Limited with Wirral Council.
Stories now differ between the different parties to this matter as to why the wheel came down when it did.
The following two quotes are from a press release about the matter.
In a recent letter from Wirral Council to Wilkie Leisure Group Limited, Wirral Council’s Assistant Chief Executive and Director for Business Services (referred to as Mr Amstrong) is quoted as writing,
“Mr Armstrong recognises your client’s long standing contribution to the attractions of New Brighton.
Liverpool Fair Ltd have been granted an extension of their contractual licence to 11 pm on 6/5/17.
They must begin the safe removal of their equipment on 7/5/17. Any further use of the site for the Big Wheel is dependent on the grant of planning permission and a decision by the Council as landowner that it would be an appropriate use of the site.
The Council’s Contract Procedure Rules would apply to any procurement that might then follow.”
David Wilkie wrote, “While I am pleased that Wirral Council has acknowledged its failure to follow the correct tendering processes, I am sorry for the people of New Brighton and the surrounding areas that, thanks to that failure, they will now lose an attraction that all should have been able to enjoy.
It is crucial for local businesses such as ours, which has passed through three generations, that councils conduct fair and just procedural processes through which all businesses can bid. This is a reminder that they have a responsibility to do just that.”
The related court matter has been discontinued due to the removal of the Wheel, but the corporate governance concerns raised by it related to both planning permission and whether Wirral Council had followed their own rules in how the licence was awarded.
Certainly since the removal of the wheel there has been an accusation that the Wirral Council spin machine has entered spin mode. Both the Wheel and the Wirral Globe article about it have both disappeared!
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What are 6 powers the new Liverpool City Region Mayor will have?
What are 6 powers the new Liverpool City Region Mayor will have?
Mayor Joe Anderson (Chair) at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 21st April 2017
As there is some interest in what a Metro Mayor (or Liverpool City Region Mayor) will do I thought, despite the fact that everyone registered to vote will have received a booklet (or should shortly receive one) I’d answer some questions.
There are however some errors in the booklet I’d like to point out here. The booklet also omits that the Mayor will end up being paid £77,500 a year (a decision made last Friday by Cllr Phil Davies, Mayor Joe Anderson and others).
In the booklet it states the City Region Mayor “will not be responsible for … setting Council Tax.”
(Another decision made on Friday was to hire a temporary Comms/Engagement person for 3-6 months).
First, I’d better describe the current arrangements. The executive arm of the Combined Authority (Merseytravel) levies each of the district councils (based on population) in addition to money it receives from other sources (such as Mersey Tunnel tolls).
I presume (if the Mayor decides to go down this route) it’ll be an extra line on everyone’s council tax bill like the lines for police (decided by the Police and Crime Commissioner and Police and Crime Panel) and fire (decided by the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority) at the moment.
So yes, the Combined Authority (although this will almost certainly go up next year) for example this year has a budget of £139.371 million of capital spending and £255.5 million of revenue. (Predictions are of a underspend in the revenue budget at year-end of £81.2 million (I feel obliged to point out that Labour councillors repeatedly state they’re not given enough money)).
The bit where there’s an answer to the question about whether the Liverpool City Region Mayor will made decisions over my local council/ the services they provide? is in my opinion also wrong. I’ve already written a detailed blog post about What are the new powers of the Metro Mayor to decide on planning applications?.
However, for a taste of one of the matters the new Mayor will be doing (chairing Liverpool City Region Combined Authority public meetings) you can watch my video below of the 15 minute meeting (there are about one of these a month).
So that’s 3-4 hours a year of work (probably more if the meetings are longer).
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Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 21st April 2017
Unlike in London, where there are 25 elected London Assembly Members to scrutinise the Mayor this won’t happen in the Liverpool City Region.
There will still be a Scrutiny Committee, but it’ll be made up of councillors nominated by the district councils as before. At the moment there are 14 councillors on that Committee (12 Labour, 1 Lib Dem and 1 Green).
On the opposition front, out of the last three Scrutiny Committee meetings in public, the Lib Dem councillor has sent her apologies for two of them, the Conservative councillor (from Wirral) resigned years ago and no-one else was appointed instead and the sole Green councillor (Liverpool would normally under proportionality rules nominate all Labour councillors but Liverpool decided they wanted at least some opposition) has been to the last three meetings. He’s also the Green Party candidate in the election.
There will be some decisions made solely* by the newly elected Mayor which I will summarise below:
a) matters devolved from the Homes and Communities Agency around land and infrastructure such as housing, regeneration, infrastructure, powers about burial grounds and consecrated land, powers in relation to statutory undertakers,
b) deciding on grants to the local councils in the LCR region,
c) reviewing the local transport plan (at least every five years),
*interestingly decisions on these planning applications will also require the consent of the member of the Combined Authority for the area the application for planning permission was made,
e) matters relating to the spatial development strategy and
f) matters to do with Mayoral development areas.
Originally I know the plan had been was for the Combined Authority to combine Merseyside-wide authorities such as the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority, Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority to give two examples (similar to old Merseyside County Council).
Even when just talked about, these sorts of proposed changes caused so much resistance from certain existing Labour councillors (who angrily and vocally were against any such changes) that as far as I can tell such plans at the present time were dropped by the negotiating team and the government.
Polling day for over a million people in the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority area (Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral) is on 4th May 2017 (although postal voters may receive their ballot paper before this date).
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What are the new powers of the Metro Mayor to decide on planning applications?
What are the new powers of the Metro Mayor to decide on planning applications?
Planning Committee meeting (Wirral Council) 15th December 2016 councillors voting to refuse planning permission for a fire station at Saughall Massie L to R Cllr Pat Cleary, Cllr Stuart Kelly, Cllr Ian Lewis, Cllr Kathy Hodson, Cllr Eddie Boult, Cllr David Elderton
How planning applications are decided will change after a new Metro Mayor is elected next month. The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority will have the power (from the 8th May 2017) to decide on planning applications of “potential strategic importance”.
Whether a planning application is of “potential strategic importance” is defined in the legislation in categories such as large-scale developments, major infrastructure and development which may affect strategic policies.
The last category includes planning applications in the green belt that involve constructing buildings with over 1,000 square metres floor space.
For example the controversial Saughall Massie fire station planning application is in the green belt, but is for a building of 645 square metres (originally 737 square metres) so this would be decided by Wirral Council’s Planning Committee.
However the equally controversial Hoylake Golf Resort project will involve a planning application for the construction of buildings over 1000 square metres so could easily be deemed to be of “potential strategic importance” and be determined by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and not Wirral Council’s Planning Committee.
Interestingly, the revised planning application for a fire station at Saughall Massie includes the proposed Hoylake Golf Resort as a reason for a fire station at this location.
