What happened at a public meeting of Wirral Council’s Policy and Resources Committee to discuss budget cuts proposals for 2022/23?
What happened at a public meeting of Wirral Council’s Policy and Resources Committee to discuss budget cuts proposals for 2022/23?
Wirral Council Policy and Resources Committee (25th October 2021) Left to Right, Councillor Janette Williamson (Chair) (left) and Philip McCourt (Monitoring Officer) (middle)
Before this piece on the special meeting of Wirral Council’s Policy and Resources Committee in the interests of openness and transparency I have three specific interests to declare.
1. During the meeting itself I am mentioned (briefly) by name by Councillor Julie McManus as I emailed her prior to the meeting with a combined series of questions, some of which are merely journalistic inquiries, others as I’m a local resident and she’s my local councillor. At the time of writing and publication I have not received answers to these questions yet from Wirral Council but when (and if) I do so I plan to update this piece with Wirral Council’s responses (although you can watch the video below for what was said by employees and councillors at te meeting). Continue reading “What happened at a public meeting of Wirral Council’s Policy and Resources Committee to discuss budget cuts proposals for 2022/23?”
Wirral Council’s Cabinet expected to recommend 5.99% council tax rise for 2018-19
Wirral Council’s Cabinet expected to recommend 5.99% council tax rise for 2018-19
Cabinet (Wirral Council) 18th December 2017 Left to Right Cllr Bernie Mooney, Cllr Angela Davies, Cllr Chris Jones and Cllr Phillip Brightmore
The author’s wife has a liability for council tax for 2018-19 for a property on the Wirral, so I declare that as a financial interest in the below piece.
Demonstrators chant “Labour Council – listen to the public!” during “no-cuts” petition
Demonstrators chant “Labour Council – listen to the public!” during “no-cuts” petition
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Wirral Council asks for bids on £275,000 contract for broadcasting its public meetings
Wirral Council asks for bids on £275,000 contract for broadcasting its public meetings
Cllr Phil Davies speaking about Labour’s Budget (Budget Council, 6th March 2017)
At Wirral Council’s Budget meeting in March 2017, included in Labour‘s budget was £225,000 for a webcasting/audio/electronic voting replacement described as “webcasting for committee meetings”.
At the time, the Liberal Democrats opposed this. They stated in their Budget that they believed “that this item should be withdrawn until the costs have been fully investigated and the benefits have been fully assessed and justified.”
In August Wirral Council published two notices in the Official Journal of the European Union. The first notice was published on 23rd August 2017, followed by a change to accept variants. By this point the price had gone up to £275,000 (excluding VAT).
Wirral Council came up with a webcasting Invitation To Tender which asks for the submission of tenders by 12 noon on the 20th September 2017.
11.9.17 ED: Since this article was published, Wirral Council have extended the date for the submission of tenders to noon on the 4th October 2017.
25.9.17 ED: Since this article was published, Wirral Council have extended the date again for the submission of tenders to noon on the 3rd November 2017.
In Wirral Council’s invitation to tender it states, “it must also be fully compatible with the Mod Gov case management solution: http://www.moderngov.co.uk/.
The contract also requests an electronic voting system for public meetings of all Wirral Council councillors in the Council Chamber. In response to a question, Wirral Council stated that the current system of counting votes by which councillors had their hands up was “unreliable”.
If Wirral Council accepts one of the bids, the contract is expected to start on April 1st 2018 and run for three years.
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What did Andrew Roberts answer to questions about the Headteachers’/Teachers’ Joint Consultative Committee at the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) hearing (EA/2016/0033)?
At the outset I will make four declarations of interests.
1) I am the Appellant in this case (EA/2016/0033).
2) My wife was my McKenzie Friend in case EA/2016/0033.
3) I made the original Freedom of Information request on the 29th March 2013.
4) I am referred to by name (Mr. Brace) in paragraphs 1, 4 and 5 of the witness statement of Andrew Roberts.
Hearing: EA/2016/0033
Court/Room: Tribunal Room 5, 3rd Floor
Address: 35 Vernon St, Liverpool, Merseyside L2 2BX
Date/time: 16th June 2016 10:15 am
First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) (General Regulatory Chamber)
First-tier Tribunal Judge Mr. David Farrer QC
First-tier Tribunal Member Mr. Michael Hake
First-tier Tribunal Member Dr. Malcolm Clarke
Appellant: Mr John Brace
First Respondent: ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office)
Second Respondent: Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council
The below is an incomplete record written up from my handwritten notes made at the hearing. The below does not cover some of the sections when I am speaking due to the difficulties in taking notes as doing that you end up facing the paper you’re writing on.
First-tier Tribunal Judge Mr. David Farrer QC opened the hearing by explaining how he planned the hearing would happen.
There were some preliminary matters to be discussed at the start of the hearing.
