10 weeks left in Lyndale School closure consultation

10 weeks left in Lyndale School closure consultation

10 weeks left in Lyndale School closure consultation

                       

front of thank you card from Lyndale staff and children
Front of thank you card from Lyndale staff and children (you can click on the image for a higher quality version)

inside of thank you card from Lyndale staff and children
(you can click on the image for a higher quality version)

As you can see above, Leonora and I received a thank you card fortnight ago from the Lyndale staff and children (the scanned images probably don’t do it justice). So I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Lyndale staff and children for the thank you card.

In the three and half years since starting this blog I think it’s the first thank you card that Leonora and I have received and came completely out of the blue so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Lyndale staff and children for creating it and sending it.

The consultation on closing Lyndale School started on April 2nd. The consultation document can be downloaded here, as well as the Cabinet report. The link from Wirral Council’s consultation page to the Coordinating Committee report doesn’t work. However it can be read on this blog at pages five to six of this document. Hopefully Wirral Council will fix the link! There is also a feedback form and Wirral Council has more detail about the consultation on closing Lyndale School on this page on their website.

Video of the original Cabinet decision of the 16th January is below (the item starts in the first video at 1:53). Video of the Coordinating Committee meeting of the 27th February is below that. This blog has also published transcripts of the Lyndale School item at the Cabinet meeting and a partial transcript of the Coordinating Committee meeting. The transcript of the Lyndale item at the Cabinet meeting can be found at How did the Lyndale School closure consultation begin?. The Coordinating Committee item on Lyndale School last for about three and a half hours. The first transcript of it is at What did officers say at the Lyndale School call in? “we had a problem the rules mattered more than the children”, followed by What did officers say about Lyndale School in reply to “how much money you would expect to get if you sold that land?”. During the consultation period I hope to have the time to type up some more transcripts of the Coordinating Committee meeting.

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Wirral Council Cabinet meeting of 16th January 2014 at which the decision to consult on closing Lyndale School was made

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Wirral Council Coordinating Committee meeting of 27th February 2014 at which the Cabinet decision to consult on closing Lyndale School was reviewed

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Cllr Williams “lack of personal accountability for the numerous errors of judgement made by officers & councillors”

Cllr Williams “lack of personal accountability for the numerous errors of judgement made by officers & councillors”

Cllr Williams “lack of personal accountability for the numerous errors of judgement made by officers & councillors”

                   

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Near the end of the last Council meeting, after most people in the public gallery had left, Council decided to remove the guillotine (had they not done so it would’ve meant going straight to a vote on the motion and amendment without any speeches) for the movers and seconders of the motion on the Improvement Board and the movers and seconders of the amendment on that motion. If you’re not familiar with the conventions of how politicians are referred to in the language of Wirral Council just substitute Members in her speech for councillors.

Cllr Pat Williams (as the seconder of the Lib Dem amendment) made a speech on Wirral Council’s “improvement journey” (a phrase I dislike but couldn’t think of anything better) which can be heard starting at 3:58 on the video clip above.

Cllr Pat Williams (Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group): Thank you Mr. Mayor. I know it’s the spirit of peace and goodwill but in my opinion the Notice of Motion is too congratulatory and ignores the views expressed at the public meeting on the Improvement Board.

Quite clearly there are still unresolved issues of ongoing concern to the public. There is also a lack of personal accountability for the numerous errors of judgement made by officers and councillors during the period which led to the involvement of the Improvement Board.

To be proud of the quickness of the improvement of any Council in the country is seen as a badge of honour. The fact that this Council was in such a dreadful situation that there was a need for the Improvement Board’s involvement seems to be just accepted without any humility or shame.

Of course any improvement is welcome and to be fair to certain people and Members of the Council, particularly newer Members I don’t doubt their sincerity in wishing that Council becomes an outstanding Council.

However some longer established councillors are going to take some time to be convinced that Wirral Council is on the right track and is going to be willing to keep on the right track and that lessons have been learned by those who got us into the mess in the first place.

Labour encouraged Members to fully engage in the policy and performance committees and visioning events. The committees I believe in part are too big, particularly the Family and Wellbeing Committee and have far to wide an area of responsibility to allow full engagement in monitoring what is going on in various service areas.

The scrutiny reviews which are going to be undertaken have been interesting and very worthwhile. Hopefully they will influence future policy making. However to be done properly, they are very time consuming. In the meantime the ongoing work of the Council is not in my opinion being properly monitored.

The need for much more improvement is necessary. It must not be forgotten that Council exists to serve the people of Wirral. It is so easy to get bogged down in policies and procedures, but if they are not in the best interests of the people that they represent they are not worth the paper they are written on.

And of course Mr. Mayor, we must always consider the well being of staff and ensure that they are treated fairly through this period of ongoing change so that we can all work together to everyone’s mutual benefit.

I would say to the Administration “Good try, but could do better” and we’ll look for more improvements for when the Improvement Board come back and see has actually been achieved. Thank you.

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