INCREDIBLE: £2,877.35 spent by Wirral Council last year in previously hidden payments on taxis for Labour councillors!

INCREDIBLE: £2,877.35 spent by Wirral Council last year in previously hidden payments on taxis for Labour councillors!

INCREDIBLE: £2,877.35 spent by Wirral Council last year in previously hidden payments on taxis for Labour councillors!

                                                              

Hackney carriage by Ed g2s
Hackney carriage by Ed g2s

Hackney carriage by ed g2stalkOwn work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Every year, a legal requirement on Wirral Council means that they have to publish for each councillor how much was spent on travelling and subsistence allowances for each councillor.

The list published for 2013/14 is on Wirral Council’s website.

Last year I made a Freedom of Information Act request for a breakdown of payments made to three taxi firms (A.P. Contract Hire Ltd, Wallasey Cars Limited and Wirral Satellite Cars Limited) for taxi journeys made by councillors paid for by Wirral Council.

Here is the breakdown for each councillor, taxi firm and total amount for that financial year.

AP Contract Hire
Cllr Irene Williams £11.20
Cllr Phil Davies (Plus 3 Staff) £54.00
Cllr Steve Niblock £51.00

AP Contract Hire Total £116.20

Wallasey Cars
Cllr Bill Davies £25.00
former Cllr Brian Kenny £5.00
Cllr Christina Muspratt £10.10
Cllr Irene Williams £46.20
Cllr Joe Walsh £50.60
Cllr Moira McLaughlin £197.10
Cllr Pat Hackett £700.00
Cllr Steve Niblock £442.90
Cllr Tony Norbury £13.00

Wallasey Cars Total £1,489.90

Wirral Satellite Cars
Cllr Bill Davies £106.65
Cllr Chris Meaden £6.70
Cllr Christina Muspratt £159.40
Cllr Denise Realey £20.10
Cllr Harry Smith £25.20
Cllr Irene Williams £117.70
Cllr Joe Walsh £184.55
Cllr Moira McLaughlin £558.20
Cllr Phil Brightmore £7.30
Cllr Steve Foulkes £17.50
Cllr Steve Niblock £16.00
Cllr Tony Norbury £51.95

Wirral Satellite Cars Total £1,271.25

Grand Total £2,877.35

An amount of £10.20 for an Anne Davis for Wallasey Cars was also included in the response to my request, but as there is no councillor called Anne Davis, I have not included this amount in the figures above.

One thing to be noted is that all the councillors in this list are from the same party (Labour Party). Let’s take one councillor’s taxi expenses at random and compare them to the published list for 2013/14.

Cllr Moira McLaughlin’s taxi rides came to £197.10 with Wallasey Cars and £558.20 with Wirral Satellite Cars (total £755.30).

However next to Cllr Moira McLaughlin’s name on the published list of expenses are two entries. £40.10 for “expenses” and £167.29 for subsistence. This comes to a total of £207.39 that comprises the items detailed in the blog post expense claim forms for Councillor Moira McLaughlin 2013 to 2014. The taxi rides with Wallasey Cars and Wirral Satellite cars don’t appear at all despite regulation 15 requiring that Wirral Council publish the total annual sum paid by it for each councillor’s travel and subsistence allowance.

Taking another councillor from the list above, £700 was spent on taxi rides for Cllr Pat Hackett with Wallasey Cars. Yet when you read the published list for 2013/14 his expenses are down as £0 and travel expenses £0.

I would suspect that if I went through the list of councillors above I’d find that none of these taxi rides appear on the list that’s published each year. The response to my FOI request contains the line “The use of taxis’, and the associated costs, has been in connection with legitimate Council business.”

This all reminds me of that quote from Wirral Council’s former Chief Executive Graham Burgess of “We need to spend less on ourselves and more on services” and I wonder what the £2,877.35 spent on taxi journeys for councillors could have been spent on instead.

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Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Answers to Questions to the Cabinet Member for Central and Support Services (Cllr Adrian Jones)

Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Answers to Questions to the Cabinet Member for Central and Support Services (Cllr Adrian Jones)

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Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Answers to Questions to the Cabinet Member for Central and Support Services (Cllr Adrian Jones)

                               

Continues from Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Questions to the Cabinet Member for Central and Support Services (Cllr Adrian Jones).

Cllr Adrian Jones replied to the questions with these answers, “I’ll start with the last one first which was from Cllr Sykes. The short answer Cllr Sykes is yes. Are you happy with that? Now for Cllr Ellis, you’re asking me why the top ten get paid more, the short answer to that is it’s an overall saving because if you consider how the management restructure was conducted it was not a cost to the Council, it was a saving and that was absolutely the best possible way of doing it. I’d be quite happy of course to give you an official written reply, is that ok?

Cllr Blakeley, you made reference to disruption to IT services, yes I am aware of it and I must say I was very impressed with our IT staff because on the occasion of the very first, when Scottish Power cut us off on the first occasion in the middle of the night, I was contacted first thing the following morning which was now before eight o’clock and advised as to what was happening which I thought was a pretty good service. The position there of course was it was outside of our control and there was nothing that could be done about it. As to the second part of your question I’d be very happy to give you a written reply.

And now to the question from Cllr Walsh about the business process question on page fifty-one. To be honest with you that is such a big implied question that I intend to give you a written reply on that again and you’ll be able to circulate that to whoever would want to see it.

On the asset management question on page fifty-two from Cllr Mooney I’d say exactly the same thing there, that again is a question that again covers a very large area of ground and I’d be delighted to give a written reply.”

Continues at Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Questions to the Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services (Cllr Tony Smith).

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Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Questions to the Cabinet Member for Central and Support Services (Cllr Adrian Jones)

Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Questions to the Cabinet Member for Central and Support Services (Cllr Adrian Jones)

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These questions start at 5m34s in the video above.

Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Questions to the Cabinet Member for Central and Support Services (Cllr Adrian Jones)

                               

Continues from Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Questions to the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care (Cllr Chris Jones).

Cllr Joe Walsh asked, “Taking into account what the former local MP .. is Cllr Adrian Jones in a position to provide further information?

Cllr Chris Blakeley asked, “It’s regarding the disruption to IT services. Is the Cabinet Member aware that since the major outage there have been a further three periods of disruption, particularly at weekends, where local residents who wish to contact their local councillors cannot get email through? Can he tell us what action will be taken to provide a reliable and consistent service, so that we can serve the people who elected us to the Town Hall?”

Cllr Gerry Ellis asked, “My question relates to the first part of your report which is to do with human resources. You and I both have an interest in this and in your report you mention that you’re making numerous savings in the report. My question is can you explain to the Council why the top ten Chief Officers today get paid more than the top ten Chief Officers did in 2010, when ordinary council workers have had their pay frozen during that period and progression halted under this present Administration?”

Cllr Adam Sykes asked, “Can the Cabinet Member give me their assurance that they will work with Thingwall Primary School to ensure that the old Stanley School site adjacent to Thingwall Primary is put to good use after the continued effort of the Thingwall Primary to work with the Authority in providing a facility that benefits the whole of the ward?”

Cllr Bernie Mooney asked, “The asset management report page fifty-two confirms the integration will not result in any increased costs to the Council and the trade union accommodation reduces. So will the trade union still have offices?”

Continues at Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Answers to Questions to the Cabinet Member for Central and Support Services (Cllr Adrian Jones).

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Planning Committee (Wirral Council) (27th June 2013) APP/13/00574 5 Speedwell Drive, Barnston, CH60 2SY Change of use of garage to dog grooming parlour

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) (27th June 2013) APP/13/00574 5 Speedwell Drive, Barnston, CH60 2SY Change of use of garage to dog grooming parlour

Continues from Planning Committee (Wirral Council) (27th June 2013) APP/13/00574 5 Speedwell Drive, Barnston, CH60 2SY Change of use of garage to dog grooming parlour.

Cllr Denise Realey: Can I then move approval of the officer’s recommendation?

Cllr Joe Walsh: I’ll second that.

Cllr Denise Realey: For approval.

Cllr Joe Walsh: I’ll second that. I’ll second that.

Cllr Bernie Mooney (Chair): Hang on hold on a minute they had indicated what it is … to hold on as we had a debate so it’s his movement first. Ermm, …

Cllr Anita Leech: Errm, it’s just literally a point of clarification really, errm the actual terms about the number of dogs a day doesn’t seem to include a bank holiday Monday.

Matthew Davies: Errm through you Chair, I think we would add then that there are no dogs on a bank holiday Monday.

Cllr Anita Leech: Thank you.

Cllr Bernie Mooney (Chair): Right back to David, David?

Cllr David Elderton: Thank you Chair, I mean I’d just like to comment before I start by saying that the fact you’re trying to start a business is absolutely commendable and I fully support what you’re trying to do. It’s my concern that it would be an inappropriate development in a residential area, it’s simply relating to that associated issue but what I would like to move is that on the basis of granting refusal the Local Planning Authority considers that, by reason of noise and general disturbance likely to be generated, the proposed development would be detrimental to the amenities that the occupiers of adjoining properties could reasonably expect to enjoy. The development would thereby conflict with the provisions of Unitary Development Planning policy HS15. I move that.

Cllr Bernie Mooney (Chair): So we’ve got a mover for refusal and we’ve got a seconder. So, first of all we’ll take a vote on refusal, those for refusal, ok and against. I’ll abstain. I really can’t make my mind up.

Cllr David Elderton: That’s six appear to be [for (Cllrs Elderton, Clenents, Mountney, Hayes and Foulkes] and five [against (Cllrs Realey, Brightmore, Leech, Walsh and Kenny], in favour of refusal when you’ve abstained.

Cllr Bernie Mooney (Chair): I’m awful sorry for the confusion.

Cllr Denise Realey: I propose a small adjournment while people leave.

Cllr Bernie Mooney (Chair): Err, please refrain from saying anything like that while the members of the public leave, thank you very much.

Continues at Planning Committee (Wirral Council) (27th June 2013) APP/13/00398: 11 Templemore Road, Oxton, CH43 2HB – Single Storey Garage.