Tag: Councillor

23 Wirral councillors to be elected after Tony Cox resigns; Graham Burgess fires starting gun in local election race

23 Wirral councillors to be elected after Tony Cox resigns; Graham Burgess fires starting gun in local election race

23 Wirral councillors to be elected after Tony Cox resigns; Graham Burgess fires starting gun in local election race

                                

On Monday Wirral Council’s Returning Officer started the election process by publishing the Notice of Election (a copy of it is below). Each ward in Wirral will be electing one councillor, except voters in Greasby, Franky & Irby ward who will be electing two councillors and therefore have two votes in the upcoming local elections.

The reason for this is that Tony Cox has resigned. As Tony Cox was less than two years through a four year term of office you may wonder why? The reason is that he’s been picked as the Conservative candidate for the General Election in Newcastle-under-Lyme and he felt that he couldn’t put his full energies into that without resigning as a councillor for Greasby, Frankby & Irby ward. The two Conservative candidates in Greasby, Frankby & Irby ward this year will be Councillor Wendy Clements and Tom Anderson. Tom Anderson was previously a councillor in Upton ward from 2008 to 2012 (with the lowest majority I remember in recent years of only four votes).

The full notice of election is below.

METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF WIRRAL

ELECTION OF COUNCILLORS

NOTICE OF ELECTION

For the Wards listed below

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT:

1. Elections are to be held for COUNCILLORS of the under mentioned Wards.

2. The number of COUNCILLORS to be elected is as shown in the Table hereunder:

Name of ward No. of COUNCILLORS to be elected Name of ward No. of COUNCILLORS to be elected
BEBINGTON 1 LISCARD 1
BIDSTON & ST JAMES 1 MORETON WEST & SAUGHALL MASSIE 1
BIRKENHEAD & TRANMERE 1 NEW BRIGHTON 1
BROMBOROUGH 1 OXTON 1
CLATTERBRIDGE 1 PENSBY & THINGWALL 1
CLAUGHTON 1 PRENTON 1
EASTHAM 1 ROCK FERRY 1
GREASBY, FRANKBY & IRBY 2 SEACOMBE 1
HESWALL 1 UPTON 1
HOYLAKE & MEOLS 1 WALLASEY 1
LEASOWE & MORETON EAST 1 WEST KIRBY & THURSTATON 1

                    
3. Nomination papers must be delivered to the Electoral Services Office, Ground Floor, Town Hall, Wallasey, during normal office hours, from Tuesday, 15th April 2014 to Thursday, 17th April 2014 and during normal office hours, from Tuesday, 22nd April 2014 to 4pm on Thursday, 24th April 2014. Forms of nomination papers may also be obtained at that place, during those times.

4. If the Elections are contested, the poll will take place on Thursday, 22nd MAY 2014.

5. Applications to be included in the register of electors must reach the Electoral Registration Officer at the Town Hall, Wallasey by Tuesday, 6th May 2014, if they are to be effective for the election.

6. Applications, amendments or cancellations of postal votes and changes to proxy voting arrangements, must reach the Electoral Registration Officer at the Town Hall, Wallasey by 5pm on Wednesday, 7th May 2014, if they are to be effective for this election.

7. All new applications to vote by proxy (except those applied for on relevant emergency grounds) must reach the Electoral Registration Officer at the Town Hall, Wallasey by 5pm on Wednesday, 14th May 2014, if they are to be effective for the election.

8. All applications to vote by proxy on relevant emergency grounds (disability occurring after 5pm on Wednesday, 14th May 2014; grounds relating to applicant’s occupation, service or employment where the applicant became aware of those grounds after 5pm on Wednesday, 14th May 2014; or detention under civil powers as a mental health patient) must reach the Electoral Registration Officer at the Town Hall, Wallasey by 5pm on Thursday, 22nd May 2014, if they are to be effective for the election.

DATED: Monday, 14th April
2014

Graham Burgess

LOCAL RETURNING OFFICER

Printed and Published by the Local Returning Officer, Town Hall, Wallasey, Wirral, CH44 8ED

If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.

Cabinet (Wirral Council) Special Meeting 18th April 2013

Special Cabinet meeting (Wirral Council) 18th April 2013 Labour confirm they’re sticking with the Leader and Cabinet model

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Present:
Cllr Phil Davies
Cllr Brian Kenny
Cllr Ann McLachlan
Cllr Chris Meaden
Cllr Chris Jones
Cllr Pat Hackett
Cllr Tony Smith
Cllr George Davies
Cllr Adrian Jones

The Chair (Cllr Phil Davies) welcomed people to the special meeting of Cabinet and asked for any declarations of interest. No declarations of interest were made, but apologies were given for Cllr Harry Smith by Cllr Chris Meaden.

The minutes of the previous Cabinet meeting were agreed.

The Chair said he would ask the Cabinet Member for Improvement and Governance to talk to this report (on revisions to Wirral Council’s constitution) after he said a few words himself. He thanked Stephen Gerrard for his work on the report.

Cllr Davies said the changes to the Council’s Constitution were “a key issue with the Improvement Board”, a “key action area in the Improvement Plan” and “an issue the Corporate Peer Challenge raised with us last Autumn”.

He continued by saying, “I want to stress at the outset that the Administration intend to continue to operate the Cabinet and Leader model, that’s very clear. We are not persuaded that it is time to depart from that model and we’re certainly not persuaded to go back to the old Committee system and I know that’s an issue of contention with the Opposition, but I want to make it absolutely crystal clear that that is the Administration’s position for the avoidance of doubt and I do personally believe that the Cabinet and Leader model is the best model for us at present and actually will enable us to work in the most efficient and effective way in which we make decisions. So I think it’s important to put that on record.”

He talked about the aims behind the changes and how their “big hope is the new arrangements will lead to greater engagement by local residents”. Cllr Davies said the new procedure for Council meetings was “designed to focus on things we are actually responsible for rather than things we’re not responsible for” and “we need to move away from the kind of too often I think all of us have been guilty about engaging in the kind of Punch and Judy aspect of debating the issues in the Council Chamber”.

Cabinet (Wirral Council) 8th February 2013: Trade Unions Agree to Cabinet’s Decision to Change Severance Scheme

Report on Cabinet meeting of the 7th February 2013 Part 1 with video. UNISON Wirral welcome agreement on severance scheme

Wirral Council: Trade Unions Agree to Labour Cabinet’s Decision to Change Severance Scheme

Wirral Council’s Cabinet decided to reject Chief Executive Graham Burgess’ advice that Wirral Council’s severance scheme should be reduced to the minimum required by law. Councillors opted instead for a multiplier of 1.8 (uncapped) compared to the previous scheme’s multiplier of 2.2 (reports for this agenda item).

A trade union representative gave councillors credit for not going for the statutory scheme. He said the enhanced scheme would help to bring forward volunteers for redundancy. Joe Taylor that had the Cabinet followed the advice to move to just fulfilling their legal requirements then they would’ve balloted their members for strike action.

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Cabinet (Wirral Council) 8th November 2012: Workforce Change and Consultation Part 1

Report on Cabinet meeting of the 8th November 2012 Part 1 with video.

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Wirral Council: Trade Unions Protest at Labour Cabinet’s Decision to Consult on Future Job Cuts and Changes to Terms and Conditions

Last night’s Cabinet meeting was so well attended, that the room venue had to change at the last-minute from the Council Chamber (capacity fifty) to the Civic Hall (capacity hundreds). Its usual venue of Committee Room 1 is being used for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections.

Unusually both the Civic Hall and the balcony were packed following a picket at 5pm outside Wallasey Town Hall.

In scenes that haven’t been seen at a Cabinet meeting since the Labour/Lib Dem Cabinet tried to close Wirral’s libraries (which led to the public inquiry led by Sue Charteris), the Labour Cabinet Members were booed on entering the Civic Hall. The first video (part of a longer playlist of the meeting) shows the first three items of the meeting, which are Declarations of Interest, Minutes and Workforce Change and Consultation and the report for this last item can be found on Wirral Council’s website.

There was a change to the original recommendation proposed and seconded by the Labour Group which was circulated to those at the meeting. This amendment (which was agreed) is below:

Proposed amendment

Agenda Item 10
12.1 a) 4. The potential impact on staff of the officer budget options including redundancy

b) Immediately suspend applications to the council’s existing employee enhanced Voluntary Severance Scheme

————————————————————————————————–
Revised recommendations (agreed)

12.1 That the Chief Executive is authorised to:

a) Open formal consultation with Trade Unions and staff under TULRCA (Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992) and as a matter of good practice on:

1. Changes to the council’s enhanced discretionary severance scheme policy under the Local Government (Early Termination of Employment) (Discretionary Compensation) (England and Wales) Regulations 2006.

2. Changes to the local conditions of service.

3. The terms upon which to implement the final stages of Job Evaluation, under the 1997 National joint agreement.

4. The potential impact on staff of the officer budget options including redundancy.

b) Immediately suspend of the council’s existing employee enhanced Voluntary Severance Scheme.

12.2 To recommend to the Employment and Appointments Committee that this report is considered and the Chief Executive is authorised to open consultation as outlined in Recommendation 12.1 (a) and that Recommendation 12 (b) is implemented.

The Chief Executive will report back on the progress of consultation the special budget Cabinet on 20 December 2012.

Below are links to the various videos of this Cabinet meeting.

Cabinet (Wirral Council) 8th November 2012 Part 1 Workforce Change and Consultation
Cabinet (Wirral Council) 8th November 2012 Part 2
Cabinet (Wirral Council) 8th November 2012 Part 3
Cabinet (Wirral Council) 8th November 2012 Part 4
Cabinet (Wirral Council) 8th November 2012 Playlist

Budget Meeting (Merseytravel | Merseyside Transport Authority) 9th February 2012 Chair’s Note

Chair’s Note from Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority Budget Meeting of the 9th February 2012.

I came across this Chair’s note for Merseytravel’s Budget Meeting in February, which I found interesting and explains why Cllr Mark Dowd (Labour Chair) did things the way he did at the meeting. I’m not sure if I was given it by mistake.

Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority

Budget Meeting

9 February 2012

Chair’s Note

1.       Apologies for Absence

Declaration of Interest

2.      Minutes of the Last Meeting

(Copy attached to this note).

3.      Mersey Tunnel Tolls

Chair to move the recommendation in paragraph 11 of the report.

4.      2012/2013 Budget – Financial Perspective

Chair to move the attached recommendation.

5.      Independent Review of Members Allowances

Chair to move that the Dr. Halls report be noted and comments be sought.

6.      Feedback from Members Workshop

Chair to receive, if any, from Members feedback with regard to the workshop held earlier in the day.

This information can be provided in alternative formats on request.