Below are 4 invoices Wates Construction Limited to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service for work to do with the Saughall Massie pre-construction agreement. I requested these invoices as part of the 2016-17 audit and they arrived through the post today.
The invoices spell it as Saughall Massey rather than Saughall Massie. The invoices are dated March 2016 (for £4,696.99), April 2016 (for £4,547.96), May 2016 (for £12,086.83) and August 2016 (for £2,907.61). Total spending was £24,239.39 (all amounts in this paragraph include VAT).
I also received a copy of the pre-construction service agreement between Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority and Wates Construction Ltd. As it’s around 45 pages long I don’t have the time just now to scan it in or publish it today.
The contract is also with Todd & Ledson LLP. I haven’t requested invoices for the 2016-17 financial year relating to Todd & Ledson LLP and the Saughall Massie project as there is only one that could relate to this for £2,500 dated 25.4.16 (although it is possible this invoice relates to completely different work as it is just described as services).
Wates Construction Ltd invoice March 2016 Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service resizedWates Construction Ltd invoice April 2016 Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service resizedWates Construction Ltd invoice May 2016 Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service resizedWates Construction Ltd invoice August 2016 Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service resized
Wirral Council’s Planning Committee will be deciding on the revised planning application (APP/17/00306) at a public meeting starting at 6.00 pm on Thursday 20th July 2017 in the Civic Hall, Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED.
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Why did over a hundred residents go to a Planning Committee site visit on the Saughall Massie fire station proposal?
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Planning Committee (Wirral Council) site visit Saughall Massie APP/17/00306 18th July 2017
In a grassy field on a summer morning, Wirral Council’s Planning Committee met to visit the site for a proposed fire station in Saughall Massie on Wirral Council owned land just off Saughall Massie Road.
Many local residents and two of the three local councillors (Cllr Bruce Berry and Cllr Steve Williams) were there to observe what happened on the site visit.
There were many with placards opposing the planning application for greenbelt reasons.
Cllr Eddie Boult turned up much earlier for the site visit than the other councillors on the Planning Committee.
Cllr Anita Leech, Chair of the Planning Committee opened the site visit and explained the purpose of the site visit and the procedure that would be followed. She asked a planning officer (Matthew Parry-Davies) to introduce the planning application. Unfortunately Matthew’s voice wasn’t very loud.
Matthew Parry-Davies (who works in Wirral Council’s planning department) explained that the revised planning application was for “a single storey two bay community fire station”.
He explained that access to the fire station (if planning permission was granted) would be from Saughall Massie Road. Mr Parry-Davies described the distances to the nearest properties on two different sides of the site.
The footprint of the proposed building and site perimeter had already been pegged out (both the footprint and the building had been reduced compared to the original planning application). The orientation had also been changed. The generator and sprinkler had been relocated and the training tower had been moved too.
Cllr Anita Leech (Chair of the Planning Committee) asked if any of the Planning Committee had any questions.
Cllr Eddie Boult asked for the differences in distance to adjoining properties between the original planning application and revised planning application. Matthew Parry-Davies answered.
Cllr Steve Foulkes asked if there would still be access to the rest of the site for the general public.
Cllr Treena Johnson asked questions about the retractable tower and its height when down and up. Matthew Parry-Davies answered her questions.
Cllr Anita Leech asked how long it would take to put up and down.
Cllr David Elderton answered with how often it would be up.
Cllr Anita Leech (Chair of the Planning Committee) asked if any ward councillors for the area had any questions.
Cllr Steve Williams (a councillor for Moreton West and Saughall Massie ward) pointed out the distance between the perimeter and nearby houses.
Cllr Anita Leech (Chair of the Planning Committee) asked Colin Schofield of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to confirm which tape and posts marked the site boundary. He did.
Cllr Anita Leech (Chair of the Planning Committee) confirmed that the blue posts were the site boundary and the red posts were for the building.
Cllr Bruce Berry (a councillor for Moreton West and Saughall Massie ward) asked a question about car parking and asked how vehicles would go on and off the site.
Matthew Parry-Daives answered him.
The Chair of the Planning Committee asked if any ward councillors had any more questions to ask?
Cllr Steve Williams (a councillor for Moreton West and Saughall Massie ward) asked if there would be any controlled burning on the site.
The Chair of the Planning Committee referred to a planning condition in relation to this.
She then asked if anyone else wanted to point out anything “of significance”?
Various residents asked questions or made points about flooding, traffic issues, the site of the generator, vehicles leaving and entering the site, site levels, where fire engines were called out to, traffic, residential amenity and where the optimal position for a fire station to replace West Kirby and Upton was.
Cllrs Eddie Boult and Cllr Steve Foulkes (both on the Planning Committee) made further points.
The site visit ended with the Chair, Cllr Anita Leech thanking everyone for their attendance.
Pictures below this article are photos of the green belt site and people present for the site visit.
Wirral Council’s Planning Committee will meet to decide on planning application (APP/17/00306) for a fire station on land (owned by Wirral Council) adjacent to Saughall Massie Road in Saughall Massie at a public meeting starting at 6.00 pm on the 20th July 2017 in the Civic Hall, first floor, Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED.
Cllr Eddie Boult (foreground) at the site visit of Wirral Council’s Planning Committee to Saughall Massie 18th July 2017
Why did Wirral Council’s planning department send out a decision letter about 3 marquees at Thornton Manor with no planning conditions?
Why did Wirral Council’s planning department send out a decision letter about 3 marquees at Thornton Manor with no planning conditions?
Cllr Phil Gilchrist (front) who chaired the Planning Committee meeting in 2010 that approved the application (photo is from 4th April 2016)
Published to very little fanfare yesterday, was a supplementary agenda containing a 12 page report to Wirral Council’s Planning Committee that meets on the 20th July 2017 starting at 6.00 pm in the Civic Hall at Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED.
It’s about the ongoing saga that are the marquees at Thornton Manor. In April 2010 Wirral Council received a planning application for the erection of three marquees within the Thornton Manor estate (referred to as The Dell, The Walled Garden and The Lake). These locations are in the greenbelt.
A Planning Committee held on the 21st July 2010 agreed to a site visit that was then held. There were petitions both against and in favour of the planning application being approved.
On the 7th September 2010, the Planning Committee met and approved it (on a 7:5 vote) subject to 10 planning conditions, a section 106 agreement and a referral to the Government Office of the North West.
The planning conditions ranged from no fireworks between January and July, the permission being only for five years from the date of the decision notice, the erection of a noise barrier and seven other conditions (that are detailed in the report).
Wirral Council then negotiated a section 106 agreement with the applicant and in May 2011 a draft decision notice (detailing all the conditions) was included with the draft section 106 agreement for signing by the applicant. This was published on Wirral Council’s website.
A further draft decision notice (listing all the conditions) was sent out in September 2011.
The final section 106 agreement was signed and sealed on the 11th November 2011.
At this point, a letter should’ve been sent to the applicant stating that the application was approved and listing the conditions (but wasn’t).
A letter was sent on the 20th December 2011 to the applicant stating that the planning application was approved (but listing no conditions whatsoever)!
This letter went out in the name of Kevin Adderley* (who at the time was the senior manager in charge of that section of Wirral Council). Just because it went out in Kevin Adderley’s name doesn’t mean he’d have had sight of it, just that he was paid for political accountability to politicians for what happened.
*Early retirement for Kevin Adderley was agreed in 2015 by a majority vote of councillors at a cost of £296,229.
This decision notice letter was received by the applicant on the 21st December 2011.
Then Wirral Council sought legal advice and were told that the grant of permission was the letter (without conditions) sent on the 20th December 2011.
Wirral Council cannot enforce the original conditions (agreed by the Planning Committee) as they weren’t in the decision notice letter and only what was in the section 106 agreement.
Another update to the Planning Committee will be given in August 2017 about Wirral Council’s view on whether the section 106 agreement is being complied with.
In the report Wirral Council state, “It has been impossible to identify whether this incident was a system error, human error or a combination of both.”
In other words the report author doesn’t really know why it happened! In future Wirral Council does promise that a senior manager or Team Leader will read all decision notices before they are posted to the applicant!
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Wirral’s Labour and Lib Dem councillors vote against Conservative motion that recommended restricting future development on Council owned land in the greenbelt
Wirral’s Labour and Lib Dem councillors vote against Conservative motion that recommended restricting future development on Council owned land in the greenbelt
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Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee 5th July 2017 Left Colin Hughes solicitor Right Cllr Paul Stuart Chair
ED: Edited to add quote from Wirral Society at end. 8.7.17 16:58
Yesterday evening, Wirral Council’s Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee discussed Cllr Chris Blakeley’s motion about Wirral Council owned land in the greenbelt.
The Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee is made up of 9 Labour councillors, 5 Conservative councillors and 1 Lib Dem councillor. However 1 Labour councillor couldn’t make it which meant on the evening in question there were 8 Labour councillors, 5 Conservative councillors and 1 Lib Dem councillor.
Cllr Chris Blakeley wanted an “unconditional guarantee” that it wouldn’t be “developed under any circumstances”.
The Labour councillors disagreed with Cllr Chris Blakeley and Cllr Foulkes gave the example of Arrowe Park Hospital as a development that Cllr Foulkes approved of that was on Council-owned land in the greenbelt. The Conservative councillors agreed with Cllr Chris Blakeley.
However when it came to the vote, the Labour councillors (plus a Lib Dem councillor) voted down Cllr Chris Blakeley’s notice of motion, replacing it instead with a Labour proposed notice of motion.
The text of the replacement motion proposed by the Labour Chair Cllr Paul Stuart was as follows:
The Council recognises the value of the greenbelt, which should only be developed in special circumstances.
We await the Emerging Core Strategy: Local Plan and the consultation around this with specific reference to the national guidelines.”
The Labour notice of motion was agreed by a 9 (for): 5 (against) vote. This recommendation has to be agreed by a future meeting of all Wirral Council’s councillors before it becomes policy.
The Wirral Society “applauds the commitment by Wirral Councillors to uphold the integrity of the Wirral Green Belt and especially of land within its ownership.
As the legislation makes provision for exceptions to be made for development in the Green Belt under Very Special Circumstances, we accept that it would be difficult to for the Council to say it would never allow any development on its Green Belt land. However, the Society was disappointed that the Motion passed made no mention of the need to pursue a policy of giving priority in all cases to developing ‘Brown-Field’ (ie previously developed) land as a priority.”
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After the agenda for the Planning Committee was published, an extra petition (in support) of the planning application for a fire station in Saughall Massie has been received by Wirral Council of 27 signatures.
I include scans of the late list for the last Planning Committee meeting that also includes extra information on APP/17/00126 (which was refused) and APP/17/00401 (which was approved).
Planning Committee late list Wirral Council 22nd June 2017 Page 1 of 3Planning Committee late list Wirral Council 22nd June 2017 Page 2 of 3Planning Committee late list Wirral Council 22nd June 2017 Page 3 of 3
Wirral Council’s Planning Committee agreed at its meeting on the 22nd June 2017 to visit the site on the 18th July 2017. The Planning Committee will leave Wallasey Town Hall at 10.00 am and the site visit is expected to start on site approximately around 10.15 am (or possibly a bit later depending on traffic). The planning application is expected to be decided at a public meeting of the Planning Committee starting at 6.00 pm on the 20th July 2017 in the Civic Hall at Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Seacombe, CH44 8ED.
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