Coordinating Committee (Wirral Council) 3rd July 2013 | Councillors argue over minutes of LGA Conference costs call-in

A report on Wirral Council’s Coordinating Committee meeting of the 3rd July 2013 | Councillors argue over minutes of LGA Conference costs call-in

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Above is Part 1 of the Coordinating Committee meeting of the 3rd July 2013, which covers the first twenty-four minutes of the meeting, if you want to watch the whole meeting there is a playlist of all parts of the meeting here.

Coordinating Committee (Wirral Council) 3rd July 2013 | Councillors argue over minutes of LGA Conference costs call-in meeting

                                                                                   

Present:
Cllr David Elderton
Cllr Alan Brighouse (Liberal Democrat spokesperson)
Cllr Denise Roberts
Cllr Moira McLaughlin
Cllr Adam Sykes
Cllr Robert Gregson deputy for Cllr Ron Abbey
Cllr Stuart Wittingham (Chair)
Cllr Jean Stapleton
Cllr Andrew Hodson (Conservative spokesperson)
Cllr Steve Williams
Cllr Steve Foulkes
Cllr Bernie Mooney
Cllr Leah Fraser
Cllr Pat Glasman

The Chair, Cllr Stuart Wittingham welcomed people to the inaugural meeting of the Coordinating Committee (although the committee had already met to consider the Conservative call in of whether sending people to the Local Government Association conference was value for money. He asked for any apologies. Apologies were given for Cllr Ron Abbey.

Cllr David Elderton asked why there were no microphones for the members of the committee (other than the Chair and the officers either side of him)? The Chair said they’d find out, but in the meantime just to speak loudly. The Chair asked for any declarations of interest or party whip? Nobody made any. He then asked if people had had a chance to read the minutes of the previous Coordinating Committee meeting, which considered the call-in?

Cllr Leah Fraser said that before they approved them she wanted to make some comments. Cllr Patricia Glasman asked if they were points on the minutes of the Scrutiny Programme Board? Cllr Fraser answered they weren’t, they were to do with the minutes of the call-in meeting.

The Chair pointed out to Cllr Glasman that agenda item four was the minutes of the call-in meeting. Cllr Fraser said she would limit her comments to two or three.

Under Melissa Holt, in the second paragraph Cllr Fraser quoted that in the minutes Melissa Holt “had become aware of an invoice for the LGA Conference”, she felt the sentence was “isn’t entirely accurate” and that what Melissa Holt had said was that she first became aware that the places had been booked for the conference on the 29th May. Cllr Fraser thought the sentence should be changed around and that it was an important point.

Cllr Steve Foulkes said, “I’m certainly not happy at all, I’m unhappy with one person’s version of events being the truth.”

Cllr Leah Fraser started to reply to Cllr Steve Foulkes but was interrupted by a Labour councillor, then a number of different councillors expressed their views on the matter.

Coordinating Committee (Wirral Council) 24th June 2013 | Special Meeting to discuss Conservative call in of LGA (Local Government Association) Conference decision | Labour councillors on new Coordinating Committee reject Conservative councillor’s view that spending £2,475 plus travel costs to send five councillors and two officers to the LGA Conference is not “value for money”

An account of the special meeting of Wirral Council’s Coordinating Committee of the 24th June 2013 to discuss the call in of the decision by Conservative councillors to send five councillors and two officers to the LGA Conference as an approved duty

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The first part of Monday’s meeting is above, if you want to watch the entire meeting, here is a link to a Youtube playlist covering it.

Coordinating Committee 24th June 2013

Labour councillors on new Coordinating Committee reject Conservative councillor’s view that spending £2,475 plus travel costs to send five councillors and two officers to the LGA Conference is not “value for money”

Coordinating Committee (previously called Scrutiny Programme Board)
Cllr Stuart Wittingham (Chair)
Cllr Steve Foulkes (Vice-Chair)
Cllr Andrew Hodson (spokesperson)
Cllr Alan Brighouse (spokesperson)
Cllr Ron Abbey
Cllr Leah Fraser
Cllr Paul Doughty
Cllr Jean Stapleton
Cllr Moira McLaughlin
Cllr John Salter deputy for Cllr Patricia Glasman
Cllr Denise Roberts
Cllr Adam Sykes
Cllr Steve Williams
Cllr Bernie Mooney
Cllr David Elderton

The Chair started by stating that it was a special meeting of the committee to consider the call in by eleven Conservative councillors of the decision by the Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Cllr Adrian Jones to make attendance by five councillors and two officers at the LGA conference an approved duty (meaning Wirral Council pays for their costs).

He asked for any apologies for absence. Cllr John Salter sent Cllr Pat Glasman’s apologies and said he was deputising for her. There were no declarations of interest or party whip made.

Cllr Moira McLaughlin started by asking that as the Conservative spokesperson on the committee Cllr Andrew Hodson was a signatory to the call in whether this amounted to predetermination?

Ed – news flash for Cllr McLaughlin, there’s no such thing as predetermination any more, it got abolished on the 15th January 2012 by the implementation of s.25 of the Localism Act 2011.

Surjit Tour answered that being a signatory to the call in doesn’t amount to predetermination. Cllr Hodson, Conservative spokesperson said that despite the fact that some on this side of the table (referring to himself and Cllr Leah Fraser) were signatories to the call-in, that they hadn’t made up their minds and that they would make an unbiased decision.

He went on to say that he felt the way that officers had dealt with the call-in was “in an unprofessional manner” and accused officers of making rules up as they went along. Cllr Hodson said that they’d been asked by Surjit Tour to disregard an email from Cllr Phil Gilchrist (who had an interest in the matter). He said, “We know he was told what to say by Shirley Hudspeth.” and that at a later time Surjit Tour told them to carry on. Cllr Hodson said he wanted to stick to the fact that they were only dealing with transport and attendance.

Surjit Tour said that Cllr Gilchrist had said he wanted to make written submissions to the members of the committee, but that there had been “no authorisation for that information to be circulated”. He’d therefore asked members of the committee who’d received Cllr Gilchrist’s email to disregard it. Instead Surjit Tour only wanted Cllr Gilchrist’s written submissions to be circulated to the committee if the Chair agreed to it. He said that that was why he’d sent out the email telling councillors to disregard Cllr Gilchrist’s email.

Cllr Hodson pointed out that Cllr Gilchrist wasn’t present, Surjit Tour responded to his points. Cllr Adrian Jones, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services interjected from the audience and asked the Chair to ask people to speak louder as it was difficult to hear what people were saying.

The Chair, Cllr Stuart Wittingham asked people to speak up and moved onto agenda item 3, Surjit Tour said that it was a reminder of the committee’s terms of reference, the terms of reference were noted by the committee, the Chair moved the meeting onto agenda item 4 (Procedure for considering a decision that has been Called-in). Surjit Tour said that members of the committee would’ve received in their packs the proposed call in procedure regarding the call-in. He said that paragraph two set out the process and went through the various stages. The Chair asked for agreement, the committee agreed to the procedure and the meeting progressed to item 5 (the call-in).

Liberal Democrat Federal Conference Arrangements – Outrage at FCC’s agreement to increased security

Liberal Democrat Federal Conference Arrangements – Outrage at FCC’s agreement to increased security

                                             

I feel very, very strongly about the illiberal arrangements made between the Federal Conference Committee and the police regarding the party’s Federal Conference in Birmingham in September.

Many, many members have expressed their outrage online as to what they see as a) a breach of Conference Standing Order 6.2 (which can be read on the party’s website here and the illiberal increased security arrangements which include:-

a) a new passport photo by all going to this conference that meets passport requirements. Previously the same photo was used for up to 3 years
b) the insistence on one of passport number (if a person holds British and Irish then both), NI number or driving licence number
c) 3 year address history
d) Date joined the party (for people who have been party members for a decade or more how are you supposed to answer the specific day you joined?)

Greater Manchester Police are then going to check this all against photos held by the Passport Agency and check conference goers say they live where they live. I now quote from a document agreed (by all but one) of the party’s Federal Conference Committee marked confidential.

"Greater Manchester Police will then check whether they believe the person to be a security threat to conference. If they do they will pass this information onto West Midlands Police. West Midlands Police will then decide whether they are a risk, if they recommend they are barred from conference this will be referred to Andrew Wiseman (Chair of the Federal Conference Committee) and Lucy. The final decision will be made by Andrew, Chris Fox, David Allworthy and Lucy. If appropriate a senior SpAd (special adviser) from Nick’s office (who has the highest level of security clearance) will provide advice."

And "To put this into perspective at last year’s Conservative party conference 3 members ‘failed’ (they have considerably more members attend than we do)."

In addition "The police will run a full accreditation process at conference. This will be available for day visitors and those that registered to late for them to compete the accreditation process. There will also be the opportunity to ‘interview’ those attendees who were not able to provide ample evidence of their identity prior to conference eg foreign nationals."

The latter sounds racist to me. There are many, many, members that feel extremely strongly and angry about this and feel it breaches Conference Standing Order 6.2 (part of the party’s constitution) which is copied below.

6.2 deals with exclusions from conference

6.2 Appeals against exclusion from conference

Any person excluded from conference by a decision of the Chief Steward shall have the right of appeal to the Committee at the next of its regular meetings. The exclusion shall remain in force pending the appeal. If the person who is excluded is a voting member of conference, their local party or SAO shall be contacted immediately and invited to appoint a substitute for the remainder of the conference.

So, should the Lib Dems agree to all conference goers photos being checked by police against passport records and the final decision over whether to admit someone not being taken by the Chief Steward (as the conference standing order states), but the FCC Chair, Chief Executive Chris Fox, Lucy and David Allworthy (who Cllr Williams’ last Friday cited the advice of giving her "no choice" than to propose a motion suspending me as a party member?

The panjandrums clearly underestimated how well this would be stomached by the grass roots of the party who are in open revolt whether that’s the Northern Ireland Lib Dems, a well respected blogger or the unusually high 151 comments left when the Chair of Federal Conference Committee Andrew Wiseman wrote about the increased requirements on Lib Dem Voice.

Another member puts it extremely well in a letter here.

Certainly standing order 6.2 needs changing if the above is ever implemented. Is this all to stop the next Walter Wolfgang heckler?