Category: Wirral

6 month freedom of information battle almost over as government releases correspondence on Wirral View (Wirral Council’s controversial newspaper)

6 month freedom of information battle almost over as government releases correspondence on Wirral View (Wirral Council’s controversial newspaper)

6 month freedom of information battle almost over as government releases correspondence on Wirral View (Wirral Council’s controversial newspaper)

                            

Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative Leader) on the right speaking at the Extraordinary Meeting of Wirral Council to discuss Girtrell Court 4th April 2016
Cllr Jeff Green (right) (Conservative Leader) 4th April 2016 who has been lobbying the Conservative government about Wirral Council’s Wirral View publication

This story has been a 6 month freedom of information battle involving myself, the regulator ICO and the Department of Communities and Local Government involving correspondence between councillors on Wirral Council and MPs involving the controversial Wirral View publication published by Wirral Council.

Just for clarity, Wirral View is opposed by Conservative councillors, Liberal Democrat councillors and the Wirral Globe.

The ruling Labour Group on Wirral Council however supports the spending of taxpayers’ money on the project. Although it has to be pointed out that they have recently performed a U-turn and axed the issue that was scheduled to go out during the election period.

There have been repeated calls from the Labour Group on Wirral Council for the Conservative councillors to lobby the Conservative government. Although ironically they appear opposed to this sort of lobbying and have gone as far as to refer to this lobbying at at least one public meeting as inciting the government to take legal action against Wirral Council.

A series of recent decision notices issued by the regulator ICO (FS50646655, FS50646730, FS50651166) have dealt with information requests made to Wirral Council for copies of the legal advice they received on this matter.

Here are details of what has been released today. I will point out that some of the factual accuracy of what is in some of this correspondence is disputed.

However as editor I feel it is important that the voting public see what goes on “behind the scenes” on a politically sensitive issue in the lead up to a series of elections related to it (Claughton byelection, general election and Mayoral election).

An earlier name for the project was Wirral Today and its referred to that name in the email chain rather than Wirral View.

Document 1 – Wirral 1.pdf
Letter from Marcus Jones MP to Cllr Phil Davies (undated)
Metadata: created 28/6/16 modified 20/12/16

Document 2 – Wirral 2.pdf
Letter from Marcus Jones MP to Cllr Phillip Davies
(undated) but stamped 05 DEC 2016
Metadata: created 5/12/16 modified 20/12/16

Document 3 – Wirral 3.pdf
Letter from Cllr Phillip L Davies to Marcus Jones MP dated 28th July 2016
Metadata: created 1/8/16 modified 20/12/16

Document 4 – Wirral 4.pdf
Letter from Cllr Jeff Green to the Rt. Hon. Sajid Javid MP dated 1/8/16
Metadata: created 1/8/16 modified 20/12/16

Document 5 – Wirral 5.pdf
Letter from Marcus Jones MP to Cllr Jeff Green stamped 23 AUG 2016
Metadata: created 23/8/16 modified 20/12/16

Document 6 – Wirral 6.pdf
Letter (sent by email) from Marcus Jones MP to Cllr Jeff Green stamped 20 OCT 2016
Metadata: created 20/10/16 modified 20/12/16

Document 7 – Wirral 7 R.pdf
Letter from Cllr Jeff Green to Marcus Jones MP dated 4/11/2016 stamped 07 NOV 2016
Metadata: created modified

Redactions (note numbering is from top to bottom)

Page 1
Block 1 –
Block 2 –

Page 2
Block 3 –
Block 4 –
Block 5 –

Document 8 – Wirral 8.pdf
Letter from Marcus Jones MP to Cllr Jeff Green stamped 06 DEC 2016
Metadata Created 20/12/16 Modified 20/12/16

Document 9 – Wirral 9.pdf
Letter from Cllr Phil Davies to Marcus Jones MP dated 28th July 2016
Metadata Created 1/8/16 Modified 20/12/16

Note: this appears to be a redacted version of document 3.

Document 9a- Wirral 9a.pdf
Emails (various dates)

There have also been reported problems with distribution to Wirral residents of the first five editions of Wirral View (October 2016, November 2016, December 2016, January 2017 and February 2017).

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Will 9 councillors tonight recommend better scrutiny of Wirral Council?

Will 9 councillors tonight recommend better scrutiny of Wirral Council?

Will 9 councillors tonight recommend better scrutiny of Wirral Council?

                                       

Tonight, it’s a special meeting of Wirral Council’s Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee (yes Wirral Council and standards in the same sentence does cause most people to smile). So what’s it about?

Surjit Tour (Monitoring Officer (Wirral Council)) at the Coordinating Committee held on 15th June 2016
Surjit Tour (Monitoring Officer (Wirral Council)) at the Coordinating Committee (which was one of the scrutiny committees abolished last year) held on 15th June 2016

Well last year, Wirral Council decided to save money by having less scrutiny (reducing the scrutiny committees by one). Considering the £millions extra that had to be spent to put a sticking plaster on matters as a result of poor scrutiny and the OFSTED report (which amplified some milder criticisms in the peer review), one wonders with hindsight whether it was both a false economy and a lost opportunity to move towards a better system of scrutiny.

As it states in Surjit Tour’s witness statement (I’ve altered it to the past tense), “the Council had four Policy and Performance Committees that discharge the Council’s overview and scrutiny function.” even though by the time I cross-examined him we both agreed that Wirral Council councillors (albeit bitterly opposed by opposition councillors) had by then recommended to scrap one and have three.

Interestingly the result of that First-tier Tribunal was that the judiciary decided there that Mr. Tour’s decision-making was flawed.

If you read that decision and the OFSTED report together, I wonder if the outcome of the First-tier Tribunal hearing would’ve been different had I had the benefit of that OFSTED report at the time.

Tonight’s meeting, the papers are on Wirral Council website tries to remedy a theme that runs through that First-tier Tribunal decision, the OFSTED report and that that was raised by opposition councillors last year when Labour proposed and then decided on less scrutiny.

I will also make an educated guess that the Improvement Board (which doesn’t appear to meet in public or publish its minutes as far as I can see) decided that the issues expensively identified by Anna Klonowski Associates have never been addressed in any sort of permanent way.

In fact it’s telling that the parting recommendation of the previous Improvement Board (a recommendation endorsed by many of Wirral Council’s committees) for more independent scrutiny, was then vetoed by Cllr Phil Davies. Interestingly his rationale was that Wirral Council would have a combined audit & auditor panel committee, then… yes you’ve guessed it for cost reasons councillors decided later not to!

If I remember correctly, the government are making it a legal requirement that the Combined Authority Scrutiny Committee is chaired by a councillor from a different party, yet Wirral Council has for a number of years considered that scrutiny of Labour councillors is best done by committees chaired by yes it doesn’t take much guessing Labour councillors.

So what is tonight really about?

Well the decision taken last year by Labour councillors is now seen as flawed in light of the OFSTED report.

Labour now propose doing a U-turn and splitting the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee into two new committees. The two new committees will be the Adult Care and Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee and the Children and Families Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

It looks likely that the Children Sub Committee and Health & Care Performance Panel will both be scrapped.

Whether the new scrutiny arrangements will work or whether I’ll be writing next year about a further change to Wirral Council’s scrutiny arrangements who knows?

In the great tradition of Wirral Council, councillors will meet and make no decision tonight, only a recommendation (effectively to all councillors) to then make a decision next month.

Which means nothing will change for at least a further 3-4 weeks.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!

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Incredible: how many more people will die early from air pollution as politicians delay?

Incredible: how many more people will die early from air pollution as politicians delay?

Incredible: how many more people will die early from air pollution as politicians delay?

                                    

Mayor Joe Anderson Chair at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 21st April 2017
Mayor Joe Anderson Chair at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 21st April 2017

Air quality is an issue that affects everybody and is a cross-cutting theme that covers both the Combined Authority Mayoral election and the General Election.

The story so far is that the judiciary ruled that the government was not doing enough to combat air pollution. Air pollution was causing an estimated 40,000 early deaths a year.

The judgement published in November 2016 ([2016] EWHC 2740 (Admin)) pointed out that the 2015 Air Quality Plan had to be quashed and the government was required to come up with a new Air Quality Plan.

Despite having 5 months to come up with a new plan, now they want to delay matters by at least a further 2 months because of the General Election (followed by a consultation).

As a result of the court case, the government were required to publish a new Air Quality Plan by 4 pm yesterday (but didn’t), instead they have made an application to the court for an extension.

I include below what was said in the House of Commons yesterday on this matter which contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Continue reading “Incredible: how many more people will die early from air pollution as politicians delay?”

MPs vote 522:13 in favour of an early general election on 8th June

MPs vote 522:13 in favour of an early general election on 8th June

                                    

Rt Hon Frank Field MP (Chair) left at a meeting of the Birkenhead Constituency Committee on the 8th October 2015
Rt Hon Frank Field MP (Chair) left at a meeting of the Birkenhead Constituency Committee on the 8th October 2015

Yesterday in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister moved a motion for an early general election to be held on the 8th June.

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 required two-thirds of MPs (at least 434 MPs) to vote in favour of an early general election outside of the regular five-year cycle.

All four of Wirral’s MPs (Frank Field, Alison McGovern, Angela Eagle and Margaret Greenwood) voted in favour of an early general election. In total 522 MPs voted in favour of the motion and only 13 against.

Labour’s National Executive Committee ruled out local party members having a vote over who the Labour candidate in each constituency would be with the short timescale to select candidates given as the reason why.

Sitting Labour MPs have to decide by this evening whether to stand in the general election. If they decide not to, applications to become the Labour candidate in those seats can be made from tomorrow to Sunday.

High profile Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson has announced his intention to become the Labour candidate to become Walton’s next Member of Parliament.

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Why have Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service submitted a 2nd planning application for a Saughall Massie fire station?

Why have Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service submitted a 2nd planning application for a Saughall Massie fire station?

Why have Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service submitted a 2nd planning application for a Saughall Massie fire station?

                                     

Cllr Dave Hanratty (on the right) and his posse 20th October 2015
Cllr Dave Hanratty (on the right) and his posse 20th October 2015

A stranger rides in to Wirral Town in a thrilling Wild West tale about gold, greed, horses, the law and a land grab was the tale of how the pony club were turfed out of Moreton by Phil Davies and his gang. It was described as “this is not an appropriate action for a Local Authority landlord to take”, “accusation of dishonesty”, “gnawed at his professional conscience” and “unfortunate sequence of events” in an independent report (which has since mysteriously vanished) as to how the landlord had behaved.

However, Dave Hanratty and his posse were not taking no for an answer from Phil Davies’ gang this time!

So Dave Hanratty’s men submitted another planning application for the fire station at Saughall Massie.

In case you didn’t know already, Dave Hanratty and his posse had been defeated the first time around by Chris Blakeley (who was in a rival gang).

Just in case, Wirral Council didn’t get the message, this was backed up with £300,000 for Wirral Council for the land if it was approved.

The £300,000 for the land had been approved by Wirral Council councillors on the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority that were also on Wirral Council’s Planning Committee. The Planning Committee would decide which way the planning application was decided.

Of course, in the cosy world of politics, this was neither a conflict of interest that councillors had failed to make, nor a bribe, nor anything really that the public should know about as Dave Hanratty’s gang started going “Shhh!” whenever these matters were brought up.

In fact the public wouldn’t have known, except a brave and a squaw from the nearest reservation had made sure the public were told.

Had Dave Hanratty and his gang been foolish enough to not be diplomatic? Had lies been told to get the answers they wanted?

Dave Hanratty and his posse had had plenty of opportunity to turn back, but instead when the icebergs were spotted, he had given the order, “Full speed ahead!”.

Who will choose the lifeboats? Who will choose the violin? Keep watching over the next months to find out the thrilling end to this story!

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