Tag: Merseyside Police Authority

Exclusive: Merseyside Police Authority fails to set Budget for 2012/2013

At an exciting afternoon meeting of the Merseyside Police Authority councillors and independent members failed to agree a Budget. Although a majority were in favour of a 3% increase in the police element of Council Tax for Merseyside residents amounting to £2.92 extra a year for Band A and £4.39 extra a year for Band D, … Continue reading “Exclusive: Merseyside Police Authority fails to set Budget for 2012/2013”

At an exciting afternoon meeting of the Merseyside Police Authority councillors and independent members failed to agree a Budget. Although a majority were in favour of a 3% increase in the police element of Council Tax for Merseyside residents amounting to £2.92 extra a year for Band A and £4.39 extra a year for Band D, a majority of councillors were not.

As such the Budget could not be agreed and the Merseyside Police Authority members will be asking the public before they decide which of two options they go for. The two options are:-

Option 1) Accept a Council Tax Freeze grant from the government. Council Tax precepts for Merseyside residents would stay at last year’s level.

Option 2) Refuse a Council Tax Freeze grant and increase the police element of the Council Tax for Merseyside residents by 3%. This would be an increase of £2.92 (a year) for Band A or £4.39 (a year) for Band D.

As the Council Tax Freeze grant is one-off, if opted for by the Police Authority it will lead to greater savings having to be found next year by whoever is elected as Police Commissioner.

As the Merseyside Police Authority failed to agree a Budget the meeting was adjourned.  You can vote below in our poll and the papers and reports for the meeting used to be able to be found on Merseyside Police Authority’s website, but since it was abolished in November 2012 and replaced with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner they’re no longer available.

Oh and for further information you can read this BBC News article on it.

Councillor’s amounts for being on outside bodies

Councillor’s amounts for being on outside bodies

                                                

Following a comment on the previous post, I thought I would demonstrate how easy (or otherwise) it is to get this information and whether it’s as easy as Councillor Chris Blakeley claims because it is on the website.

Let’s start with Merseytravel. So like most people you do a search on Merseytravel’s website.

The first result is their publication scheme, which states they publish “PTA Members Allowances” and “PTA Members Allowances paid” (PTA stands for Passenger Transport Authority). This states it’s only published on paper, not electronically or on the website, but then this document was written eight years ago and not updated.

So you change the search for Members Allowances. Eventually you find this page on the website which only has the details for 2007/2008 and 2008/2009. With a bit of digging you’ll find they call the amounts for 2009/2010 “Members Year End Figures” and that you can get figures for 2010/2011 under “Members Allowance” but this only has a list of amounts and titles (no names).

As Merseytravel don’t publish online the minutes of their meeting at which they decide who does what there is no easy way to find out what Merseytravel councillors are currently being paid. My personal experience of Merseytravel is that they don’t make it easy to get information. For example this report showing how Merseytravel charged the disabled and elderly on Merseyside £48,000/year in 2007 if they lose their pass (and that was before they doubled the charge!) was subject to a “public interest test” before they would release it! Since they doubled the charge it’s now probably nearer £100,000/year. Perhaps this is how they plan to finance the hundreds of millions they’re spending on Merseytram’s “Line One to Nowhere”! The Mersey Tunnels Users Association has had similar problems getting information out of Merseytravel.

Cllr Blakeley is right, Merseytravel do publish the information, but it took me a good ten minutes to find it. Merseyside Police Authority’s was easier to find (however the Merseyside Police Authority has since been abolished so I have removed the link) and simpler, but again has no names. They currently pay councillors ~£11,000, + ~£4,000/chair + ~£14,000 as Chair of the MPA.

Mersey Fire and Rescue Service do publish the information, in part 5 article 28, page 206 of their constitution. However once again it is a list of amounts, job titles and other allowances (travel etc) with no names.

I gave up trying to find the information on the Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority site, but the above took a total of twenty minutes. There is no easy way to answer the question “What was X councillor paid for being a councillor this year”? This information is (sadly) still a secret to me and (apart from the councillors themselves and the taxman) a secret to the members of the public who pay them.

Another apology from Wirral Council… FOI request over amounts paid to councillors on outside bodies Merseytravel, Merseyside Police Authority, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service & Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority

In an email Wirral Council apologises (“The Council apologises that it failed to collect the information“) as they weren’t complying with their own agreed policy. One only has to look at the information to guess at £120,000 worth of reasons why it took so long to release it!
It took nearly three months after the FOI request to put the information on their website! The information is 12 months out of date now anyway, but the public can now see (in the same place) how much councillors are getting for representing Wirral Council on various outside bodies for 2009-2010. They say they’ll update the start of April with the 2010-2011 figures.

Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority (Merseytravel)

Cllr Ron Abbey £12,958.64
Cllr Chris Blakeley £24,120.19
Cllr Dave Mitchell £5,942.34

Total: £43,021.17

Merseyside Police Authority

Cllr Adrian Jones £11,172
Cllr Kate Wood £15,214

Total: £26,386

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority

Cllr Gerry Ellis £10,713.30
Cllr Steve Niblock £14,660.64
Cllr Lesley Rennie £16,508.66
Cllr Denise Roberts £8,025.75

Total: £49,908.35

Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority

Cllr JJ Salter (amount not specified)
Cllr G Gardiner (amount not paid as she is already in receipt of an Special Responsibility Allowance as Deputy Leader of the Lib Dem Group)

Total: Unknown

The above amounts are in addition to their councillors allowances which range from just over £9000 for 2009-2010 to just over £32000. These are not the only outside bodies that councillors are paid for being on but cover most of the ones covered by Council tax (and precepts) eg police, fire, Merseytravel and waste. I’m not sure if these amounts include payments that come under councillors allowances as attending meetings on outside bodies is classed as an “approved duty”. Nor does the above amount AFAIK include amounts paid for conferences & accomodation.

It’d be nice to have in one place a list of names, council allowances, amounts from outside bodies with a total. I might compile such a list later this year. After all the public should know they’re getting value for money. Just so the public know:-

Labour voted for and decided the budget for Merseytravel (which includes the amounts paid to councillors).
Labour (and independent members) voted for and decided the budget for the Merseyside Police Authority.
Labour voted for and decided the budget for the Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority.
Labour voted for and decided the budget for the Merseyside Fire & Rescue Authority.

All the cuts this year and last to police, fire, transport and other services were voted for by Labour who voted against other parties such as the Lib Dems and Tories that wanted things differently.