Tag: expenses

Expense claim forms for Councillor Mike Hornby (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor Mike Hornby (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor Mike Hornby (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

                                                

Councillor Mike Hornby is a Conservative Party councillor for Greasby, Frankby & Irby (which sounds like three wards but is actually one). Eleven pages of claim forms were given to me relating to him (which at least shows that unlike some other councillors who aren’t sticking to the rules as some councillors were putting many months of expenses on the same set of forms, he is at least doing these on a monthly basis making them far easier to understand).

The eleven pages of claim forms submitted by Councillor Mike Hornby are below including what looks like some corrections to the original entries that have been corrected.

Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 11
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 11

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

Expense claim forms for Councillor Andrew Hodson (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor Andrew Hodson (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor Andrew Hodson (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

                                  

Councillor Andrew Hodson is a Conservative councillor for Heswall ward. His expense claim forms are below.

Some of his duplicate claims seem to have been disallowed.

To be honest I did manage to do this myself once over a very small claim when a politician (although our expenses claims were over smaller amounts than councillors plus we didn’t get paid allowances (only the fulltime ones did)). Our expenses took an incredibly long time to process as they all required four signatures (three politicians and an officer)) which at times put you off claiming at all. All our expense claims had to be initially signed off by two politicians (the person claiming and another politician). Rather stupidly I completely ignored the verbal advice of our treasurer at the time who told me it was a duplicate claim and then got rather embarrassed later when it was brought up by an officer when it got processed and disallowed as I got shall we say shouted at by an officer for doing so. However I admitted my mistake, said I was sorry for stupidly ignoring someone’s warnings and learnt my lesson about actually listening to people you are senior to and I never did it again.

Part of the problem was that I had submitted the original claim many weeks ago and as it hadn’t been paid yet, I naturally assumed that I had forgotten to do so as I have a tendency to be absent-minded at times. Rather embarrassingly the original claim got paid a day or two after I submitted the duplicate.

So duplicate claims happen, even to people like me! Human error can happen and that’s why there are checks and balances. Certainly the expenses system we had in place was (and we’re talking about sums of about ~£25 per a year per a politician and only about ~£8 (or less) a year of that sum was actually from the taxpayer, so it was very small sums indeed I got shouted at over) was even more arcane and bureaucratic than Wirral Council’s is. When I handed over to the person who replaced me, some jokes were made at the time about it being like the MP’s expenses system, I had to tell them it wasn’t that generous!

Cllr Andrew Hodson expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr Andrew Hodson expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr Andrew Hodson expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr Andrew Hodson expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr Andrew Hodson expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3
Cllr Andrew Hodson expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3
Cllr Andrew Hodson expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr Andrew Hodson expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr Andrew Hodson expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5
Cllr Andrew Hodson expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5

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

Expense claim forms for Councillor Sylvia Hodrien 2013

Expense claim forms for Councillor Sylvia Hodrien 2013

Expense claim forms for Councillor Sylvia Hodrien 2013

                            

Councillor Sylvia Hodrien (a Labour councillor for Upton ward) sadly died in September 2013 before I write this. Therefore her expense claim forms are of historical interest only. Due to her death, these are only for part of that year.

Following the Upton by-election in October 2013 Matthew Patrick (now Councillor Matthew Patrick) was elected to serve the rest of her term of office which means his terms of office is for just over two and a half years.

As the person to whom this relates is dead, I will not be making any further comment other than the above by way of explanation.

Cllr Sylvia Hodrien expenses claim 2013 page 1
Cllr Sylvia Hodrien expenses claim 2013 page 1
Cllr Sylvia Hodrien expenses claim 2013 page 2
Cllr Sylvia Hodrien expenses claim 2013 page 2

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

Expense claim forms for Councillor John Hale (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor John Hale (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor John Hale (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

                                                   

Carrying on with the series of councillor’s expense claim forms we get to councillors whose surnames begin with H and the first one of those is Councillor John Hale. Councillor John Hale is a Conservative Party councillor for the ward of Hoylake and Meols (that’s the name of one ward not two different wards). He’s been a councillor since 1975 and according to Wirral Council’s website apart from a few months in 1999 has been a councillor for nearly all that time.

He’s one of Wirral Council’s representatives on the Merseyside Police and Crime Panel who earlier this year banned filming at one of their meetings in Birkenhead Town Hall. The Merseyside Police and Crime Panel most recent meeting on September 4th 2014 could be filmed (however we weren’t at it). I will however point out that Councillor John Hale was a member of the Merseyside Police and Crime Panel but wasn’t present at the meeting of 24th April 2014 when that filming decision was made by Councillors Frank Prendergast (Everton, Liverpool City Council (Labour)), Peter Brennan (Old Swan, Liverpool City Council (Labour)), Doreen Kerrigan (Linacre, Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council (Labour)) and Moira McLaughlin (Rock Ferry, Metropolitan Borough of Wirral (Labour)).

However in a cunning move the “powers that be” (Knowsley is the host authority for the Merseyside Police and Crime Panel), made sure that future meetings of the Merseyside Police and Crime Panel are now held in Huyton (reason given was “cost grounds” at the public meeting I wasn’t allowed to film earlier this year) which when you consider this increases the costs of many councillors’ expenses claims travelling there, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s staff travel costs etc it would seem to be a rather spurious claim as although Knowsley said they could get their own Council Chamber for “free”, it’ll still form part of the administrative costs I’m sure they’ll claim back from the Home Office.

It seems a common theme that the increased costs of doing things differently are never brought up in a public meeting (which let’s face it in many places are run for the convenience of officers and councillors not the “public” who often aren’t even there) just the supposed “savings”. After all Knowsley officers had a very long briefing (in private) with the four councillors before the meeting started and one can only guess (from what was during the public meeting that they wouldn’t allow to be filmed which is a decision that didn’t even make the official minutes) that the officers persuaded them to hold future public meetings where officers work (therefore Knowsley officers wouldn’t have to travel much to different bits of Merseyside but the many people on the Panel, whether independent members or councillors, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s staff and everyone else going to this meeting would have to travel further) and not holding it at a more central place in Merseyside. I assume it’s Wirral Council paying these travel costs (for its councillors on the Panel) because nobody has ever told me whether these expenses are recharged back to Knowsley (as the host authority).

What however is interesting to note is that Knowsley Council received £53,000 in 2013/14 for the administration costs of the Merseyside Police and Crime Panel and £11,040 for those on it (which is up to £920 per panel member for expenses) from the Home Office.

Maybe Knowsley think the room hire cost for Birkenhead Town Hall is just too extortionate when you consider Knowsley are only receiving a paltry £53,000 from the Home Office!

However peering into the murk of Wirral Council councillor’s expense claims, it’s now unclear whether Councillor John Hale’s expense claim to Wirral Council for travelling to the Merseyside Police and Crime Panel are (or have been) recharged back to the host authority Knowsley or not. Certainly if Knowsley is getting “up to £920 per member for expenses” it would seem terribly unfair for Wirral residents to be footing the bill through both national and local taxes whilst Knowsley gets the money. It’s something I’ll have to ask Wirral Council’s auditor Grant Thornton about though as I’m unsure.

Its predecessor body (before the Police and Crime Commissioner elections in November 2012) the Merseyside Police Authority met in Liverpool City Centre. However from what I remember the new Police and Crime Commissioner Jane Kennedy as far as I know decided that the building the Merseyside Police Authority used to meet in wasn’t needed. Public meetings involving the Merseyside Police now happen in a variety of different locations.

Huyton, from a historical perspective is part of Lancashire and we both half wondered if this came about because in Birkenhead Town Hall (whilst waiting for the briefing to finish) we both said in earshot of a Knowsley Borough Council employee that if they had the Merseyside Police and Crime Panel as far away as Huyton that we probably wouldn’t be able to get to its public meetings.

This is just one aspect of his expenses claim though but if expenses aren’t currently being recharged back to Knowsley it may represent a small saving to Wirral Council if it was. It’s certainly a question I should ask of Wirral Council’s auditors.

Below are Councillor John Hale’s expense claim forms.

Cllr John Hale expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr John Hale expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr John Hale expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr John Hale expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
https://johnbrace.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/cllr-john-hale-expenses-claim-2013-2014-page-3.jpg
https://johnbrace.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/cllr-john-hale-expenses-claim-2013-2014-page-3.jpg
Cllr John Hale expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr John Hale expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr John Hale expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5
Cllr John Hale expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5

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

The list of councillors at Wirral Council that didn’t claim expenses during 2013-14

The list of councillors at Wirral Council that didn’t claim expenses during 2013-14

The list of councillors at Wirral Council that didn’t claim expenses during 2013-14

                                                  

Councillor Chris Blakeley of the Conservatives points out on Twitter that there are many councillors that haven’t claimed expenses (I’m not referring to allowances) in 2013-14 including himself.

He suggests I write a list of those that didn’t claim expenses in the 2013-14 period.

Here it is compiled from this list here (although some are now as this last financial year ended in April former councillors): Councillors Abbey, Blakeley, Eddie Boult, Brighouse, Brightmore, Clements, Cox, Crabtree, Bill Davies, Dodd, Doughty, Ellis, Foulkes, Fraser, Gilchrist, Glasman, Green, Gregson, Hackett, Harney, Hayes, Andrew Hodson, Kathy Hodson, Johnston, Adrian Jones, Chris Jones, Kearney, Leech, Lewis, Meaden, Mitchell, Mountney, Muspratt, Niblock, Norbury, Patrick, Realey, Rennie Roberts, Rowlands, Walter Smith, Stapleton, Sullivan, Sykes, Walsh, Watt, Steve Williams, KJ Williams and Williamson.

Obviously the money that these people could have claimed (but didn’t) could be used for providing the services the Wirral people expect of a local Council. Using the councillors that did claim as a guide to amounts as to what this hypothetical amount could be, it represents a saving of about £13,700.

The list linked to above shows the allowances councillors get and let’s face it there are not many people that get paid a mileage allowance to travel from home to their place of work. Yes, being a politician isn’t a “job”, it’s an office, but after the MP expenses scandal broke a few years ago I was surprised so many at Wirral Council were still claiming expenses at all.

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