What did the public ask the 4 MPs on the House of Commons Transport Committee in Liverpool yesterday?
What did the public ask the 4 MPs on the House of Commons Transport Committee in Liverpool yesterday?
Transport Committee (House of Commons) Question and Answer Session Right Lilian Greenwood MP (Chair, Nottingham South) left Daniel Zeichner MP (Cambridge), Mann Island, Liverpool 14th January 2019
The House of Commons Transport Committee visited Liverpool yesterday to hear a formal evidence session from witnesses from Merseytravel, Arriva and Stagecoach. Unfortunately their link video recording link didn’t work and their session is only at the time of publication available in audio which can be listened to here. Although I was present for part of that, I’m not permitted to film it although it was interesting to see how scrutiny by Members of Parliament is different to scrutiny by councillors.
Although industrial correspondents seem to have disappeared from the media, as a political journalist reporting on political protests is part of the role. As you’d expect I’ve seen many protests (in fact nearly every Liverpool City Council meeting I went to earlier this year seemed to have a protest outside) but never have I ever seen a protest involving a massive tuna can.
Greenpeace did send me a press release, however I haven’t based this story on the press release but instead some questions posed to Greenpeace instead as there are already other stories in the media based largely on the press release.
You are probably wondering what the connection is to the Merseyside taxpayer. A long time ago, Merseytravel moved its headquarters from Hatton Gardens and signed a lease for Mann Island. For some reason (don’t ask me why) they rented the whole building at Mann Island including many floors they wouldn’t need.
I posed some original questions to Greenpeace and these are their answers. I was at Mann Island yesterday for a public meeting, but due to the protest Mann Island was in partial lockdown so it would’ve been impossible to speak to John West to report on their side. My questions are in bold.
Q. The building you were protesting outside today is leased by a body called Merseytravel. However they realised they had leased too many floors and needed tenants.
Did you know about this taxpayer support that was behind John West’s HQ being based at Mann Island?
This looks interesting but it’s not something we have a position on I’m afraid – as our focus is on the sustainable and ethical fishing methods of John West and their owners – Thai Union – who are the world’s largest tuna company.
Q. You state that John West have broken their promises. Are there other brands of tuna you’d recommend consumers buy that are fished for sustainably?
Yes, we have a tuna league table which ranks the tinned tuna sold by the UKs major supermarkets and tuna brands, according to how sustainable and ethical it is. It’s here – scroll down. Overwhelmingly, the most sustainable options for consumers are supermarket own brands. Waitrose, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Aldi all perform very well. So too do Asda, Morrisons and the Coop – all of which sell 100% sustainably caught tuna in their own brand tins. At rock bottom is John West, with just 2% sustainably caught tuna in their tins. Princes and Lidl also need to do much better and change the way they source their tuna.
Q. What is John West’s response to your protest? As someone who was in the building today, it was basically put on a partial lockdown in case protestors wanted to go to the John West part. Have you had any formal response from John West?
There has been no response from John West today as a result of our activities. We tried to deliver our petition containing the names of more than 70,000 people who are demanding that John West honour its sustainability commitment and its owners – Thai Union – clean up their act globally. But Paul Reenan, the John West MD refused to come down and accept it.
John West has put out a previous statement, responding to the launch of our campaign just over 4 weeks ago. The main points they raise and our rebuttals are here.
Q. If John West made claims that turn out to be false have you taken this up with trading standards?
A Greenpeace investigation found 1000s of John West tuna products coming from Thailand and some of them had 100% traceability labels on tins that were misleading. This is because they claimed the tuna could be traced back to the vessel that caught it, using their website, but this was false. More on that investigation here. It’s an interesting angle and it’s definitely something that could be looked into.
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Why did Merseytravel spend £33,781.20 last year with Veale Wasbrough Vizards about its move to Mann Island?
Why did Merseytravel spend £33,781.20 last year with Veale Wasbrough Vizards about its move to Mann Island?
I went to a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Audit Committee yesterday and if you wish you can view the video of that meeting below. The agenda and reports for that meeting is on Merseytravel’s website.
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Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Audit Committee meeting 12th May 2015
What did occur to me after the meeting finished was that since the Local Government Transparency Code applies to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, that Merseytravel (which is now part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) would be required to publish a list of payments made over £500 each month on its website.
Unlike Wirral Council and the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority, who also publish comma separated values files of the same information (which can then be sorted in a spreadsheet) Merseytravel just publish this information as PDF files.
Links to each of these files which cover the last financial year are below.
If you’re observant, you’ll have noticed a gap for the month from the 26th May 2014 to the 25th June 2014. I’ve emailed Merseytravel to ask for the missing month of payments.Ed – 22/5/2015 – Merseytravel got back in touch with me on the 21st May informing me the missing month had now been put on their website, so it is now linked to above. The missing month includes another payment of £680 made to Veale Wasbrough Vizards for legal costs to do with the HQ relocation that was not available to me when originally writing this article.
However the other 11 months make for interesting reading.
There are a number of payments to a Veale Wasbrough Vizards (which is a Bristol based firm of solicitors) relating to Merseytravel’s controversial headquarters move from Hatton Gardens to Mann Island.
1 Mann Island (Merseytravel’s new headquarters)
Here’s a list of the payments made to Veale Wasbrough Vizards:
Merseytravel also paid £977.50 to Sara Bradbury in October 2014 for “Counsels Fees”.
A number of insurance payments were made by Merseytravel with compensation given as the reason.
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE
16/5/2014
Compensation – Public Liability
S-2101
Ins – General
£7,008
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE
18/7/2014
Compensation – Public Liability
S-2101
Ins – General
£2,717.00
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE
14/8/2014
Compensation Public Liability
S-2101
Ins – General
£8,500.00
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE
25/7/2014
Compensation Misc
S-2101
Ins – General
£11,575.00
THOMAS COOPER
8/8/2014
Compensation Misc
S-2101
Ins – General
£7,300.00
MERCURY LEGAL LLP
18/12/2014
Compensation Employers Liability
S-2101
Ins – General
£7,182.17
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE
18/12/2014
Compensation Public Liability
S-2101
Ins – General
£16,790.00
Total
£61,072.17
There was a payment for £507 to Weightmans LLP for an invoice dated 31st March 2014 for “specialist services”. Merseytravel also paid five amounts (£3,800, £2,600, £4,400, £750 and £2,145) to a firm of solicitors called Davies Wallis Foyster LLP for invoices in 2014 for the services of a solicitor.
Two payments of £15,115 and £15,590 were made to Royal & Sun Alliance for invoices dated 27th August 2014 and the 3rd December 2014 for the costs of external 3rd party solicitors.
Robert Jackson Solicitors charged £2,000 in an invoice dated 13th February 2015 for legal costs associated with an insurance claim, in the same month Merseytravel paid £4,812 to CS Cooper C/O Collins Long Solicitors which was again for legal costs to do with an insurance claim.
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Merseytravel (Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority) meeting of the 25th October 2012. Pictured are councillors (Cllr Ron Abbey (Labour Party, Wirral Council), Cllr Steve Foulkes (Labour Party, Wirral Council), Cllr Les Rowlands (Merseytravel Alliance Signals Good Governance (Conservative), Wirral Council), Cllr John Dodd (Merseytravel Alliance Signals Good Governance (Liberal Democrat), Sefton Council) and other councillors), various officers and a member of the public.
Audit Commission criticise Merseytravel in audit report on Mann Island lease
Unfortunately I arrived at the meeting (starting at 2.30pm) about fifteen minutes late, caused in part by an eight minute delay due to Platform 1 at nearby James Street station being closed (which is run by Merseyrail in which Merseytravel have a controlling interest) and other reasons.
When I got there (and negotiated my way to the first floor using the terribly confusing system for the lifts where you have to enter your floor number and press another button before you get into the lift), the meeting had started, the agenda had already been reordered and the item I was particularly interested in (ten) had already started as unfortunately items 3-9 were being left to the end of the meeting. I had missed completely agenda items 1 (Apologies for absence) and 2 (Minutes of the last meeting), which is no big loss as the minutes can be read on Merseytravel’s website and who was absent could be ascertained by who was there.
Agenda item 10 was the Audit Commission: Completion of 2011/12 Audit which sounds dull but wasn’t. The Audit Commission were there to report on the Completion of the 2011/2012 Audit for Merseytravel (both the Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority and Merseyside Integrated Transport Executive).
The audit fees had increased by £10,140 due to an extra two and half weeks of unplanned work required by the District Auditor, Audit Manager and Principal Auditor which related to four areas:-
a) responding to queries from officers, councillors and members of the public,
b) problems with working papers, quality assurance not being robust, not all agreed improvements being made,
c) changes to accounts and disclosures
and
d) errors in the accounting treatment for the Mann Island lease (see picture below) and lease incentives.
Merseytravel (Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority) meeting of the 25th October 2012. Pictured are councillors (Cllr Ron Abbey (