To summarise the letter it reminds Wirral Council to comply with the Code of Recommended Practice on Local Government Publicity and if they don’t reminds them that the Secretary of State has a legal power to direct local councils to comply.
37 Labour councillors agree Wirral Council’s budget for next year & reject amendment to keep Lyndale School open
37 Labour councillors agree Wirral Council’s budget for next year & reject amendment to keep Lyndale School open
Councillor Phil Davies "I’m pleased that for a second successive year this Administration will freeze Wirral’s council tax" Budget Council 24th February 2015
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There was plenty of blame to go round at last night’s Council meeting, called to agree Wirral Council’s budget for 2015/16.
Labour’s Cllr Phil Davies blamed both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems. The Tory Leader Cllr Jeff Green chose instead to blame the Labour Administration on Wirral Council. The Lib Dems said that both Tories (on using money for welfare assistance for other purposes) and Labour (on streetlights not being fixed) were wrong, but did agree with Cllr Green’s plea for a U-turn on the closure of Lyndale School.
The sole Green Party councillor Cllr Pat Cleary blamed first the Conservatives referring to “untold misery” caused by housing benefit reforms and then the Labour Administration for accepting the Council Tax Freeze Grant which he called “simply a bribe”.
It then went on and on and on a lot more with backbench councillors trying to score political points. In the end Labour wouldn’t back down on closing Lyndale School and the votes were as follows:
Lib Dem Budget
Votes: 5 for, 56 against, 1 abstention LOST
Conservative amendment to Schools Budget to reverse Lyndale School closure decision
Votes: 24 for, 37 against, 1 abstention LOST
Conservative Budget
Votes: 18 votes for, 43 against, 1 abstention LOST
Labour budget
Votes: 37 votes for, 24 against, 1 abstention WON
The councillors went on to agree to Eric Robinson as Chief Executive, unusually by a card vote with 57 votes for, 4 against and 1 abstention.
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Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agree to no rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls for 2015/16
Councillor Phil Davies asks for "more sensible decisions" about Mersey Tunnel tolls at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 13th February 2015
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Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agree to no rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls for 2015/16
Following cross-party support for no rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls from councillors on the Merseytravel committee, councillors on the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority last week agreed with Merseytravel’s recommendation not to increase the tolls. Cllr Liam Robinson called on both Arriva and Stagecoach to “support local people” and “at the very least freeze their fares” in response to the news.
The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority went further than just agreeing with Merseytravel’s recommendation to not increase tolls this year and agreed to set up a task group to look into whether tunnel tolls could come down in future years. The task group would also call for a review of the Mersey Tunnels Act.
Cllr Phil Davies who seconded the motion creating the task group said, “I think it is timely that we do look at the whole arrangement, costing and pricing et cetera for the tunnel tolls because you know we seem to go through this annual process and it seems to inexorably increase year on year. So I do think it is a good idea to set up a task group where we can look at in-depth all of these issues and I think it’s absolutely again the timing is excellent in terms of the devolution agenda and that really plays into that and our asks.”
John McGoldrick of Mersey Tunnel Users Association, a campaign group who have long campaigned for the scrapping of tunnel tolls, “We were very pleasantly surprised at today’s decision to look again at the whole question of Tunnel’s financing and the level of tolls.”
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Wirral Council’s Cabinet agree to continue council tax freeze for 2015/16
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The budget item starts at 1m33s in the video above of the Cabinet meeting on the Budget on the 10th February 2015
Councillor Phil Davies (right) introduces Labour’s 2015/16 Budget for Wirral Council at the Cabinet meeting on 10th February 2015
Wirral Council’s Cabinet agree to continue council tax freeze for 2015/16
Last night’s Cabinet meeting included Labour’s fifteen page budget recommendation to Council on the 24th February so the items below are just some highlights. Although the Wirral Council element of Council Tax is being frozen at 2014/15 levels, the Council Tax for Wirral residents may still go up because of a rise in the amount for Merseyside Police.
