Tag: Councillor

Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee 20th October 2011 PACSPE Call-in

Tonight’s meeting was as the Cabinet decision of the 22nd September 2011 on the PACSPE contract had been called-in by Cllr Jeff Green, Cllr Tom Harney, Cllr Dave Mitchell, Cllr Lesley Rennie and Cllr David Elderton. At the end of a 3 1/2 hour meeting the voting went as follows. Labour Amendment to Conservative motion … Continue reading “Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee 20th October 2011 PACSPE Call-in”

Tonight’s meeting was as the Cabinet decision of the 22nd September 2011 on the PACSPE contract had been called-in by Cllr Jeff Green, Cllr Tom Harney, Cllr Dave Mitchell, Cllr Lesley Rennie and Cllr David Elderton.
At the end of a 3 1/2 hour meeting the voting went as follows.

Labour Amendment to Conservative motion

This amendment upheld the original decision.

Votes For         : 5 (Labour councillors)
Votes Against : 5 (Conservatives councillor plus one Liberal Democrat councillor)

Abstention       : 0
Casting vote of Conservative Chair: AGAINST

Votes For        : 5 (Labour councillors)

Votes Against: 6 (Conservatives councillor plus one Liberal Democrat councillor) + Chair’s casting vote
Abstention     :  0

AMENDMENT FAILS

Conservative Motion

Votes for          : 5 (Conservative councillors plus one Liberal Democrat councillor)

Votes against: 5 (Labour councillors)

Abstentions   : 0

Casting vote of Chair: For

Votes for:          6 (Conservative councillors plus one Liberal Democrat councillor) + Chair’s casting vote

Votes against: 5 (Labour councillors)

Abstentions:  0

MOTION PASSES (Proposed Cllr John Hale, seconded Cllr Don McCubbin)

Text of Motion:

This committee notes that:

    • The Cabinet appeared to ignore, and did not even mention, the findings of the Office of Government Commerce Gateway Reviews that the Parks & Countryside Services Procurement Exercise (PACSPE) had been subjected to.
    • No attempt was made to publically question officers from the Finance Department, the Legal Department and the Procurement Unit who were members of the PACSPE Project Board as to whether the “risk” identified by District Audit, and made such play of in the Cabinet resolution could or had been satisfactorily mitigated.
    • No discussion was had by Cabinet Members of the risks of not awarding the contract.
    • No mention or discussion took place regarding stakeholder management or the views of key stakeholders about the benefits of clear quality improvements that were built into the procurement exercise. In fact, other than the view of the Council’s Trade Unions, the results of the consultation and the views of the park users and user groups were not even mentioned in a single Cabinet meeting.
    • No reference was made to the new post of Community Engagement Manager to work with Friends, stakeholders, user groups, and local Area Forums or the new key performance indicators developed through PACSPE to reflect the change to a more customer and community focused service.
    • Insufficient account seemed to have been taken of the reduction from costs of £8.1 million per year to £7.4 million per year already achieved by the PACSPE process with the potential to reduce costs by a further circa £500,000. Indeed, it is hard to understand how the Leader of of the Council characterised a £1.2 million per annum potential saving arising from PACSPE to be sufficiently marginal to be ignored.
    • No effort appeared to be made by Cabinet Members to discuss or evaluate the additional costs to Council Tax Payers of purchasing what has been accepted as worn out equipment requiring immediate replacement (circa £2.5 million) or the TUPE costs of bringing current contractor staff into the Council workforce and pension scheme, per annum or over the 10 year period.
    • No mention was made of the training and development programme for staff and volunteers or the three to six new apprentices to be created as part of PACSPE.
    • No explanation was given at Cabinet regarding the opposition to a 10 year contract that would reduce annual costs by circa £1.2 million and improve the quality of our parks and countryside, other than the expressed need contained in the resolution to reduce spending by £85 million over three years.
    • Therefore we believe that the decision to refuse to award the PACSPE contract would see the ever decreasing quality of a service starved of investment by this administration which is already characterised by going for the quick fix instead of making the difficult but necessary strategic decisions in the interests of Wirral residents.

The Committee recommends to the Cabinet

*Editor’s note will have to check rest of resolution due to noise preventing taking it down*

My guess is that the rest of it is “reconsider the decision”.

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In the interests of openness, John Brace lives opposite Bidston Hill which is covered by the PACSPE contract.

Election Expenses: 2011 (Wirral Borough Council) Claughton ward Candidate: Stephen Foulkes Agent: George Davies Page 3

Election Expenses: 2011 (Wirral Borough Council) Claughton ward Candidate: Stephen Foulkes Agent: George Davies Page 3

                                         

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Section 4 Donations

Please tell us about any amount of money provided by the candidate to meet election expenditure – if no money has been provided enter 0 (zero)

Total value        £ ZERO

Enter the total value of all donations worth up to the cash value of £50.00. No further details are required about these donations

Total value      £ 50 . 00

Total value of donations worth more than £50.00      Total value     £ ZERO

Total donations accepted £ 827.00

This amount should be greater than or equal to total spending – see 3a and 3b

Total impermissible donations rejected  £ ZERO

Election expenses Steve Foulkes Page 3 Claughton Wirral Council 2011 Section 4 Donations

Election Expenses: 2011 (Wirral Borough Council) Claughton ward Candidate: Stephen Foulkes Agent: George Davies Page 1

Election Expenses: 2011 (Wirral Borough Council) Claughton ward Candidate: Stephen Foulkes Agent: George Davies Page 1

                                        

Page 1/13 Election expenditure form for election to Wirral Borough Council. Claughton ward. Stephen Foulkes. 2011. Original form text in black, handwriting in red here (for emphasis) but not on black and white photocopy is in black.

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Return of candidate spending: Local government election in England and Wales
Section 1 Details of candidate and election
Local Authority Wirral Borough Council
Ward/District Claughton
Electorate 11, 337
Date you became a candidate 25th March 2011
Date of election 5th May 2011
Date election result declared 6th May 2011
Candidate name Stephen Foulkes.
Registered Party The Labour Party.
Spending Limit £1,166.85
 
Section 2 Details of agent
Election agent’s name George Davies.
Date election agent appointed 25th March 2011
I am the agent responsible for delivering the return of candidate’s expenses under the Representation of the People Act 1983 X
I am the candidate and I was my own election agent. I am responsible for delivering this return of candidate’s expenses under the Representation of the People Act 1983

Election Expenses Steve Foulkes Page 1 Claughton Wirral Council 2011 Section 1 Details of candidate and election Section 2 details of agent

Wirral Council’s Cabinet meeting (21st July 2011) – the highlights – Grange Road West Sports Centre to transfer to Birkenhead Community Development Committee

Highlights of decisions of Wirral Council’s Cabinet meeting of the 21st July 2011

Here’s a quick rundown of what has been reported to ( the Labour Cabinet (Wirral Council) of the 21st July 2011:-

  • Under-age sales of alcohol during test purchases up (22%), which is 7% above target
  • % reduction in under-18 conception rate (-13%), target is -50%
  • Energy efficiency using software to shut computers down when not in use to save £80,000. Software hasn’t been installed but it costs £50,000.
  • Disposal of assets (expected to save £481,000) delayed (Pacific Road, Tramway Museum, Beechwood Community Centre etc)
  • Electronic payment for procurement delayed
  • Office rationalisation not meeting expected savings targets
  • % of council invoices from SMEs paid by Wirral Council within 10 days 45% (15% below a target of 60%)
  • Budget projected shortfall up to £25 million (from £20.8 million)
  • Mapleholme, Poulton House and 96 Manor Road to be auctioned off
  • Meadowcroft to go to Age UK (formerly Age Concern)
  • Westminster House to be sold to Wirral Partnership Homes for less than the £1.9 million originally agreed
  • Wirral Council’s contract procedure rules changed as the previous ones were criticised by the Audit Commission for not promoting fairness, quality, value for money and competition and to allow in-house bids (something the unions have been lobbying for for some time)
  • An extra £267,447 to resurface the Dock Links Road bringing the cost of this project to £1.1 million.

So where are Labour going to find £25 million of cuts or is that a mystery to be solved on another evening?

Wirral Council – Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 – Part 10 – speech (Cllr Lesley Rennie) on leader motion/amendment

Cllr Rennie next to speak said “If it was true [in relation to the Foulkesworld Twitter account] she was really worried, however she thought it was the product of a twisted mind. She said there had been signs of progress and that never before had the Council, staff, officers and residents worked together. She said they had run things in an open and transparent manner and hoped it would continue. Never in [Wirral Council’s] previous history had there been such a wide consultation exercise. The wishes of the people had been carried out or if impossible they had been written to. The next administration had to engage openly and honestly. Cllr Green’s leadership had supported a strong and able Cabinet with the support of the Liberal Democrats. However not here today were three Lib Dem former Cabinet members [Gill Gardiner, Bob Moon, Simon Holbrook]. She was concerned that a new administration would take Wirral Council back to the “bad old days” driven by dogma.

She said whenever a party is in government that members of that party who are local councillors suffer. She referred to John Major telling Conservative councillors in 1995 to take a sabbatical and that it may be a while. After 24 years, Wirral Council was Conservative led, run for the people of Wirral. She took a dim view of the Lib Dems and said there were not nine empty seats as there had been in 1991. She said she couldn’t imagine they were elected to Wirral Council to sit on their hands. Cllr Rennie repeated they were not elected to sit on their hands, but thought perhaps they had lost the glue that kept them together under the strong leadership of Simon Holbrook, deputy leader Gill Gardiner, Bob Moon and Stuart Kelly (who had been to one Cabinet meeting). She said it would be a shame to be tearing things apart when they had been willing to challenge when necessary.

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