Cllr Phil Davies agrees to £2.4 million of cuts for 2015-16 in 10 areas of Wirral Council expenditure

Cllr Phil Davies agrees to £2.4 million of cuts for 2015-16 in 10 areas of Wirral Council expenditure

Cabinet (Wirral Council) 8th December 2014 Background Shirley Hudspeth, Surjit Tour, Cllr Phil Davies & Graham Burgess foreground trade union representative Agenda item 4 Council Budget Consultation Findings
Cabinet (Wirral Council) 8th December 2014 Background Shirley Hudspeth, Surjit Tour, Cllr Phil Davies & Graham Burgess foreground trade union representative Agenda item 4 Council Budget Consultation Findings

Cabinet (Wirral Council) 8th December 2014 Background Shirley Hudspeth, Surjit Tour, Cllr Phil Davies & Graham Burgess foreground trade union representative Agenda item 4 Council Budget Consultation Findings

Cllr Phil Davies agrees to £2.4 million of cuts for 2015-16 in 10 areas of Wirral Council expenditure

                                                   

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Future Council Wirral logo
Future Council Wirral logo

                                                   

The Cabinet meeting on 8th December was well attended for the item on the recent “Future Council” budget consultation. £4 million of cuts were consulted on, of which £2.5 million would need to be chosen.

However minutes before that item was decided, Cabinet approved an ten-year extension to Biffa’s contract. This extended the contract from 2017 to 2027, which meant Cabinet then only had to find £2.4 million of cuts. This was because Biffa had offered a £500,000 reduction in 2015-16 in what they charge for services under the contract in return for the ten-year extension and changes to the contract. Yes, before anybody points it out I realise that £2.5 million – £500,000 = £2 million, not £2.4 million. As to what the other £400,000 saved on the Biffa contract will be used towards I’m unsure (maybe it’ll go towards the projected overspend this year)!

So what have the Labour Cabinet decided to cut? For the detail on what each of these budget options refers to you can read this blog post written at the start of the Future Council consultation that details what each budget options means. The West Kirby Marine Lake budget option has changed from transferring it to the private sector to an alternative budget option for it involving better marketing/increased income. These are each of the budget proposals they accepted in full, which as the Cabinet has to refer budget recommendations to Council to decide won’t be implemented yet.

Budget Options accepted in full
Council Tax Over 70s Discount £600,000
Allotments, Bowling and Football £35,000
Parking at Fort Perch Rock £25,000
Commemorations and Memorials £100,000
Litter and Dog Fouling Enforcement £70,000
All Age Disability Service £600,000
West Kirby Marine Lake £25,000
Girtrell Court £385,000

Total: £1.84 million

Budget Options accepted in part
Community Libraries £190,000 (originally £411,000)
Preventative Maintenance £370,000 (originally £570,000)

Total: £560,000

Grand Total: £2.4 million

Here’s what they chose not to cut in full (I’m leaving out the two options below of community libraries and preventative maintenance where partial savings were agreed as they are already mentioned above):

Budget options not chosen – these savings will not be made in 2015-16
Parking in Countryside Parks £50,000
Public Conveniences £140,000
Cold Calling Zones £80,000
Roadside Grit Bins £55,000
School Crossing Patrols £90,000
Pest Control £65,000
Youth and Play £450,000

Total: £930,000

+ part of savings from community libraries (£221,000) and
+ part of savings from Preventative Maintenance (£200,000)

Total: £1.351 million

So how does this compare to a prediction I made before this decision was made last night as to what would be cut?

Well I was correct on most of what the Cabinet chose. However I had to make my total reach £2.5 million as that was what was consulted on rather than the £2.4 million decided last night. The majority of the cuts (Over 70s Council Tax discount, Girtrell Court and All Age Disability Service which total about £1.5 million) I was right on.

The rest I was mainly right on with part of the error caused by having to make it total £2.5 million. However it’s still up to Council to debate them before a final decision is made. However with a Labour majority on Wirral Council it looks almost certain that Cllr Phil Davies will get his budget options approved.

Oh and in slightly related news, Cllr Phil Davies also confirmed his intention to not raise Council Tax in 2015-16 too and accept a Council Tax Freeze Grant (which is part of the reason why some of these cuts have to be made). You can answer why you think Cllr Phil Davies, with Cabinet responsibility for the budget who is up for election in May 2015 doesn’t want to put Council Tax up in 2015-16 in the comments if you wish.

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Marvin the Martian returns to talk about closure consultations involving Lyndale, fire stations (2) and libraries

Marvin the Martian returns to talk about closure consultations involving Lyndale, fire stations (2) and libraries

Marvin the Martian returns to talk about closure consultations involving Lyndale, fire stations (2) and libraries

                                                  

Marvin the Martian from Disney's Looney Tunes
Marvin the Martian from Disney’s Looney Tunes

The below is a fictional interview with Marvin the Martian about Lyndale School. Marvin the Martian is trademarked to Warner Brothers Entertainment. Our legal team point out their trademark doesn’t actually cover its use on blogs but in case they try to argue this blog is an “entertainment service”, it isn’t, so no laughing! Yes I mean it, not even a smile! We also point out it’s not an infringing use of class 9 of this trademark as that refers to its use on goods rather than virtually.

We rely on s.30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and class this as “fair dealing” due to the acknowledgement above. As the The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Quotation and Parody) Regulations 2014 came into force earlier this month, we’ll rely on this too and the new section 30A on parody.

If you are reading this from the UKIP party and are planning to leave a comment questioning the immigration status of Marvin the Martian or disagreeing that he should have any say whatsoever about British politics, we humbly point out that although is not British, he is a fictional character and figments to people’s imagination do not have to have permission to come here.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: The Martian High Command have asked me to survey the Wirral to try to understand its people and politics and write a report back but I find it all very confusing.

JOHN BRACE: Good luck with that! Even I don’t fully understand the Wirral people and its politics.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Well we have a few areas we are unsure of. Let’s start with Greasby.

JOHN BRACE: Yes, Greasby, I know where that is.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Well, we are very confused. We hear reports on your media of a consultation meeting in Greasby about fire stations, but people turned up but weren’t allowed to go to it? What sort of consultation on closure is that?

JOHN BRACE: I wasn’t there, I was covering a public meeting of Wirral Council at the time. Had I turned up I wouldn’t have been allowed in either as the place has to be able to be safely evacuated in case of a fire so has a set capacity. There is however a little irony there as it’s the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service who are doing the consultation. However the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service have informed the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority before that not many people at all turn up to their other fire station closure consultation meetings. So maybe they’re not used to large numbers of people turning up to public meetings?

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Well don’t Wirral Council own the land in Greasby that has the library, the Children’s Centre and other well-loved buildings on? Haven’t they offered (subject to the outcome of the consultation, a further decision and planning permission) a lease?

JOHN BRACE: Yes it does and that’s the Chief Fire Officer’s currently preferred site for the new fire station if Upton & West Kirby close. Yes, they have offered them a lease (subject to the outcome of the consultation, a further decision and planning permission).

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So why do the people of Greasby have a problem with their library closing?

JOHN BRACE: It’s historical, see your historical files on Earth. The Labour government minister at the time requested a public inquiry into library closures in 2009 so Labour councillors and the Lib Dems councillors were forced into a U-turn. Wirral people seem to still remember that and libraries for a number of years after libraries became a sacred cow of Wirral politics. However Cllr Foulkes said in the recent past that libraries shouldn’t be spared from the cuts and scrutiny.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And what else is happening on libraries and children centres?

JOHN BRACE: Well on libraries there’s a proposal to reduce opening hours at certain libraries. The decision to consult on the closure of children’s centres has been “called in”, the committee met to consider the “call in” then got adjourned. The committee is planning to meet again on the 12th November 2014 at 6.00pm. However its Labour Chair Cllr Moira McLaughlin was cheered up by some news.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: What news would that be, a U-turn on closing the children’s centres?

JOHN BRACE: No, the news that Cllr Chris Blakeley (Conservative spokesperson) has left the call in committee and been replaced by a different Conservative councillor.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Why would she be pleased?

JOHN BRACE: They have a history of, well how do I put it as diplomatically as possible without taking sides, arguing passionately with each other in public?

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So let me get this straight, they had a public inquiry into Wirral’s library closures which had been driven through by the then Leader of the Council Cllr Steve Foulkes at the Floral Pavilion chaired by Sue Charteris?

JOHN BRACE: Yes.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Then a few years later Wirral Council made Cllr Foulkes Mayor in exactly the same room Mayor, also at the Floral Pavilion?

JOHN BRACE: Yes.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Wow. This Cllr Foulkes guy sounds interesting. However back to Greasby. Which political party has the three local councillors in Greasby, Frankby and Irby?

JOHN BRACE: The Conservatives.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And the MP in Wirral West?

JOHN BRACE: The Conservatives.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And political control of the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority is in which party’s hands?

JOHN BRACE: Labour.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Ha, ha, ha. So Labour want to close a few fire stations in Wirral West to cause trouble?

JOHN BRACE: Labour will say they blame the Conservative/Lib Dem government or alternatively they’ll let the unions say roughly the same thing. However the unions have already gone on strike.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: I thought politicians weren’t allowed to be “party political”, however isn’t Esther McVey some type of government minister too?

JOHN BRACE: Yes. She’s currently the Minister for Employment so you can imagine how the public sector unions such as the Fire Brigades Union and other unions feel about that.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Isn’t she facing a General Election in about six months time in what is a marginal seat?

JOHN BRACE: Yes, the unions/Labour Party are already trying their best to replace her with the Labour candidate. See fracking and other issues.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: That’s enough about Greasby, libraries, children’s centres and Esther McVey though, what’s happening in Birkenhead?

JOHN BRACE: The Rt Hon Frank Field MP is telling people that antisocial behaviour is a bad idea.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Really, is he referring to Cllr Phil Davies and his plan (currently out to consultation again) to close Lyndale School?

JOHN BRACE: Don’t be silly! He’s doesn’t mean it like that! He doesn’t mean his own Labour Party! By the language used in press articles he’s referring to young people.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Ahh so the Rt Hon Frank Field MP isn’t picking on the disabled but he’s picking on young people, why do politicians always scapegoat young people? Isn’t Alison McGovern MP, MP for Wirral South in fact younger than you are?

JOHN BRACE: Now you’re making me feel old! Yes she is. Politicians scapegoat young people to play to their base. Politicians of all parties do it. Political parties have a history of having major political disagreements with their own party’s youth wing. See Lib Dems and tuition fees as a recent example of that. However the youth wing of political parties also represents the future of that party, so annoying them can be very short-term thinking.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And Alison McGovern is the MP where Lyndale School is?

JOHN BRACE: Yes. She’s MP for Wirral South, another marginal seat.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And as a Labour MP, if the Labour Cabinet decide to close Lyndale School before the election in May 2015 does that harm her chances of reelection next May?

JOHN BRACE: It would make it look (to some voters) if that happened like she had little influence over her own political party’s decision-making process (which isn’t entirely true but that would probably be how it would be spun in the press by her opponents).

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Ahh, but I thought officially the Labour Cabinet on Wirral Council had an “open mind” on the subject of closing Lyndale School?

JOHN BRACE: Please don’t get me started on that topic. There is a second consultation on it now, but I doubt Wirral Council would accept consultation responses from fictional characters.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So to sum up, there’s an election coming where everyone that can vote will get two votes, one for councillor, one for MP?

JOHN BRACE: Yes, “vote early and vote often (but no more than twice)” I could write if I was being slightly flippant!

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And in the lead up to elections you get election promises, vote for me and I’ll do this (or my party will do this)?

JOHN BRACE: Yes, even promises they know they can’t possibly keep after the election.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Are you implying party political candidates would deliberately lie about themselves and their own political party?

JOHN BRACE: I’d probably get sued or face an injunction if I answered that honestly! However you can’t libel a political party or a local council. Elections at their heart are a popularity contest and a battle for hearts and minds, so political parties will tell people what they think they want to hear.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Oh dear. So after the election a lot of people will be disappointed?

JOHN BRACE: They always are, before, during and after. Some of them have even given up on voting or being engaged in the political process.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN: That’s sad really. Well I’ll put all this in my report to the Martian High Command. Thanks for the interview!

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Baldrick has a “cunning plan” about horse trading (satire)

Baldrick has a “cunning plan” about horse trading (satire)

Baldrick has a “cunning plan” about horse trading (satire)

                         

The following is a work of satire. Any similarities to people living or dead are purely coincidental.

Baldrick has a cunning plan about horse trading (Blackadder)
Baldrick has a cunning plan about horse trading

HORSE TRADING

by

John Brace

INT. A LARGE OFFICE ROOM OF TYRRELL COUNCIL – DAY

BALDRICK
I have a cunning plan.

BLACKADDER
Does it involve turnips?

BALDRICK
No.

BLACKADDER
Does it involve closing half of the local libraries because Deputy Big Cheese is still cheesed off about that?

BALDRICK
No.

BLACKADDER
It doesn’t involve overcharging the disabled?

BALDRICK
No, my plan involves horses.

BLACKADDER
Horses? Well that’s new I suppose, but we’re a local council, we do serious stuff like schools and social services. We don’t horse around!

BALDRICK
Ahh, but this is a cunning plan involving other people’s horses.

BLACKADDER
Other people’s horses? Isn’t that theft?

BALDRICK
Have you heard of Turnbank Farm?

BLACKADDER
No.

BALDRICK
Well this council owns it. We rent it out to a riding stables for a pittance of a rent. The land is worth millions.

BLACKADDER
I still don’t understand what your cunning plan is.

BALDRICK
Well the lease comes up for renewal soon. My cunning plan is to send the tenants a letter saying we’ll renew the lease. The tenants will be lulled into a false sense of security and will think we want to renew. We then wait for the existing lease to expire then we can get them evicted. The land can then be sold for millions for housing and it’s on a flood plain!

BLACKADDER
That is a very dastardly, diabolical cunning plan. Is it legal though?

BALDRICK
Well if anyone queries why we sent the wrong letter, with all the bad things that have happened here over the past few years it’ll just be put down to incompetence rather than design.

BLACKADDER
That is the most evil, diabolical cunning plan you’ve ever come up with Baldrick. Not only are you suggesting we use trickery to get what we want but you’re suggesting houses should be built on a flood plain.

We just have to make sure none of the local press or bloggers find out before we get a judge to sign off on a possession order otherwise we’ll be foiled (and probably sacked). In case our in-house solicitor opens his mouth about this in court make sure he’s on holiday when it comes to trial.

BALDRICK
Certainly, Blackadder. Who will we get instead?

BLACKADDER
Well when the public find out about all this going on they’ll need cheering up, how about we get the famous comedian Dara O’Briain to represent us in court?

BALDRICK
I’m afraid the cupboard is a little bare after agreeing all those gagging orders, so we can’t afford the famous comedian Dara O’Briain. How about Sally O’Brion instead? She’ll only cost us £1,800.

BLACKADDER
Great. Let’s do it then. If anyone kicks up a fuss afterwards we’ll just say that it’s part of our job description to act “in a commercial manner” so they can’t sack us.

THE END OR IS IT?

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Cllr Steve Foulkes “I daren’t pick on the libraries because of my past”

Cllr Steve Foulkes “I daren’t pick on the libraries because of my past”

Cllr Steve Foulkes “I daren’t pick on the libraries because of my past”

                           

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Cllr Steve Foulkes had this to say about the Internal Audit update and its appendix presented to the Audit and Risk Management Committee, which starts at 20:20 in the video above.

He said, “Yeah, well I mean this report is good and it’s followed every month by the updated report on work that’s going on and I’m glad this work’s going on, but I think audit and risk can be a pretty dull committee for its old hands but I think what we should always try to do is put what we’re learning and what we’re investigating back into the real world in many ways.

If you look at the report around the libraries, and I’m not going to go into a debate about that, I’ve got too many scars over that. However, however, I need to be reassured that this isn’t an aspect of the service either because of the changes that have to be made or changes that are coming about or just a general poor management that’s taken place because often things like this are not just a symptom of poor regulatory or financial issues but are lack of morale, lack of motivation, lack of care in the service or a feeling perhaps sometimes of you know well ‘we’re untouchable, nothing else will happen’.

We’ve got twenty-four libraries, I think that the decision has been made that those assets are vital assets and the community have made an opinion about them, but at the same time they have to be run extremely efficiently, like every service that we have to justify what they’re doing and we’re asking them to take on more and more.

There’s no reason why the libraries shouldn’t be part of the front line sort of places where people do business and have trust in. So I’m just sort of saying that this has been investigated. If it’s a general malaise or a general lack of management or misunderstanding then certainly you know we are combining one stop shops with libraries, they are coming more along and if we’ve got twenty-four, there again we’d better make sure we get every single pennies worth of value out of them for the future. So I’m, what I would like to do on this is committee is actually use the audit in a broader way to draw attention to what is happening with the rest of the Council.

Likewise in 2.2, the Invigor8 direct debit, one of the ways the Council needs to become more efficient is encourage more people to do things like that with direct debit, the most you know quickest, cheapest form of transaction. So if 100% of the population did everything by direct debit, there would be considerable savings, so when we have a direct debit system that undermines public confidence in the Council and how it delivers those systems it makes alarms bells ring a little bit more in my head and says, ‘Come on, you know we can’t, we’ve got to be so spot on.’

We are actively, I hope actively tempting people to use and address Council services in the cheapest way for us and therefore protect more services that are not available. So I like to look underneath the headlines of you know, we made a mistake there some people I believe got £400 debit as opposed to a £40 debit. How many people will they have told about that? How many people will they say, ‘Don’t do a direct debit with the Council, they get it wrong!’

So my view is that you know these points can’t just be brushed over and say oh well it’s just you know librarians can’t manage money, well they have to if that want to work for the Council. Anybody has to manage money efficiently and our job of the audit is to see those signals and ask some more searching questions about what’s going on underneath.

You know if I just read that one particular site and I’m not saying this now I’m picking on the libraries, I daren’t pick on the libraries because of my past but as I say we’re asking them to become more front line, more proactive if they need to understand anything else. So I’m asking those questions, maybe Mark on my behalf could ask one of the heads of service who might be able to understand what’s going on on the ground.”

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Council (Extraordinary) (Wirral Council) 30th April 2013 | Revisions to the Constitution | Conservative Leader Cllr Jeff Green responds “We remember the libraries, we remember Martin Morton, we remember what you did in closing care homes, we will make sure that these issues are publicly debated whether the Labour Party likes it or not”

Council (Extraordinary) (Wirral Council) 30th April 2013 Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative Leader) responds to Labour’s proposed changes to the constitution with HD Video “We remember the libraries, we remember Martin Morton, we remember what you did in closing care homes, we will make sure that these issues are publicly debated whether the Labour Party likes it or not.”

Continued from Council (Extraordinary) (Wirral Council) 30th April 2013 | Revisions to the Constitution Cllr Phil Davies (Labour) speaks for the revisions | Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative) against

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Council (Extraordinary) Meeting, Council Chamber, 30th April 2013, Part 3 (Revisions to the Constitution) Conservative Leader Cllr Jeff Green responds

Cllr Jeff Green: “We remember the libraries, we remember Martin Morton, we remember what you did in closing care homes, we will make sure that these issues are publicly debated whether the Labour Party likes it or not.”

Extraordinary Council 30th April 2013 Cllr Jeff Green revisions to the Constitution Wirral Council

Cllr Jeff Green said the changes would make it less possible for Martin Morton to blow the whistle under the new arrangements and to have it discussed. He said that although [the existing Constitution] didn’t stop it, it did put it on the record and gave them a chance to do something about it. Cllr Green said the changes would stop them even having a debate asking the Administration to explain themselves, which was partly why the Conservatives thought getting rid of scrutiny committees was “inappropriate”. He expressed his concerns about child protection, to a heckle of Luddite from the Labour benches.

Cllr Green said he was supportive of Area Forums, he had asked for a report on them six months ago at the Leaders Board, however the Chief Executive had never felt it appropriate to bring it back to be discussed. The report had gone to Cabinet instead of seeking all party support. Cllr Green felt the process used had been deliberate in an attempt to try to cause division. He felt the proposals hadn’t been thought through, were unclear and that the new area committees would receive a far meagre sum of money [than the existing Area Forums].

On the changes to Council meetings, Cllr Green felt the Administration would ask officers to write a two-sided report, which councillors could then ask questions on. He said that the councillors wouldn’t get an immediate answer, wouldn’t be allowed to ask a supplementary, but at the end the Cabinet Member would answer all the questions in five minutes.

Cllr Green was also concerned about removing the right of councillors to place on the agenda and have issues debated. He had asked how many other Councils don’t allow councillors to do this and had been told “not very many”. He claimed it was only on Wirral that there was a tendency to “pull power to oneself” and “to sweep any opportunity for backbenchers at all to raise issues and have them debated”. Cllr Green finished by saying, “We remember the libraries, we remember Martin Morton, we remember what you did in closing care homes, we will make sure that these issues are publicly debated whether the Labour Party likes it or not.”