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.
