Tag: Cllr Jeff Green

Wirral Council – Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 – Part 13 – speech (Cllr Steve Foulkes) on being made Leader of Wirral Council

Cllr Foulkes said he was a proud man to be in that position [of Leader of Wirral Council]. He thanked his predecessor Cllr Jeff Green. He said he knew what it was like to make tough decisions. He said that [Cllr Green] had a sense of humour and had done what he thought best. He … Continue reading “Wirral Council – Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 – Part 13 – speech (Cllr Steve Foulkes) on being made Leader of Wirral Council”

Cllr Foulkes said he was a proud man to be in that position [of Leader of Wirral Council]. He thanked his predecessor Cllr Jeff Green. He said he knew what it was like to make tough decisions. He said that [Cllr Green] had a sense of humour and had done what he thought best. He also thanked Simon Holbrook and said he had put his arm around him at the count in Birkenhead as he had looked dejected. However Simon had told him he could now get his life back.

He said the leadership style doesn’t have to be at each other’s throats, just to get a kick out of it. He said he found the FoulkesWirral [he meant the FoulkesWorld Twitter account] insulting to this. Cllr Green had landed him with an impossible task. He referred to £5 million and said there was a polite difference as to who to blame. Cllr Foulkes said they should have protested at the government. He said they needed to stand up to the new [Coalition Con/Lib Dem] government and asked why? Why was it on deprivation funding that Dorset had lost only £91/head whereas Liverpool had lost £161/head? He carried on saying that people had seen the figures and think it’s a raw deal.

He blamed his own [Labour] government for not having locked in specific grants, which then became a target for the cuts. He said it was disproportionate to other people. He acknowledged the need to make savings, but not to services people love. He had not seen the plans when the Leader of the Council….

Cllr Jeff Green interrupted and corrected him to former leader.

Cllr Steve Foulkes continued with his view that frontline services could get slower or less regular. He said 1,300 people had left. He said the people left behind were working harder, but had not had much choice regarding redundancy and getting a job elsewhere. In the private sector redundancy was like holding the sword of Damocles over someone’s head. Morale was at a low level. As a consequence there were difficult decisions moving forward. However he was not going to war. He said they needed to get their heads together as party leaders and go to the Government minister regarding the funding formula. He was not asking for funds to be replenished. However he was asking that money be distributed in a progressive Labour way regarding deprivation funding and poor and vulnerable people.

Wirral Council meeting – 23rd May 2011 – Part 2 – Leader of Wirral Cllr Jeff Green

The minutes of the meeting held on the 18th April 2011 were agreed as a true record.

Councillors noted the election results which are here.

Then Cllr Phil Davies, seconded by Cllr Adrian Jones moved a motion. The motion can be read here.

There was an amendment submitted to the motion by the Conservative councillors which can be found on Cllr Green’s blog.

Cllr Dave Mitchell (Lib Dem Deputy Leader) requested a ten minute adjournment to consider the Conservative amendment. The meeting adjourned between 18:25 and resumed at 18:41.

Upon resuming, the Mayor asked the proposers and seconders of the motion and amendment to repropose and resecond their respective motion and amendment.

Cllr Davies proposed the Labour motion, Cllr Davies seconded the Labour motion. Cllr Green proposed the Conservative amendment, Cllr Rennie seconded the Conservative amendment.

Cllr Davies started speaking and said he would be brief. He said in accordance with 7.3 of Wirral Council’s constitution and in light of the Wirral Council election results, the Labour Party had the largest share with over 46,000 votes. He said they were the largest party wih 30 seats. Therefore he moved that Jeff Green be removed as Leader of Wirral Council. The second part of his motion was that Steve Foulkes be appointed Leader of Wirral Council.

Cllr Green said that he thought the last 12 months had been out of success and achievement. He congratulated the Labour Party for their good result on 5th May. A number of his colleagues had lost seats which were a loss to Wirral Council. He didn’t believe Labour had sufficient votes or seats for control. Looking at the two parties in the administration, who had 51,000 votes and 36 seats he believed that under Labour there had been a lack of openness and secrecy in which the public had been excluded from decision making. His administration had been inclusive, open, transparent and consulted with the public. He said they had also been fair and responsible. He was surprised and disappointed by the Liberal Democrats and felt they suffered from a collective loss of self-confidence regarding the future direction for the Wirral people if what was quoted in the press was true.

He said the Lib Dem councillors had asked the public to vote for them on the basis of making decisions rather than to be advocates. He reminded about what had been achieved. He mentioned the Enterprise Zone and the International Trade Centre at Wirral Waters. He referred to the “free after 3pm” scrapping of car parking charges. He referred to the Empty Shop funding. He mentioned library repairs and restocking. He reminded those present of incorporating Guinea Gap baths into the base budget. He also talked about funding to the voluntary, community and faith sector and said “not a penny had been cut from them”. He referred to daytime CCTV, apprenticeships, Wirral jobs, the OFSTED inspection of the Children and Young People’s department and the moves towards Academy status. He referred to the actions taken to address the failures of the Department of Adult Social Services following the Care Quality Commission report. He was proud that 37% of service users now had personal budgets when it had previously been less than 10%.

He said they had opened up decision making to people with experience and given opportunities to residents to take part. He referred also to the Task Forces. He referred to £millions saved. He also talked about protecting children from harm, the high standard of environmental improvements and the well maintained highway network. He even mentioned the homeless and how they had made best use of the existing housing stock. He referred to a reduction in antisocial behaviour.

He went on to talk about rebalancing the economy, barriers to work and the well subscribed Jobs Fair earlier that day that had been “well subscribed”. He also talked about wider public sector partnerships. He gave credit to the Lib Dems what had been full partners and members of the progressive partnership. He said their contributions had enhanced it. He said they had ensured no part of Wirral had been left behind and that there had been prudent management of resources. He referred to the life chances of children and the value that councillors placed on private sector employers.

He once again referred to the environmental improvements and shopping centres as well as CO2 reduction which had been a boost to Wirral’s low carbon economy. He said more power had gone to residents, that spending to the voluntary, community and faith sector had been protected and that Wirral Council was stronger and more open with a reduction in management costs. He said any member of staff with a temporary contract over 2 years had been offered a permanent contract as those on temporary contracts couldn’t access mortgages.

They had prudently left balances of £14 million for the new administration and improved health and wellbeing. He commended his record of achievement to the Council and the people of Wirral.

Wirral Council meeting – 23rd May 2011 – Part 1

A report on the full Council meeting of Wirral Council held on the 23rd May 2011

I notice I get a mention on the former Leader of Wirral Council’s blog about last night’s meeting at the Town Hall.

However here is a report on last night’s meeting (previously adjourned) at Wirral Council which was reconvened from the 16th May.

The meeting started with about 23 members of the public in the public gallery and one at the press table in the Council Chamber. Those in the public gallery ranged from myself, my wife Leonora Brace, Brian Cummings (Chair of the Standards Committee), Kathy Hodson (former Mayoress of Wirral 2009-2010), Denis Knowles (former Labour/Conservative councillor for Seacombe), some Wirral Council employees and others. Those mentioned by Cllr Green were a mixture of press and others.

Prior to the meeting there was a photo shoot. The Mayor started the meeting by welcoming new councillors. She pointed out that councillors were there to serve the electorate and that it can be intimidating. She finished by saying “I’m in charge”.

There were no apologies given (although Cllr Keeley was absent and an apology was given for him later).

The Mayor announced that this would be last Council meeting for Brian Ellis as after thirty-seven years he was retiring. She mentioned the thirty-seven years he had worked for Wirral Council and his employment history prior to joining Wirral Council working for two other local authorities and the private sector. She mentioned his studying for a professional qualification in 1993 and that she would be sad to see him go. He was thanked and given a round of applause. Brian being the humble man he is didn’t make a speech.

There were no declarations of interest declared so the meeting moved onto petitions.
Petitions were submitted by Cllr John Hale, Cllr Adrian Jones, Cllr Geoffrey Watt, Cllr Paul Hayes, Cllr Tony Cox, Cllr ??? , Cllr Tony Smith, Cllr Chris Jones and Cllr Steve Williams.

Cllr J Hale’s petition was objecting to planning application APP/11/00549 from 90 people (62 homes).
Cllr A Jones’s petition was about the quality of road surfacing in Seacombe from 40 people.
Cllr Watt’s petition was of 77 names (38 households) requesting parking restrictions in West Kirby.
Cllr Hayes’ petition was of 114 signatures about alley gates and ASB in the Tower Grounds area of New Brighton.
Cllr Cox’s petition was of 4190 people regarding a planning application APP/11/00508 for a Sainsburys Store at the Red Cat in Greasby
Cllr Taylor’s petition was of 98 people regarding a planning application APP/11/00352
Cllr Salter’s petition was of 37 people regarding boarded up properties in Percy Road, Seacombe
Cllr Tony Smith’s petition was of 37 signatures (20 homes) regarding antisocial behaviour and the derelict condition of some properties
Cllr Chris Jones’ petition was of 824 signatures about security at Central Park, Wallasey
Cllr Steve Williams’s petition I didn’t manage to hear the details of, but was of 30 signatures objecting to planning application APP/10/01316.

What’s happening on Wirral Council? Views from Labour and the Tories

The national print media have finally picked up on the dilemma facing the Liberal Democrat councillors on Wirral Council ahead of next Monday evenings’ adjourned Council meeting to decide.

So far all we know from part 1 on Monday evening is that the Mayor is Cllr Moira McLaughlin, the Deputy Mayor is Cllr Gerry Ellis and that Cllrs Harney, Green and Foulkes will be Wirral Council’s representatives on the Merseyside Police Authority Appointments Committee. However this was all thoroughly predictable.

Certainly the defection of Cllr Niblock from Lib Dem to Labour will upset the careful calculations by officers as to committee allocations and outside body allocations for the Labour Group and the Lib Dem Group, which will have to be revised by Monday evening.

Cllr Niblock was only the Liberal Democrat councillor from Wirral on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority last year. I have been in touch with him in the past about solutions to the problems of deliberate grass fires on Bidston Hill. Since then the Community Patrol have been issued with packs to put out small grass fires. Cllr Niblock used to live in Bidston & St. James until the house he lived in was demolished (as many have been in the last few years). For many years until he moved he was the only Lib Dem councillor living in Bidston & St. James ward (representing Bromborough) and as we lived a few blocks away we used to sometime bump into each other at the bus stop outside the bus depot from time to time.

His mother was a critic of Cllr Foulkes (Labour’s leader) on both the local Area Forum for Bidston & St. James/Claughton ward (she served as the Older People’s Parliament representative) and if I recall correctly also the Local Strategic Partnership Assembly. When she retired I remember her saying to Cllr Foulkes that she thought he would be glad, due to her robust criticism of him during meetings and that she’d been “a thorn in his side”. She was well liked and many councillors attended her funeral.

I wish Cllr Niblock all the best in his new political group and I’m sure he will follow in her footsteps as he tends to be someone that like his mother speaks from experience and enthusiasm. This is in contrast to some councillors on Wirral Council who give long, hard to follow, dreary speeches which lead to the listeners and the speakers being more confused about the issue than when they’ve started.

In 2009/2010 he received an extra £14,660 for being on Merseyside Fire & Rescue Authority (and probably a similar amount in 2010/2011 in addition to the £9,094.58 he gets as a local councillor). However with the reduction in Liberal Democrat councillors, the four places representing Wirral Council on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority will go to two Tories and two Labour councillors, instead of two Tory, one Labour and one Lib Dem.

Clearly if Labour put Steve Niblock forward as one of their two representatives on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority he will face the same accusation that former Cllr. Denis Knowles did; that he is switching parties merely to do with a position on an outside body (which comes with a generous allowance). However in this case it would be Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority instead of Merseytravel.

If this is the case and he becomes one of Labour’s two representatives for Wirral Council on Merseyside Fire & Rescue Authority, had he stuck with the Lib Dems he would’ve seen a drop in his income as their allocation for Merseyside Fire & Rescue Authority was reduced from one to zero. We will see what happens on Monday.

More about Labour’s position including a quote from Cllr. Niblock is in this article in the Independent where it discusses the situation on Wirral.

Cllr. Jeff Green’s view (Leader of the Conservative Group) can be read in a blog post entitled “Random thoughts from the Twilight Zone”.

What happens next is anybody’s guess at this stage. Clearly after 103,162 people voted this year it comes down to nine Lib Dem councillors to decide. However with one in seven voting Lib Dem this year, over 14,000 Wirral residents, it is clear that with no party gaining a majority that the Wirral public wants parties to work together to solve Wirral’s problems over the coming year. The Lib Dems just have till next Monday evening to decide if that is Labour or the Conservatives.

What is known is that whatever party (or parties) are in control and in charge of drawing up a Budget for 2012/2013, more cuts are coming. The Budget projection given by the Council’s Director of Finance Ian Coleman on the 13th January shows that £26.5 million worth of savings need to be found by March 2012 based on the assumption that Council Tax next year will be frozen again. Around half this amount (£14.1 million) is due to a reduction in grant funding to Wirral Council by the Coalition government. The rest is due to increased requirements, such as a predicted rise in people claiming benefit (eg Housing Benefit), pay inflation, the amount to Merseytravel going up and similar items.

If Council Tax was increased next year by 5%, it would only help the Budget by £3 million due to the loss of a Council Tax Freeze Grant equivalent to a 2.5% Council Tax rise.

With a Lib Dem/Tory government and Lib Dem/Tory council for this last year the influence that Bidston & St. James Labour councillors can bring to bear on the decision makers and holders of the purse strings is less than it was under a Labour government or Labour/Lib Dem council. However at the local level some amounts of money are being delegated to the Area Forum (which locally covers Bidston & St. James/Claughton), such as the Empty Shops funding and small amounts of other money too. As Labour councillors make the decisions at the Area Forum level and appoint their own party members to other positions on the Area Forum panel, they can decide on where some money is spent.

Cabinet meeting (Wirral Council) 22/02/2011 Part 1 – the Conservative/Lib Dem budget cometh and Labour is not happy

Well yesterday the Conservative & Lib Dem Cabinet “unveiled” their Wirral Council budget for 2011/2012. Labour’s (opposition) budget will arrive by noon on Friday the 25th February.

Next Monday (1st March) the full Council will vote on the budget, although with 41 (yes I know it’s 42 including the Lib Dem Mayor but generally he doesn’t vote as he’s supposed to be politically neutral as part of his office) “progressive partnership” councillors to Labour’s 25 24 (edit – I sometimes forget Cllr. Knowles had switched from Labour to Tory and the independent Cllr Kirwan isn’t still with Wirral Council) councillors, I’m sure even Labour can do the maths and realise Labour’s budget will be defeated next Monday (with no need for Budget Part 2 on the evening of the 9th March) by around seventeen votes.

Can you see which bits of the Budget are from the Lib Dem side and which from the Conservative side? Yes you can see “the seams” between the two halves as we continue to be two independent political parties with minds and policy making processes of our own. If you look really hard you can see the bits influenced by yours truly and others (for example the 4-year rolling programme for 20 mph residential zones discussed last year by the party when Cllr Quinn was Cabinet Member for Streetscene and Transport) now carried forward by Cllr Rennie.

One Lib Dem policy coming into play is the pupil premium which means about £5 million extra for Wirral Schools to spend on children on free school meals, looked after children and service children. You should’ve heard the “wails of anguish” at the Wirral Schools Forum from headmasters/headmistresses from the more prosperous parts of the Borough when they realised £5 million would be spent on improving the educational chances of the most needy! Clearly Wirral is a place of large social divides and the extra money will be a welcome boost to the schools in Bidston & St. James.

So what may you ask is “in the budget”? Well, first to deal with the elements of the council tax that are made up by Merseyside Police’s budget and Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service’s budget. Both Merseyside Police and Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service froze their contributions from Council Tax compared to last year (2010/2011).

Due to increased costs and inflation (as well as a high proportion of its costs being on staff), Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service will be cutting some jobs. Their Chief Exec/treasurer explains the situation in a self-styled “podcast” (I don’t think he quite knows what a podcast is but I have to give them a few marks for trying), which unfortunately with my browser Firefox either opens a blank black window or six video windows of him at once creating an echo effect so I’ve uploaded it to Youtube (which has slightly better audio quality than five echoes).

For the purposes of any copyright lawyers out there, as the work has been made previously available to the public (and still is on Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service’s website at this location), this is classed as “fair dealing” under s.30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is being done for the purpose of news reporting (and making sure you can hear what the speaker says).

Quite why councillors on Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service left it to an officer to record a video to explain the cuts is a mystery I’m sure my humble readers can enlighten me on in the comments section (or maybe I’ll just ask Cllr Ellis, Cllr Niblock, Cllr Rennie or Cllr Roberts next time I see them).