Merseytravel: Scrutiny Committee 3rd June 2013 “Fares Review” Cllr Steve Foulkes “where you can go on a bus and you hear people say, “What’s the cheapest deal today?” you know and that shouldn’t be the case”

A report about Merseytravel’s Scrutiny Committee meeting of the 3rd June 2013: Fares Review Cllr Steve Foulkes “where you can go on a bus and you hear people say, “What’s the cheapest deal today?” you know and that shouldn’t be the case”

Merseytravel: Scrutiny Committee 3rd June 2013 “Fares Review” Cllr Steve Foulkes “where you can go on a bus and you hear people say, “What’s the cheapest deal today?” you know and that shouldn’t be the case”

Unfortunately Standing Order 61 of Merseytravel’s rules in a section marked “Confidentiality” states “No record of the proceedings (or part of the proceedings) of a meeting may be taken to enable persons not present to see or hear any such proceedings without express permission” so sadly there won’t be any accompanying photos or video footage to this report. Perhaps Merseytravel didn’t get the letter from Bob O’Neill about this issue.

Attending the meeting were the Chair, Cllr Malcolm Sharp (Labour, Knowsley), Cllr Steve Foulkes (Labour, Wirral), Cllr Liam Robinson (ex-officio, Labour, Liverpool), Cllr Anthony Carr (Labour, Sefton), Cllr Joanne Calvert (Labour, Liverpool), Cllr Hayley Todd (Labour, Liverpool), Cllr John Dodd (Merseytravel Alliance Signals Good Governance (which is what the Lib Dem/Conservative coalition calls itself on Merseytravel although Cllr John Dodd is a Liberal Democrat), Sefton as well as various Merseytravel officers.

The Chair started by welcoming their new Chief Executive, David Brown to the meeting. David Brown replaces their former Chief Executive Neil Scales after a brief stint by their current Deputy Chief Executive Frank Rogers as Interim Chief Executive. Mr. Brown gets a salary of £149,000. As he [David Brown] was attending his first meeting, the Chair (of the Scrutiny Committee surely who’s very raison d’être would be to scrutinise Merseytravel officers’ decisions?) said that Mr. Brown, the new Chief Executive was there purely as an “observer” and not to ask him “any questions” or “put him on the spot”.

The meeting started with the Chair asking for any apologies for absence. Apologies were given for Cllr Pauline Walton (Labour, Liverpool). The Chair asked for any declarations of interest. Nobody gave any. He then asked if the minutes of the meeting held on the 27th April 2013 were agreed as a true record of the last meeting? They were agreed.

An officer referred to by the Chair as Liz introduced item 4 Fares Review which also had an enclosure. She referred to a decision at an earlier Scrutiny Committee meeting on their priorities for the coming year and that the first workshop had been held in May. Liz said it had been well attended by councillors, not just those on the Scrutiny Committee and the workshop had brought up two potential topics to be considered. After it had been discussed with the Chair [of the Scrutiny Committee] the first two items for scrutiny had been decided as a Fares Review and an Operator Interface Review. These would report back in September, the appendix detailed the aims of the Fares Review and the expert witnesses. She said that at 9b (of the report) it asked for councillors to be nominated to be involved in the Fares Review, instead of deciding now this would be done after the Annual Meeting of Merseytravel on the 27th June. The Chair asked for any comments.

Mr Worry from the Mr. Men
Mr. Worry (Mr. Men) from mrmen.wikia.com/wiki/Mr._Worry

Cllr Steve Foulkes said, “Thanks Chair, I have no problem with the Terms of Reference, particularly whilst it talks about excluding us from the work that’s been going on around young people because I know that’s underway. There’s been a great deal of work on that. It would be very helpful to Scrutiny Committee for that report when that’s ready to come back to us as well as part of our overall look at fares and I think it’s an issue really that if we are in tune with the public, I think it’s something the public want us to do and I think a well documented and well thought out piece of work on scrutiny would not only be used within this organisation but be used further afield to make people recognise indeed some of the discrepancies that there are.

Certainly for the public it’s a very confusing picture outside, out there now for fares and that. I think about my own sort of various grievances I have, where you can go on a bus and you hear people say, “What’s the cheapest deal today?” you know and that shouldn’t be the case. If you’ve got an offer or there’s something that can save people money, it should be known automatically before people plan their journey. So I think we can be part of the bigger picture, I think it’s about going to areas to work on that are something that look, hopefully encourage Scrutiny [Committee] to do more pieces of work and I was thinking it’s a healthy start to our Executive/Scrutiny split so that’s what I wanted to say and thank you.”

Annual Meeting (Part 1) (Wirral Council) 14th May 2013 Highlights of Mayor Gerry Ellis’ year

Annual Meeting (Part 1) (Wirral Council) 14th May 2013 Mayors Communications | The Mayor Gerry Ellis gave an update on the highlights of his year in office

Continued from Annual Meeting (Part 1) (Wirral Council) 14th May 2013 Mayors Communications, Mayor of Wirral Cllr Gerry Ellis “It’s been an amazing, exciting, unbelievable experience”.

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Highlights of Mayor Gerry Ellis’ year

Annual Meeting Part 1 (Wirral Council) 14th May 2013 Civic Hall Mayor Cllr Gerry Ellis arrives

The Mayor said he would tell people of some of the highlights of his Mayoral year. A few days after becoming Mayor he had been introduced to the Queen as she came off the Yellow Duckmarine in Liverpool. He said to her, “Did you enjoy your trip on the Duck?”, the Queen didn’t answer the question and it was later pointed out to him that it was a breach of etiquette to ask the Queen a question.

Another event he’d been to had been in Woodchurch when it was raining, so sheets had been used to stop them getting wet. Unfortunately one of the sheets had blown over sending water cascading down over the Mayor. The Mayor continued his speech and referred to a good relationship with other cultures, the work of the Wirral Multicultural Organisation and the monthly citizenship ceremonies.

Remembrance Sunday was the first time the Mayor had been to the “splendid” Remembrance Service in Birkenhead, as in previous years he’d attended the Remembrance Service held in West Kirby. The Cockleshell Heroes event “turned out to be one of the highlight’s of the Mayoral year” and the “best publicity Wirral had”.

He loved going to theatres and the Mayor was Honorary President of a couple of theatre groups. The Chrysanthemums Pantomime Society were particularly pleased that he was Mayor as he was a former member.

Annual Meeting (Part 1) (Wirral Council) 14th May 2013 Mayors Communications, Mayor of Wirral Cllr Gerry Ellis “It’s been an amazing, exciting, unbelievable experience”

Annual Meeting (Part 1) (Wirral Council) 14th May 2013 Mayors Communications | The Mayor thanked various people that had helped him during his year in office and gave an update on fundraising for the Mayor’s charities

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Annual Meeting (Part 1) 13th May 2013 (Wirral Council) Part 1

Mayor of Wirral Cllr Gerry Ellis “It’s been an amazing, exciting, unbelievable experience”

Annual Meeting Part 1 (Wirral Council) 14th May 2013 Civic Hall Mayor Cllr Gerry Ellis arrives

The Annual Meeting (Part 1) is the only Council meeting to be held in the Civic Hall. As you can see from the photo hundreds of people are invited not just to the public meeting itself, but to the social event held afterwards.

The Mayor Gerry Ellis entered along a red carpet preceded by the Mace-bearer in a scene that reminded me of Black Rod at the State Opening of Parliament. Once he got to the stage he welcomed people and gave a short speech. He referred to the year he had been Mayor as an “amazing, exciting and unbelievable experience” and that if he was to write a book about it he’d call it “Ellis in Wonderland”.

He thanked various people, Cllr Jeff Green and the senior Conservative councillors for choosing him and Cllr Phil Davies for seconding the motion. The Mayor also thanked Cllr Phil Davies for his support as Leader and went on to thank various Town Hall staff. He thanked Sue Carroll, Sonia Norman and his drivers and attendants specifically referring to Alan’s wit. The Mayor also thanked Shirley Hudspeth, Surjit Tour, Tony Hope (from the press office) and all the Town Hall desk staff (Peter, Tom, Phil, Nick, Hazel, Mike and Greg) who he remarked were “always friendly and helpful”.

He also thanked Carol Jackson for helping to run the Mayor’s charity fundraising and Cllr Phil Davies’ Secretary Barbara Turner. The Mayor also thanked Margaret McGee and a number of councillors including Cllr George Davies, Cllr Brian Kenny and Cllr Steve Williams. He also thanked Cllr Geoffrey Watt’s wife Ann for selling a quarter of the tickets to the Mayor’s Ball.

On the fundraising for the Mayor’s charities, they had passed £40,000, but there were still funds to come in. They had given a cheque for £10,000 to three charities, as well as cheques to thirty-five others ranging from £50 to £500. He said he was “very sorry not to help every charity” but that it “had been amazing to see the charity work that goes on, on the Wirral”.

The three charities that had received £10,000 were YMCA Wirral (for their work with the homeless), Wirral and West Cheshire Prostrate Cancer Appeal and the Wirral Scouts and Guides Association. He then went on to give a brief speech on his year as Mayor.