Wirral Council paid a day rate of over £700 a day for some agency staff!

Wirral Council paid a day rate of over £700 a day for some agency staff!

Wirral Council paid a day rate of over £700 a day for some agency staff!

                                    

Matrix SCM Ltd Wirral Council 20th December 2017 £308534.18
Matrix SCM Ltd Wirral Council 20th December 2017 £308534.18

During the public inspection period I requested copies of a number of invoices from Matrix SCM Ltd to Wirral Council for agency staff. An example of one of those invoices for £308,534.18 (which doesn’t state much detail) is above.

Agency staff are provided by Matrix SCM Ltd to Wirral Council on either an hourly rate or day rate. In addition to this there can also be claims for mileage, parking and tunnel tolls.
Continue reading “Wirral Council paid a day rate of over £700 a day for some agency staff!”

Expense claim forms for Councillor Pat Williams 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor Pat Williams 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor Pat Williams 2013 to 2014

                                              

Councillor Pat Williams is a Liberal Democrat councillor for Oxton ward and is Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group. Her expenses claims are for attendance at meetings of Council, the Corporate Parenting Group, the Licensing Act 2003 Subcommittee, the Attainment Subcommittee, the Wirral Awards Working Party, the Oxton Conservation Society, the Licensing Panel, the Youth Parliament, the Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee, the Birkenhead Constituency Committee, the Community First Funding Panel (part of the Birkenhead Constituency Committee), meetings with officers, an Employment and Appointments Committee appointments panel, training, the Improvement Board and various briefings.

She is the last in the series of councillors expenses forms for 2013-14. I did also ask for the underlying information supporting these expenses claims such as petrol receipts, parking receipts, tunnel toll receipts, taxi receipts, train tickets, hotel expenses et cetera. Although I made this request as part of the audit back in August I’m still waiting! However for the twenty or so councillors one petrol receipt was provided!

In some cases I have not been given information for the correct financial year. It is certainly something I need to follow-up with officers, who blame it on Wirral Council’s HR department supplying incorrect information or not supplying it when requested!

Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10
Cllr Pat Williams expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10

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Expense claim forms for Councillor Tony Smith 2013 to 2014 reveal mysterious Lyndale School meeting in February 2013

Expense claim forms for Councillor Tony Smith 2013 to 2014 reveal mysterious Lyndale School meeting in February 2013

Expense claim forms for Councillor Tony Smith 2013 to 2014 reveal mysterious Lyndale School meeting in February 2013

                                        

Councillor Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services) at the Special Cabinet Meeting of 4th September 2014 to discuss Lyndale School L to R Cllr Stuart Whittingham, Cllr Tony Smith, Cllr Bernie Mooney and Lyndzay Roberts
Councillor Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services) at the Special Cabinet Meeting of 4th September 2014 to discuss Lyndale School L to R Cllr Stuart Whittingham, Cllr Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services), Cllr Bernie Mooney and Lyndzay Roberts

Councillor Tony Smith is a Labour Party councillor for Upton ward. He is the Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services. His expense claims relate mileage claims for travel to Cabinet meetings, the Youth Parliament meeting in November 2013, Council meetings, meetings of the Health and Wellbeing Board, meetings of the Schools Forum, meetings of the Children’s Trust Board, attendance at a social workers conference at the Floral Pavilion, the meeting of 5th February 2014 to consider the Lyndale School call ins, meetings of the Youth and Play Service Advisory Committee, a safeguarding meeting at Acre Lane, meetings with staff, training sessions and a meeting with parents and “Mr D” (or possibly “Ms D” or “Mc, D”) at Lyndale School on the 1st February 2013.

Some of his claims were not allowed, all seven disallowed claims relate to Cabinet meetings.

The meeting with parents and the mysterious “Mr D” (or possibly “Ms D” or “Mc, D”) on page 7 at Lyndale School on the 1st February 2013 comes as a surprise to me and this was three weeks before Wirral Council valued the land and buildings at Lyndale School at £2,696,103.00 and many months before the plan for closing the school became known to the public just before Christmas 2013.

Could the mysterious “Mr D” (or possibly “Ms D” or “Mc, D”) referred on page 7 be David Armstrong (Wirral Council’s Assistant Chief Executive/Head of Universal and Infrastructure Services)? Mr David Armstrong has responsibilities for school assets such as the land and buildings is on or does it refer to someone else? Who were the parents and the mysterious “Mr D” (or possibly “Ms D” or “Mc, D”) that Cllr Tony Smith met with at Lyndale School? What was talked about at this meeting and what was it about?

UPDATED 15:51 Lyndale School visitors’ book shows that Cllr Tony Smith, Julia Hassall and Dawn Hughes all signed the visitors’ book around the same time on that day. It is possible that Cllr Tony Smith is referring to parents + Mc (referring to Alison McGovern MP) and D (referring to Dawn Hughes).

Back in February 2014 David Armstrong denied he had visited the school and that anyone else in his team had gone to look at Lyndale School.

David Armstrong stated at a public meeting on the 27th February 2014 “I can honestly say Councillor Fraser that I don’t know the answer because I’ve deliberately because I don’t want it to confuse the debate and become a distraction, we have done no action whatsoever looking at the Lyndale site.

I said to Pat this evening after the parents spoke at the last meeting, I would very much like to have visited the school and have a look around, so I did talk to Pat but also to remind myself about the school as I was a mainstream teacher.

I deliberately haven’t done that because if I go to the school particularly with my current monitoring responsibilities everyone will think I’ve come to look at the building or look at the site or look at the land. I know the area that the site occupies but genuinely myself and no one else in my team that work with me would have come to look at the site. So I couldn’t actually quote that figure tonight.”

and

“I tried to explain, that I am known as the asset person in the Council and currently I have all the baggage and tags that go with that. There has been no work done on looking to dispose of the site.”

Below are the nine pages of expenses forms submitted by Councillor Tony Smith.

Updated 20/10/2014 Wirral Council provided a further six pages of expenses forms for Councillor Tony Smith which can be viewed here.

Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9

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Expense claim forms for Councillor Harry Smith 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor Harry Smith 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor Harry Smith 2013 to 2014

                                                    

Councillor Harry Smith is a Labour Party councillor for Bidston & St. James ward. During the period these expense claims cover, he was Cabinet Member for what is now called Highways and Transportation but was previously called Streetscene and Transport.

His expense claim forms cover his work as a Cabinet Member (referred to by the initials CM on the forms), work on Wirral Council’s Pensions Committee (which manage the Merseyside Pension Fund worth billions of pounds), conferences & training, housing association meetings (where he was a Wirral Council representative), an employment appeal (the trade unions are still in dispute over this being decided by officers now and not councillors and this looks like it may have been one of the last decided by councillors), the Beechwood Joint Management Committee (on which he was a Wirral Council representative), full Council meetings, a Cabinet “Away Day” in July 2013 with the Chief Executive Graham Burgess, a meeting of the North Birkenhead Development Trust (which runs the St James Centre in Laird Street), a leadership program meeting in Acre Lane, a site visit in his role as Cabinet Member and a meeting at the Floral Pavilion about the flooding in New Brighton.

The sixteen pages of claim forms covering this period are below.

Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 11
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 11
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 12
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 12
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 13
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 13
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 14
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 14
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 15
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 15
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 16
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 2014 page 16

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Expense claim forms for Councillor Cherry Povall, JP 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor Cherry Povall, JP 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor Cherry Povall, JP 2013 to 2014

                                                   

Councillor Cherry Povall is a Conservative Party councillor for Clatterbridge ward and is also a magistrate (also known as Justice of the Peace). However these expense claims are to do with her work as a councillor and not as a magistrate. It does give me the opportunity to ask, will any of her expenses claims be ruled “out-of-order” or is the bench “above reproach”?

Will the “court of public opinion” approve of Councillor Cherry Povall’s expenses or criticise her? Well that’s enough of the legal jokes! Her expenses claims are for going to pension conferences, more pensions meetings, Council meetings, foster panels, training for people on foster panels, overview and scrutiny committee meetings and the Youth and Play Service Advisory Committee.

However not all her expenses claims were allowed! In March 2014, she tried to claim £6.40 for travel (16 miles ~ 40p/mile) to a dedication to HMS Birkenhead (which from leaving her house to coming back she spent three and a half hours at). This £6.40 claim was rejected. Pictures (which include former Mayor Councillor Dave Mitchell) and a write-up about the new memorial to HMS Birkenhead can be read on The Sixth Form College (Birkenhead)’s website as it was one of their students who designed it.

I presume as this wasn’t classed as an “approved duty” that this is why it was turned down (however presumably all councillors received an invite to the unveiling of the memorial).

Her expense claim forms are below (the rejected claim for travel expenses to the HMS Birkenhead memorial is on page eight).

Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 1
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 1
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 2
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 2
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 3
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 3
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 4
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 4
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 5
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 5
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 6
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 6
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 7
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 7
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 8
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim page 8

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