EXCLUSIVE: Letter from Cllr Phil Davies to Cllr Jeff Green about “Wirralgate”

EXCLUSIVE: Letter from Cllr Phil Davies to Cllr Jeff Green about “Wirralgate”

EXCLUSIVE: Letter from Cllr Phil Davies to Cllr Jeff Green about “Wirralgate”

                         

Wirral Council logo

Please reply to:

Councillor Philip L Davies
Leader of Wirral Council

Town Hall, Brighton Street
Wallasey, Wirral
Merseyside, CH44 8ED
Telephone: 0151-691 8539
Fax: 0151-691-2887
Email: phildavies@wirral.gov.uk
Date: 17 December 2013

Councillor J Green
Leader of the Conservative Group
Wallasey Town Hall
Brighton Street
Wallasey
WIRRAL       CH44 8ED

my ref PD0012/DLK

Dear Jeff,

I write in response to your question at Council. I will also copy this response to all Members and ask for it to be published as an appendix to the Council minutes.

A group of individuals approached me about this matter. The individuals did not wish to make a formal complaint regarding the comments allegedly made by one of my Senior Members regarding a Senior Council Officer. However I am absolutely committed to ensuring that all matters of concern are properly investigated and so chose to immediately refer the matter to the Chief Executive.

The Chief Executive instructed the Strategic Director for Transformation and Resources, in his position as Deputy Monitoring Officer, to conduct an investigation and an Independent Investigator was appointed.

The Senior Officer concerned does not wish the investigation report to be made public, and I intend to respect their wishes. However if you would like to see a copy I will ask the Chief Executive to make it available to you. I intend to make the same offer to the Leader of the Liberal Democrats. I have been informed that you have been briefed previously regarding the outcome of that investigation however for clarity I will outline the conclusions.

The Independent Investigator wrote on two occasions to the individuals who had brought this matter to my attention, however they refused to cooperate. All other concerned parties were interviewed, with external legal advisors present. No evidence was made available to the investigation to substantiate a serious allegation regarding inappropriate language.

The Senior Member concerned did make clear that he had made adverse comment regarding a Senior Officer, comments he regrets. The Investigation therefore found there had been a breach of the Council’s Code of Conduct. It concluded that an apology to the Officer concerned and a conciliation process was appropriate. At the request of the Senior Officer the matter has been dealt with in a confidential manner.

We have discussed the issue of improving the culture of this Council and I believe that both myself as Leader, and you as Leader of the Opposition have a crucial role to play in this. I have stated publicly, at Improvement Board and elsewhere, that the number one priority for this Council over the coming months must be to address this once and for all. I do not believe this is a matter for party politics, our staff and the residents of Wirral deserve and expect us to take a lead.

I would therefore again urge you that if you have any evidence of wrong doing, or can encourage others to supply any evidence that exists of wrongdoing, that you work with me to bring this to light. I promise that if this happens a further robust investigation will take place.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Phil Davies signature

Councillor Phil Davies

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Wirral Council say police are “fairly confident arrest will be made fairly shortly” in £45k care home fraud

Wirral Council say police are “fairly confident arrest will be made fairly shortly” in £45k care home fraud

Wirral Council say police are “fairly confident arrest will be made fairly shortly” in £45k care home fraud

                    

This story is an update to an earlier blog post headlined Wirral Council reveals how fraudsters conned them out of £45k. Video of this part of Wirral Council’s Audit and Risk Management Committee starts at the beginning of agenda item 6 and continues at the next clip for a further fifteen minutes. The report into this item is available to read here.

Mark Niblock (Wirral Council’s Chief Internal Auditor) said to those at the Audit and Risk Management Committee meeting, “Since the report was written we have had further contact and we’ve undertaken further investigations with the banks concerned and their fraud teams and we’ve managed to identify a number of account holders residents in the South of England. Active names and addresses of active accounts that’s been passed on to the Metropolitan Police and they are fairly confident that an arrest will be made fairly shortly. That may or may not lead to some of the monies may … be recovered. They did say progress had been made.”

Joe Blott, Strategic Director of Transformation and Resources in answer to questions from councillors, “it’s important to note that whether it’s error or negligence or anything else, that I have authorised that an appropriate internal disciplinary investigation does take place” and later added, “just to clarify just in terms of that internal disciplinary investigation, it does cover more than one person”.

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Coordinating Committee (Wirral Council) 3rd September 2013 Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

A report on Wirral Council’s Coordinating Committee’s meeting of the 3rd September 2013 specifically the item on the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

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Continues from Coordinating Committee (Wirral Council) 3rd September 2013 Agenda items 1,3 and 4.

Combined Authority – Cabinet Minute No 45 3:37

Joe Blott, Strategic Director for Transformation and Resources told the Coordinating Committee that the matter was referred to them by Wirral Council’s Cabinet decision of the 8th August 2013. The issue was the subject of a consultation in Wirral and the other authorities. He went into the detail of the Cabinet report of the 8th August 2013, along with appendices 1 (Strategic Governance Review Draft), 2 (Appendix 2 Potential Role for a LCR Combined Authority) and 3 (Draft Scheme for the Establishment of a Combined Authority for LCR) .

He referred to an upcoming City Region Cabinet meeting, the Council meeting of the 19th September and a deadline of the 30th September 2013 for a submission to central government. Cllr Wittingham asked if there were any questions?

Cllr Abbey referred to the timescale having been moved back from July to September, but it would give them access to “major funding”. He referred to Lord Heseltine’s work on devolving government budgets.

Cllr Fraser asked for clarification on the cost implications of the Combined Authority. Cllr Clements asked if it was neutral in cost?

Joe Blott said the Coordinating Committee wasn’t the decision-making committee for it, but as they would be combining six existing processes hopefully they would create efficiencies.

Cllr Brighouse referred to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and incorrectly labelled Wirral Council as a separate transport authority.

Joe Blott said that Halton was a transport authority, Cllr Foulkes said that Cllr Brighouse’s statement that Wirral Council was a transport authority was not factual. Cllr Ron Abbey said that Wirral Council was a highways authority, not a transport authority. Joe Blott said that Wirral Council was a highways authority and not a transport authority.

He went on to say that the new arrangements would be more open and transparent than existing arrangements with the potential for greater decision-making and influence on the City Region.

Cllr Elderton asked about the statutory powers of a combined authority and whether this would lead to increased costs for Wirral Council? He wanted assurances that that wouldn’t happen.

Joe Blott said that if it existed it would have responsibility for regeneration projects, which may lead to the employment of specialist people or specialist contracts. Cllr Elderton asked for noting of his concerns.

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