Category: Standards Committee

Standards Committee 4th July 2011 – Item 6 – Exempt Information – Exclusion of Members of the Public, Item 7 Review of a Standards Complaint

Bill Norman continued saying that the detail was not analysed, but the level of fairness in the delay in the referral and delays organising the IAP meeting (which made its recommendation in March) as well as the earlier report being “topped and tailed” meant the wrong report had been sent when it was referred to … Continue reading “Standards Committee 4th July 2011 – Item 6 – Exempt Information – Exclusion of Members of the Public, Item 7 Review of a Standards Complaint”

Bill Norman continued saying that the detail was not analysed, but the level of fairness in the delay in the referral and delays organising the IAP meeting (which made its recommendation in March) as well as the earlier report being “topped and tailed” meant the wrong report had been sent when it was referred to the Standards Board for England so that it only referred to three instead of four councillors.

They had “checked the files” and only the original complaint against three councillors had been used which led to no further action by Standards Board for England. When it emerged that Martin Morton asked what the result was of the complaint about Cllr Bridson that had been referred to the Standards Board for England, the thing “unravelled”. They had “appended the wrong complaint”. The wrong one had been sent to the Standards Board for England by Wirral Council. There was then a discussion on how to go ahead.

The recommendation was that there should be the same Initial Assessment Panel. This met on the 8th June and considered the second complaint and decided to refer it to the Standards Board for England. They were awaiting a decision about the full complaint. The timescale was five working days, however Standards Board for England were not compliant with this as they were “hemorrhaging staff” and were having a problem with timescales.

Bill Norman apologised for the Initial Assessment Panel receiving the wrong paperwork and was “happy to repeat it shouldn’t have happened”.

Cllr Blakeley said he accepted the apology but it had shown Wirral Council “in a bad light”.

Standards Committee 4th July 2011 – Item 6 – Exempt Information – Exclusion of Members of the Public, Item 7 Review of a Standards Complaint

I will be writing this account of the meeting out of order, starting with item 6/7.

Bill Norman said that item 7 referred to an individual complaint. However the names of the councillors complained about were in the public domain. [He was referring to this Wirral Globe article of 11th May entitled Local government watchdog dismisses complaint against Wirral councillors and this Wirral Globe article of the 13th May entitled Town hall blunder: Wrong paperwork sent to local government watchdog inquiry.]

By information in the public domain he meant the names of the councillors complained about (Cllr Denise Roberts, Cllr Moira McLaughlin, Cllr Pat Williams and Cllr Ann Bridson) and the person complaining about them (Martin Morton) as the subjects of the complaint had been confirmed by the Standards Board for England to the press. The nature of the complaint (about Social Services “special charging policy”) had also been mentioned in the Wirral Globe article. He said that Martin Morton had made the complaint in February 2010 and paragraph 4.2 detailed the chronology. The complaint had first been about Cllr Moira McLaughlin, Cllr Pat Williams and Cllr Denise Roberts. However a second more lengthy complaint had been submitted which covered Cllr Moira McLaughlin, Cllr Pat Williams, Cllr Denise Roberts and Cllr Ann Bridson which had replaced and absorbed the first complaint. This had been referred to the Initial Assessment Panel. The covering report referred to for members had paragraphs summarising the complaint, there were three specific references to Cllr Bridson and what was alleged without explaining what happened.

The wrong (original) complaint had been used as paperwork, but with an accurate summary. Following the decision to refer it to the Standards Board for England due to its complexity and high level, the same wrong paperwork had been ended up being sent. It had been a difficult complaint to look at internal [to Wirral Council].

Since the meeting the agenda on Wirral Council’s website has been reordered to remove item 6. Therefore agenda item 7 has become agenda item 6. The report for this item can be read here with the appendices here.

Please note this blog post uses the original numbering of agenda items, not the changed agenda that Wirral Council changed a day after the meeting on their website to remove item 6.

The original agenda distributed at the meeting had the following added as agenda item 6:

EXEMPT INFORMATION: EXCLUSION OF MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC

The public may be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information.

The grounds given were paragraph 7c of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, however as you can see here by reading the legislation there isn’t a paragraph 7c.

Standards Committee 4th July 2011 – Part 1

The agenda for tonight’s standards committee can be found here, the agenda frontsheet here and the agenda reports pack here.

Since the meeting the agenda on Wirral Council’s website has been reordered to remove item 6. Therefore agenda item 7 has become agenda item 6. The report for this item can be read here with the appendices here.

Please note this blog post uses the original numbering of agenda items, not the changed agenda that Wirral Council changed a day after the meeting on their website to remove item 6.

The original agenda distributed at the meeting had the following added as agenda item 6:

EXEMPT INFORMATION: EXCLUSION OF MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC

The public may be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information.

The grounds given were paragraph 7c of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, however as you can see here by reading the legislation there isn’t a paragraph 7c.

Those present for tonight’s meeting were:-

Committee Members

Labour Party – Cllr Denise Roberts, Cllr Bill Davies, Cllr John Salter
Conservative Party – Cllr Chris Blakeley, Cllr Les Rowlands and Cllr Gerry Ellis
Liberal Democrat Party – Cllr Bob Wilkins, Cllr Dave Mitchell (deputising for Cllr Pat Williams), Cllr Phil Gilchrist (deputising for Cllr Ann Bridson)
Independent members – Brian Cummings (Chair), Ken Harrison (Vice-Chair)

Not present but members of committee: Stella Elliott, Alex Nuttall

Officers present
Bill Norman, Head of Human Resources & Asset Management
Shirley Hudspeth, Committee Clerk (previously Brian Ellis who has recently retired)
Malcolm Flanagan, Head of Revenues, Benefits and Customer Services

Public:
John Brace
Leonora Brace

The meeting was going to start early however the microphones weren’t switched on. Someone was sent to get a member of the building staff who quickly sorted out the problem allowing the softly spoken Chair to be heard in the echoey and noisy Committee Room 1.

Brian Cummings welcomed people and introduced Shirley Hudspeth who was replacing Brian Ellis who had retired. He asked for any declarations of interest.

Cllr Denise Roberts declared a prejudicial interest in item 7 (Review of a Recent Standards Complaint) by virtue of being on of the subjects of the complaint.