Tag: Cllr Phil Gilchrist

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Special) 22nd January 2013 Four yearly elections, Destination Marketing, Pest Control, redundancies and procurement

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee 22nd January 2013 Budget Options: Four yearly elections, Destination Marketing, fuel poverty, Pest Control,

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The Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee was a special meeting with only one main agenda item which was to discuss the 2013/16 Budget proposals which are currently part of a consultation with the public (until 31st January 2013).

The Chair, Cllr John Hale said that in his view the Committee was without a lot of the information he would’ve liked on the Budget options, and that he was “not in agreement with the move to four yearly elections”. He also disagreed with the saving on Destination Marketing as this money “brought an awful lot of visitors to the Wirral” and had spin offs for businesses on the Wirral.

Cllr Phil Gilchrist (Lib Dem spokesperson) arrived and apologised for being late. The Chair asked Cllr Stuart Wittingham if he had any comments to make?

Cllr Wittingham said he was pleased that most of the savings were to the back office and that he wasn’t saying that the front line wouldn’t be affected. He had no comments to make on a four yearly election cycle but described it as a “substantial saving”.

The Chair said it was not a very substantial saving “at the cost of democracy” and that there was still “insufficient information”. He’d be moving to note matters with the exception of the four yearly elections that he was opposed to and the 100% cut to Destination Marketing, which he said supported major activities and brought in thousands of visitors to the Borough.

Cllr Hale had asked what the Pest Control reduction meant and that the answer given was that it would result in their staff being reduced from five to four. He said it also meant that the home insulation program which had only met 59% of its target wouldn’t be able to continue with the rest. However £50,000 would be kept in the Budget for fuel poverty.

Cllr Gilchrist said that previously when the Council had let people retire or take voluntary redundancy, there had been criteria that had had to be looked at such as the need to pass on their expertise or whether it would cause a problem for the service if they left, he asked if officers had discussed the rationale for restructuring?

The Chair asked Chris Hyams to answer the question.

She said the proposals were either for a restructure or service changes. In the case of a restructure, Chris Hyams said that they would seek volunteers first, but may need to move to compulsory redundancies. In order to maximise redeployment opportunities they would look for volunteers across the organisation. They couldn’t let people go where their jobs were required, but would be looking at things on a proposal by proposal basis.

Cllr Gilchrist made a further comment about redundancies.

Chris Hyams responded said the strategy had been to seek voluntary leavers, but ensuring they had the capacity in the services to let them go “at the appropriate time”. She gave the example of letting volunteers go in day services and redeploying people from residential to day services. However the voluntary leavers couldn’t leave until the redeployed workers were ready to move into their posts. She said they wanted to do it quick enough that they were not incurring the need for more savings, but at a time that was right taking into account their notice periods and with due consultation and process.

The Chair asked about suppliers.

The Wirral Council officer responded by saying, “Yeah Chair, thanks Chair, one of the one of the issues that had been identified through the work that the Local Government Association are doing with us with on the Improvement Plan is a weakness in procurement, how the Council procures its related goods and services. There are a number of processes that we can improve upon, one of the issues is that we have a purchase order system, but the majority of purchases don’t go through that purchase order system. So we believe that by improving the governance of that system to actually make it so that 90% goes through that purchase order system, we’ll be able to negotiate with suppliers and get a better deal. Hopefully the volume issue, we will get a better deal.

We’re also looking at how we actually manage our procurement function. One of the things that we’re doing is basically is to have overall category managers, which have an area of spend rather than the generic purchasing officers. A category manager would have an area of spend for instance Adult Social Services and become knowledgeable in that field and achieve savings with suppliers. We feel that the evidence from other councils is that we’re not getting value for money now just now and that the savings are achievable if we can actually both improve our processes and improve maybe we carry out procurement with these category managers.

It’s a process that’s used in the private sector and maybe we’ll use it in the public sector. We’re looking at best practice elsewhere, we’re getting advice both from other Councils and from the Local Government Association, now we actually need a step change in getting more out of our procurement activity because clearly with the financial challenges that the Council’s facing we’ve got to get more for less in effect and we believe that we can actually achieve the savings in procurement.”

Bromborough and Eastham Area Forum 2nd October 2012

Present

Cllr Steve Niblock (Chair)
Cllr Joe Walsh
Cllr Phil Gilchrist
Cllr Tom Harney
Cllr Dave Mitchell

Brian Christian (Older Peoples Parliament)
Steve Preston (Community Safety)
Louise Harland-Davies (Community Engagement co-ordinator)
Phil Miner (Streetscene Manager)
Mark Craig (Community Representative)
Paul Murphy (Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service)
Merseyside Police: Police Sergeant and Police Community Support Officer
Lead Officer Kevin McCallum (Press and Public Relations)
Plus ~seven members of the public.

Cllr Steve Niblock opened the meeting by welcoming everybody to the Bromborough and Eastham Area Forum. He gave apologies for Cllr Irene Williams and Marjorie Hall and thanked Mark Craig and Marjorie who would continue to be community representatives.

Louise Harland-Davies said the minutes of the last meeting were on the seats, under matters arising, she said she understood that antisocial behaviour at the local skateboard park had been set as a local policing priority, so it had received extra attention from police and youth services, with a number of incidents dealt with through Community Patrol.

Steve Preston said there had been five reports since the last Area Forum, three were about noise, two were about youths with one of the reports of noise being at 11 pm and one of the others at around 4 pm. He said they had made some improvements which he believed were beneficial to children and residents as the last report was in August, he hoped the problems had decreased because of the soundproofing.

The police said they had only had two reports in September of noise.

Louise Hartland-Davies gave an update on 20 mph zones and said there had been a spending freeze on non-critical areas. She referred to Laura Quigley who had been from the GP Commissioning Consortium and a response that Cllr Gilchrist had received direct from Laura. Louise Hartland-Davies said there was a minor injuries service at Parkfield and referred to a visit by Cllr Walsh to Bromborough Recreation Bowling Club, who had put a bid in for Area Forum funding.

Cllr Niblock said he was aware Tony had got to go early.

Tony said that on behalf of Wirral Festival of Music, Speech and Drama and Bromborough Recreation Bowling Club that he wanted to say thank you for money previously received. He mentioned the visit of Cllr Walsh, when the sun shone and there was no rain, however he described the problems in the rain of no shelter which is why they had approached the Area Forum and thanked Community Engagement Officer Louise Hartland-Davies for her assistance with their applications. To his chagrin Louise Hartland-Davies in 48 hours had cut through red tape and they had an approach by phone compared to four years of him trying and he thanked Louise.

Louise Hartland-Davies said there had been changes to parking, which had resulted in more spaces, however there had been questions about the number of disabled bays, traffic management had developed an alternative draft layout and the funding could happen but for the spending freeze.

Cllr Niblock said that unless there were other matters arising it was agreed. He said he would deviate from the agenda and ask Kevin McCallum to talk about the spending freeze.

Kevin McCallum said Wirral Council was now in a spending freeze on all non-essential expenditure based on a report by the Interim Director of Finance in September, he said the funding supposed to be distributed by the Area Forum was caught up in the spending freeze and was frozen until further notice, he had been told that it looked like November before they would know what might happen, but the decision was out of our [officer’s?] hands. He was happy to take questions.

Mark Craig said they knew Neighbourhood Funding might be reduced but why were monies unspent last year not carried over?
Kevin McCallum said it was more or less the same in every Area Forum, what had happened was there was a spending freeze and they were working through the implications. He said councillors on the Area Forum had raised that point.

Cllr Gilchrist said he had emailed Mr. Timmins, who had £42,000, but Mr. Timmins was trying to be prudent and careful by trying to keep the money aside, the difficulty was a recorded fact which had passed into the great machinery.

Kevin McCallum responded to Cllr Gilchrist’s point.

Louise Hartland-Davies said there was a consultation on the budget called “What Really Matters”, which comprised of a questionnaire. She said that it was not just Wirral Council that was affected, they were trying to engage many of the residents who live on Wirral to gather their feelings and opinions, their team had been out and about in the community. She said that there were four themes & nine questions, which asked for people’s thoughts about reducing or stopping services, along with boxes to write thoughts and comments. She asked for contact details if anybody wanted them to visit community groups and that every day there was a schedule of events, with a few groupies following them around, so if they were not where they were supposed to be people were aware.

A member of the public asked how long the consultation was?

Louise Hartland-Davies answered the 19th October [2012].

Brian Christian (Older Peoples Parliament) asked if when completed, would the results be audited,  shown and analysed by a small team of people?
The answer given was that they had a team of people doing this and that the raw data would be published. They had also asked the Market Research Society to double-check the questionnaire.

Cllr Harney said that although as a councillor he had plenty of opportunity to ask questions, there was an implication in how some of the questions were phrased. He said the evidence, especially when looking at the research into children showed that there were better results when one person was involved rather than many. He said it was his feeling it was not about spending more money, but about spending money properly and efficiently rather than destroying the futures of the vulnerable, but that it was not just about adults and social services.

A member of the public asked if there had been an indication if any of the Budget was ring-fenced, for example education and social care had previously been ring-fenced?

Kev McCallum said the Schools Budget was ring- fenced.

The member of the public asked him to explain.

Kevin McCallum said that it was a very difficult concept as there were additional bits of funding, but the world had changed.

I asked wasn’t this partly because Wirral Council lost out on £1.6 million of education funding this year because Wirral Council gave the wrong numbers for Early Years learners to the Department for Education?

Kevin McCallum (Press and Public Relations) said he didn’t know.

Arthur asked if they were looking at best practice in other Councils?

Kevin McCallum said that they should do that, but they don’t do enough of it.

Cllr Niblock said if there was nothing more, they would have the presentation.

The softly spoken Michelle Davis from the Department of Finance was asked by a number of members of the public to speak louder.

She told those present of the consultation on Council Tax Benefit changes, as Council Tax Benefit was to be abolished from the 1st April 2013, with the reasons for the changes being the Localism Bill and Welfare Reform Act 2012. She said that central government was cutting their benefit grant by £3.2 million, but as part of the scheme they had to protect pensioners, vulnerable people, people of working age with a disability, households with a disabled child or in receipt of a war pension. She said that working age people would either be paying Council Tax for the first time or paying more Council Tax. Michelle Davis said they would be mirroring the scheme they had currently, but there would be a change to the non-dependant charge and they planned to abolish a rebate, stop it for households that had over £6,000 in savings and stop backdated claims. She said if they didn’t develop their own scheme then one would be imposed upon them, they were legally required to consult residents, which they were doing from the 3rd September 2012 to the 31st October 2012. People could call the telephone centre, go to One Stop Shops, go into their nearest library, or go on the website. There were surveys available for people tonight, that they could take to a One Stop Shop or library. Michelle Davis said that once the consultation finished, there would be a report to councillors, who would be able to make adjustments, but it had to be finalised by the 31st January 2013. She told people that the proposed regulations had not gone through Parliament yet, but they still had to propose, design and implement a scheme.

A member of the public asked her to go through the list of people again.

She said pensioners in reply.

A member of the public asked about the leaflet.

She said that the proposed design of the scheme was in the leaflet and that they had to protect vulnerable people.

Brian Christian (Older Peoples Parliament) asked if they had consulted Age UK [formerly Age Concern]?

The officer said they had written to Age UK, who had responded.

Steve Preston (Community Safety) said would this include the single person discount?

Michelle Davis responded that the single person discount was not changing, this was a consultation on the benefit side [of Council Tax].

I asked how many responses had been received so far and was told they had received nearly four hundred responses. She said they planned an article in the Wirral Globe.

A member of the public asked if it would be in the Wirral News too as they don’t get the Wirral Globe?

The officer said it was only going to be the Wirral Globe.

Cllr Mitchell said he gets the Wirral Globe, but not the Wirral News.

Cllr Niblock thanked Michelle Davis and went to partner updates.

The police sergeant said that reported crime had fallen and on antisocial behaviour calls, the Archer Green Project had helped. He was pleased that hopefully it had been sorted, but they would still get problems in the open space, which was a congregating area for young people. He thanked Wirral Council. In early July over a two-week period they had received reports involving back to back garages which weren’t used on a regular basis. Although the reports came in over months, they’d released it was a one-off incident and “nothing major”.

A member of the public referred to banners outside a school saying that parking on zigzag lines was selfish and dangerous, she asked if it was an offence not only on zigzags but opposite zigzags?

The police sergeant said his colleague had more traffic experience.

The Police Community Support Officer answered that it was only enforceable if on the zigzag, unless they were blocking the driveway it was not an offence.

Paul Murphy gave an update on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and said their target for Wirral was 13,000 Home Fire Safety Checks, to date Bromborough had had 771 free Home Fire Safety Checks, which had been free of charge. He said that there were very low numbers that hadn’t been visited, but they were prioritising high risk people, but how sustainable it was over the longer term he didn’t know. In December he said the Chair on the Merseyside Fire Authority would make budget announcements. He expected an similar cut or an even larger cut compared to last year’s £9.2 million. Working with Wirral Council they were targeting their resources and he reported a reduction in deliberate secondary fires, mostly down to the poor weather and interventions with young people.

Paul Murphy continued by talking about their bonfire plan, how private firms were on board with rubbish removal, the community safety partnership and how they would be working with Wirral Council to prevent bonfire material building up. He said it was a very safe forum area, with two accidental dwelling fires over the past three months and a reduction in deliberate secondary fires to about twenty-eight. On road traffic collisions, they had attended three in the past three months, with the ones the Fire Service attended involving people who needed to be removed from cars.

George Thomas said he had asked a question at the last Area Forum he couldn’t answer, but since then he had made a Freedom of Information Act request about the money generated as income through groups using Wirral’s fire stations. He said it had been £25,000 over two years and £15,000 last year. George Thomas said that it was unfair that they could use the premises with not paying rent or utility bills.

Cllr Niblock said it was easier if he answered, he said in November [2012] they would know how bad the cuts would be, but nothing would be debated until they knew the figure, the Metropolitan Authorities were getting the highest cuts, whereas Cheshire had a three percent increase. He said the cuts were back loaded which could be even more horrendous, but that community groups could [currently] use the stations free of charge.

George Thomas responded.

Cllr Niblock said he can’t preempt the decision and the budget [for 2013/2014] would be set in February [2013] which may result in the closure of fire stations.

A member of the public asked what the number was to ring for reporting rubbish?

Paul Murphy replied that it was also the number for Home Fire Safety Checks if they know somebody vulnerable and was 0800 731 5958. He said people could call about the rubbish removal from the 22nd October and they would be working with their Council partners.

Jim Thompson said that Wirral was a safe place and antisocial behaviour was falling and that Cllr Harney had pointed out that the community safety team was a joint agency, the One Stop Shop for community safety, on burglaries there were less than a thousand across the Borough, but they were planning ahead for Bonfire Night.

A member of the public said Bonfire Night had been much quieter last year.

Community Safety answered that 65 tons of rubbish had been removed.

Brian Christian (Older Peoples Parliament) said he didn’t want to rub salt in the wound, but they had applied to the Area Forums to two part-time outreach workers and that it was a shame it hadn’t happened, he said it was more important now but that if the Council wouldn’t listen to a single voice, they would listen to over two thousand people. He referred to an event in February 2013 about safeguarding across all ages, which would involve plays through the schools and that it wasn’t just about elderly people living on their own.

Cllr Niblock asked if there were any questions?

Someone said they worked in the leisure services and in the 1980s there had been the same problem, so they had put the prices up at Christmas, so they would get three months of income before the end of the financial year.

Cllr Niblock asked Arthur if he would care to suggest it on the form?

He said he had sent the form in, but it was only a thought.

Cllr Niblock said the date of the next Forum would be Wednesday 6th February 2013 and people would be notified of the venue. He thanked people for their attendance.

Corporate Governance Committee 16/11/2011 (Wirral Council) Part 3 Work Program, Progress and Associated Issues

Cllr Steve Foulkes said that the terms of reference for [this] committee were clear and he would like to “make progress” and move onto item 3.

Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive referred to the ten key lines of enquiry (KLOE) as well as further discussion on the involvement of councillors. He said the report sets out who the lead officers are. He said he would pause to check the names of the officers were in line with the committee’s wishes.

Cllr Jeff Green said he was “surprised”. He referred to an email and said that the briefing looked like predetermination. He said the changes to the procurement rules were “not fantastic” and that he had had no time to read them. He continued by saying that Conservative Party councillors had spoken to him with suggestions and that he was not clear about the role of Lead Members. Cllr Green went into detail explaining his views on what Lead Members should be. He also said that the briefing was “not well handled”.

Cllr Steve Foulkes said that this had stemmed from a criticism that councillor involvement had not been enough, so key members had been established at the briefing. He said these lead members would be the conduit or champion and that it was the job of these to reflect views back. He explained that it wouldn’t be anything more than that. On accountability, he said councillors say it’s officer’s job, “just letting officers do it”, however he wanted to “get councillors involved at every level”. He appealed to councillors and referred to a letter from Cllr Phil Gilchrist about scrutiny.

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Wirral Council) 17th November 2011 Early Voluntary Retirement/Voluntary Severance and Organisational Change Part 3

Chris Hyams continued by saying that the restructures had gone to the Employment & Appointments Committee and in the Finance department there had been a number of new posts since the Early Voluntary Redundancy program started.

She referred councillors to paragraph 7.1 as there was an error in the number given for new posts. Chris Hyams said the report states 100, but it should be 104 due to the 4 posts in the Law, Human Resources and Asset Management department.

Another error was also highlighted by Chris Hyams as a 3 should read 7. She did point out that some new posts are not related to Early Voluntary Redundancy/Voluntary Severance and out of the 104 new posts, 81 were related to the Early Voluntary Redundancy/Voluntary Severance program.

Chris Hyams said that the posts had been advertised internally, with “strict vacancy controls”. Once they had tried internal recruitment, then they would go externally. The Finance Department had a mix of internal and external advertising as there were risks in failure to appointing to positions such as service provision being put at risk. There was a process of remodelling which explains why posts had been vacated, but then filled.

Cllr Phil Gilchrist asked about Metro, referred to in 6.2 (paragraph 2) and a meeting in September. He said he’d also like a response to further questions, an update over the deleted posts and why some people had left when they oughtn’t to while their job was still there?

Chris Hyams said yes the post was required, but they were let go at their request. Metro provided a service to schools and worked differently. There had been a review of the service and requirements which had led to employees being replaced and less temporary staff.

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Wirral Council) 17th November 2011, Declarations of Interest, Minutes (15/9 and 27/9), Early Voluntary Retirement/Voluntary Severance and Organisational Change Part 1

Present:

Cllr Phil Gilchrist (Lib Dem) (Chair)

Cllr Ron Abbey (Labour)
Cllr Darren Dodd (Labour)
Cllr Chris Jones (Labour)

Cllr James Keeley (Conservative)
Cllr John Hale (Conservative)
Cllr Steve Williams (Conservative)
Cllr Wendy Clements (Conservative) deputy for Cllr Tony Cox (Conservative)

LATE:
Cllr Paul Doughty (Labour) (missed declarations of interest (item 1) (all) & minutes (item 2) (all))
Cllr Alan Brighouse (Lib Dem) (missed declarations of interest (item 1) (all), minutes (item 2) (all), financial monitoring statement (item 3) (missed Cllr Phil Gilchrist’s comments & part of Chris Hyams’ introduction) (Vice-Chair)

The Chair Cllr Phil Gilchrist started the meeting by referring to guidance issued by email on filming of meetings (which was permitted). He asked for declarations of interest, none were declared. Cllr Phil Gilchrist pointed out that for the councillors who were late they would have to declare any interests once they had arrived.

He asked if the minutes of the meeting held on the 15th September were agreed? The committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on the 15th September.

He asked if the minutes of the meeting held on the 27th September were agreed? The minutes of the meeting held on the 27th September were agreed.

Cllr Phil Gilchrist signed the minutes of the meetings held on the 15th & 27th September to show they were agreed.

Cllr Phil Gilchrist welcomed Cllr Wendy Clements to the meeting. He said he wanted to change the agenda order.

Cllr Paul Doughty arrived.

Cllr Phil Gilchrist said he wanted to consider Agenda item 16 (Early Voluntary Retirement/Voluntary Severance and Organisational Change) first. He asked Chris Hyams, Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development to introduce the report.