expenses | A blog about Wirral Council, Wirral Council's councillors & officers

Expense claim forms for Councillor Cherry Povall, JP 2013 to 2014

Councillor Cherry Povall is a Conservative Party councillor for Clatterbridge ward and is also a magistrate (also known as Justice of the Peace). However these expense claims are to do with her work as a councillor and not as a magistrate. It does give me the opportunity to ask, will any of her expenses claims be ruled “out-of-order” or is the bench “above reproach”?

Will the “court of public opinion” approve of Councillor Cherry Povall’s expenses or criticise her? Well that’s enough of the legal jokes! Her expenses claims are for going to pension conferences, more pensions meetings, Council meetings, foster panels, training for people on foster panels, overview and scrutiny committee meetings and the Youth and Play Service Advisory Committee.

However not all her expenses claims were allowed! In March 2014, she tried to claim £6.40 for travel (16 miles ~ 40p/mile) to a dedication to HMS Birkenhead (which from leaving her house to coming back she spent three and a half hours at). This £6.40 claim was rejected. Pictures (which include former Mayor Councillor Dave Mitchell) and a write-up about the new memorial to HMS Birkenhead can be read on The Sixth Form College (Birkenhead)’s website as it was one of their students who designed it.

I presume as this wasn’t classed as an “approved duty” that this is why it was turned down (however presumably all councillors received an invite to the unveiling of the memorial).

Her expense claim forms are below (the rejected claim for travel expenses to the HMS Birkenhead memorial is on page eight).

Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 1

Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 2

Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 3

Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 4

Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 5

Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 6

Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 7

Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 8

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Expense claim forms for Councillor Moira McLaughlin 2013 to 2014

Councillor Moira McLaughlin is a Labour councillor for Rock Ferry ward. She claimed for the expenses of going to two conferences (plus the cost of meals). The first one was “Improving the outcomes for young carers” and the second one was a London-based conference titled “Challenges of Ageing Population” (thus covering both ends of the age spectrum).

For the first conference her expenses are London Tube costs to do with Oyster cards, hotel costs, dinner and lunch costs. For the second conference her expenses are for the train, tube costs, breakfast, evening meal and tea. However a breakfast claim here for £8.60 (which sounds like an expensive breakfast) was reduced to £6.00 because councillors have set limits on what they can claim for meals. Her two pages of claim forms are below.

Cllr Moira McLaughlin expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1

Cllr Moira McLaughlin expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2

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Expense claim forms for Councillor Ann McLachlan 2013 to 2014

Now we turn to the expenses claims of one of my very own Labour councillors for Bidston & St. James ward Councillor Ann McLachlan. Cllr McLachlan is Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Governance, Commissioning and Improvement. As you can imagine from such a senior councillor, her expenses claims are quite long.

Her expenses claims refer to trips to the local Gautby Road Play and Community Centre Joint Management Committee in (you’ve probably guessed already) Gautby Road, on which she represents Wirral Council’s interest. In fact I think she’s Chair of that. Yes that’s the committee that is in charge of the play area next to the community centre which is kept padlocked because the last thing we want is children using a play area!, Improvement Board meetings (which ceased in November 2013), Chrysalis (what’s that?), a trip down to London for a pensions conference, Cabinet meetings, a “transformation event” at the Floral Pavilion, Wirral Metropolitan College governors meeting, interviewing job applicants for the Director of Resources post, trade union meeting about redeployment, more job interviews and shortlisting, work on the Member’s (Members refers to councillors) Training Steering Group, the Chrysalis Board (again), a LGA Conference in Manchester, a “Strategic Communications” workshop at the Floral Pavilion, another redeployment meeting, “Visioning Training” at the Floral Pavilion, a meeting of the Democracy Working Party, the LGA Leadership Academy in Coventry (module 3) please, please no jokes in the comments about her being sent to Coventry where she spent £35 on taxis, another Leadership Academy in Coventry (module 2) when her taxi claim was £41.80 (maybe module 2 teaches you leadership skills such as how to get cheaper taxis to the same place), the Beechwood and Ballantyne Housing Association Board, interviews for a Strategic Director, shortlisting for the Director of Children and Young Peoples Department, more leadership training in Coventry where the taxi was only £10.40, the local Area Forum, a meeting to do with the Hoylake Golf Resort launch, full Council meetings, Youth Parliament, well you can see for yourself below how busy she’s been!

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 11

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 12

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 13

Cllr Ann McLachlan expenses claim 2013 2014 page 14

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Expense claim forms for Councillor Brian Kenny (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

Writing this, I had better declare that many years ago in Liverpool Councillor Brian Kenny gave us both a gift of a red plastic post box in I think in 2010 (it’s only a few inches high) as part of the lobbying that the Communication Workers Union were doing at the time of people like myself and Leonora. Although this falls into the trivial category, journalism ethics means I’d better state that at the start as I don’t want people thinking I’m being too kind or not objective enough to former Councillor Brian Kenny because of something he gave us four years ago. I will point out that gift was completely unconnected to my work as a journalist. However this is probably more openness and accountability than you will get from most politicians (who were recently told at a Planning Committee meeting about Tranmere Rovers that they only had to declare gifts received in the last twelve months)!

When I picked up the expenses claim forms to scan in for former Councillor Brian Kenny, at first I thought I must have picked up a batch which was for more than one councillor as compared to other councillors there seemed a lot of it. I know he was the Cabinet Member for the Environment, but his expenses claim forms go on and on and on and on and on like the waves crashing against the shore on the Wirral coastline.

As probably readers of this blog are already aware, former Councillor Brian Kenny lost his seat in Birkenhead and Tranmere in the May 2014 elections to the Green Party’s Councillor Pat Cleary.

I have only seen Brian Kenny twice since the elections. Once was at the meeting where Councillor Steve Foulkes became Mayor of Wirral in June, the other time was when I was at the Birkenhead County Court offices when I was requesting copies of court records on Wirral Council’s possession order (granted in February 2014 effective from February 2015) for Fernbank Farm. Before I start getting diverted into interesting anecdotes about a former councillor I had better show you first the expenses forms.

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 11

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 12

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 13

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 14

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 15

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 16

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 17

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 18

Cllr Brian Kenny expenses claim 2013 2014 page 19

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Expense claim forms for Councillor Stuart Kelly (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

Councillor Stuart Kelly is a Liberal Democrat councillor for Oxton ward. He is also their spokesperson on the Audit and Risk Management Committee (which at the time of writing) will be meeting tomorrow evening to sign off on Wirral Council’s accounts for 2013-14 (which include his own expenses claims) totalling hundreds of millions of pounds.

So, having received specialised audit training and being the spokesperson for audit on Wirral Council for his party do all his expense claims add up? No he claimed too much by £0.40p for travelling to a meeting in Birkenhead as 3 * 40p does not equal £1.60. How embarrassing for Councillor Stuart Kelly (but thankfully this risk of overpayments was noticed before it was paid)? However we all make mistakes.

On the plus side he is one of the few councillors that type their expenses claims, which as some councillors have handwriting that is very difficult to decipher helps a lot with comprehension. Councillor Stuart Kelly’s claim forms are below.