Pensions Committee (Wirral Council) 21st November 2011 Part 1, Declarations of interest, minutes (Pension Committee 19/9/2011, Investment Monitoring Working Party (12/10/2011)), Local Government Pension Scheme Update, Public Service Pensions (HM Treasury)

Present: Cllr Geoffrey Watt (Chair) Cllr Ann McLachlan (spokesperson) Cllr Tom Harney (spokesperson) Cllr Peter Johnston Cllr Paul Doughty Cllr George Davies Cllr Adrian Jones Various other councillors and co-optees The Chair Cllr Geoffrey Watt welcomed people to the meeting of the Pensions Committee. He asked if members of the committee had any personal or … Continue reading “Pensions Committee (Wirral Council) 21st November 2011 Part 1, Declarations of interest, minutes (Pension Committee 19/9/2011, Investment Monitoring Working Party (12/10/2011)), Local Government Pension Scheme Update, Public Service Pensions (HM Treasury)”

Present:
Cllr Geoffrey Watt (Chair)
Cllr Ann McLachlan (spokesperson)
Cllr Tom Harney (spokesperson)
Cllr Peter Johnston
Cllr Paul Doughty
Cllr George Davies
Cllr Adrian Jones
Various other councillors and co-optees

The Chair Cllr Geoffrey Watt welcomed people to the meeting of the Pensions Committee.

He asked if members of the committee had any personal or prejudicial interests in agenda items to declare.

Cllr George Davies declared a personal interest by virtue of his wife’s employment in a school.
Cllr Paul Doughty declared a personal interest by virtue of his wife’s employment in a school.
Cllr Geoffrey Watt declared an interest because of his father-in-law.
It is possible others declared interests too but as they didn’t use their microphones, I couldn’t hear them.

The Chair, Cllr Geoffrey Watt then asked if they agreed the minutes of the Pension Committee meeting held on the 19th September 2011. He asked if could sign them as a true record. The committee agreed that he could. He said that they were signed.

1:50

The Chair, Cllr Geoffrey Watt then moved to item 3, which was the Investment Monitoring Working Party minutes of the 12th October 2011. He referred committee members to the exempt appendix too. He asked committee members to note those. The committee noted them.

2:15
The Chair, Cllr Geoffrey Watt moved the committee to item 4 which was the Local Government Pension Scheme Update and two reports. He said he would take this with item 11 (Any Other Urgent Business – Public Service Pensions – HM Treasury on the supplementary agenda.

2:21

Standards Hearing Panel (Wirral Council) 21st November 2011 Part 1

Standards Hearing Panel (Wirral Council) 21/11/2011 9:15am

Present:
Independent (2)
Ken Harrison
Stella Elliott

Councillors (3)
Cllr Chris Blakeley (Conservative)
Cllr Bill Davies (Labour) arrived at 9:18am
Cllr Pat Williams (Lib Dem) arrived at 9:20am

Officers present:
Surjit Tour, Deputy Monitoring Officer representing Bill Norman (Monitoring Officer)
Shirley Hudspeth, Committee Services Officer & Clerk
Rosemary Lyons, Investigating Officer

Press/Public:
Denis Knowles
John Brace (press)
Leonora Brace

The meeting started late (instead of at 9.15am) due to not all of the panel being present and some councillors (who were late) missing extra paperwork handed out which was handed out to those who were late along with an explanation.

The meeting started with Ken Harrison saying “Good morning” and explaining that as Vice-Chair of the Standards Committee he would be chairing the panel. He explained there was a problem which would mean the meeting would be deferred to a further date Ed – which turned out to be two months later on 24th January 2012. This was because of further paperwork which they needed time to act upon and digest, otherwise it would not be fair to Mr. Knowles and the public. Ken Harrison apologised for the waste of time, which he had no control over.

Denis Knowles asked if this was further evidence that Ken Harrison had referred to?

Cllr Chris Blakeley said it referred to reference material, specifically appendix 1 and 2. He said it was “outrageous”.

Surjit Tour said in answer to Denis Knowles’s question, “No”.

Cllr Chris Blakeley said they had “acted terribly”, that three minutes before the meeting was to start paperwork had been handed out. He said he would be writing to Bill Norman [Monitoring Officer] about the Legal Department’s approach.

Denis Knowles said he was “only a pawn”, that he “fully understands”, that it was “not fair on you” and that he was “happy to come back”.

A member of the panel misheard what Denis Knowles said as prawn.

The meeting was adjourned to a later date.

Wirral Council libraries & e-books

Following the recent press release from Wirral Council about e-books being available from November 11th I thought I would try it out.

Here’s how you go about borrowing an e-book.

1) Go to the Wirral Libraries website.
2) Enter your borrower number (it’s on your library card) and PIN number.
3) Click Log In.
4) Click Search for eBooks.
5) Enter information in one of the fields to find a book, such as I searched for ebooks using the author Asimov in the creator field.
6) If you find an eBook you want, click Add to Basket. Or alternatively add some more eBooks first.
7) Click Proceed to Checkout.
8 ) Reenter your borrower number and PIN number
9) Click sign in.
10) Click confirm checkout.
11) Click download. There’s also a link here to the software you need (which only needs to be installed the first time).
12) Enjoy reading the book (using Adobe Digital Editions).

This does save time travelling to and from libraries, is a boon for anyone who is housebound. However only four eBooks can be borrowed at any time.

There are also pages on Wirral Council’s libraries website that go into more detail about eBooks.

The reason eBooks are now available is because they were put in the Budget for this year by the Conservative and Lib Dem councillors on Wirral Council. Here’s the relevant bit of the budget.

During 2011-2012 we will modernise the service our libraries provide to make them more attractive and equipped for 21st Century users by investing in the installation of wifi, information screens and a brand new e-book service in every library: £120,000.

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 15/11/11 Part 3 Applicant/agent Planning Application APP/10/01105

*** This starts part way through***

*** refers to points on the tape where what is said is inaudible

It relates to Planning Application APP/10/01105.

Applicant or agent: I do have some paperwork that I’ve already ***. Can I pass it around Chair?

Chair Cllr David Elderton: Pass it around if you want please.

Applicant or agent: Thank you. It’s just two sides of paper Chairman. In main it’s photographs, they’re just a few brief little notes.

The first page I’d like to draw the Planning Committee to is the matter of an aerial photograph of the site. The site border is in white here. The reason why I’ve included this photograph is that it shows that the site was a depot owned by the Trust since its conception in 1999.

It was based at the time at Continental Landscapes until January 2006. The original site is pictured here to 2005. A white line showing the area in which planning permission is sought. The first application submitted for this site potentially in 2002, application 02/06035 on the 20th *** .

Port Sunlight Village Trust has been a seeking a planning solution since then. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see sites A and B on the plan ***. Site B *** consent for forty-eight apartments at appeal in 2005. The Trust allowed the permission gained to lapse and never sought to have it reconfirmed.

The Trust has over the years carefully reconsidered what would be appropriate for this *** part of the village *** site B shown at the bottom, will now remain a light commercial site *** new *** store ***.

This constitutes *** forty-eight residential units *** then reduced to twelve units from the twenty originally conceived in 2002. My point Chair is the trustees have therefore listened and responded to the various issues facing this part of the village. They’ve done so over a very long period of time.

This planning application is ***. On the reverse page as already stated ***. This is looking across from *** Road. *** depot and in fact *** although on the elevations is seen *** Conservation Area *** .

I ask the committee to note *** already improved *** see the great *** of the nursing home *** adjacent to the proposed *** proposal *** no greater than the established two storey houses. Due to their elevated position the eaves line proposed is actually lower ***.

Finally Chair *** point out someone from the Port Sunlight Village Trust *** three-storey development is permitted within a Conservation boundary, as adopted by Council in March of this year. I quote, “Buildings should pre-dominantly be domestic in size and scale; of two storeys with any third floors within attic type roofs.” *** Thank you very much.

Corporate Governance Committee 16/11/2011 (Wirral Council) Part 3 Work Program, Progress and Associated Issues

Cllr Steve Foulkes said that the terms of reference for [this] committee were clear and he would like to “make progress” and move onto item 3.

Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive referred to the ten key lines of enquiry (KLOE) as well as further discussion on the involvement of councillors. He said the report sets out who the lead officers are. He said he would pause to check the names of the officers were in line with the committee’s wishes.

Cllr Jeff Green said he was “surprised”. He referred to an email and said that the briefing looked like predetermination. He said the changes to the procurement rules were “not fantastic” and that he had had no time to read them. He continued by saying that Conservative Party councillors had spoken to him with suggestions and that he was not clear about the role of Lead Members. Cllr Green went into detail explaining his views on what Lead Members should be. He also said that the briefing was “not well handled”.

Cllr Steve Foulkes said that this had stemmed from a criticism that councillor involvement had not been enough, so key members had been established at the briefing. He said these lead members would be the conduit or champion and that it was the job of these to reflect views back. He explained that it wouldn’t be anything more than that. On accountability, he said councillors say it’s officer’s job, “just letting officers do it”, however he wanted to “get councillors involved at every level”. He appealed to councillors and referred to a letter from Cllr Phil Gilchrist about scrutiny.