Tommy Dunne tells Liverpool City councillors about his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, “At that time I had to hold out my hands and they put a diagnosis in one hand and in the other they put a superpower. That superpower was the ability to become invisible in society. Nothing has changed in the past seven years, I am still invisible.”
Tommy Dunne tells Liverpool City councillors about his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, “At that time I had to hold out my hands and they put a diagnosis in one hand and in the other they put a superpower. That superpower was the ability to become invisible in society. Nothing has changed in the past seven years, I am still invisible.”
Tommy Dunne addresses Liverpool City Council 16th January 2019 on disability
Yesterday before the public meeting of Liverpool City Council there was a protest outside Liverpool Town Hall about greenspace issues.
Amplified speeches to the protest were about injustice, suffering and threats to local greenspaces by Liverpool City Council.
Wirral Council’s councillors decided on backdated pay rises for 4 councillors costing an extra £34,226 a year!
Wirral Council’s councillors decided on backdated pay rises for 4 councillors costing an extra £34,226 a year!
Councillor Steve Foulkes (centre) 16th October 2017 voting to give himself a backdated £10,108 pay rise
Wirral Council councillors on Monday evening voted to give four councillors a backdated pay rise costing Wirral Council an extra £34,226 a year.
Councillors from Wirral Council (Councillors Abbey, Foulkes, Rowlands and Jerry Williams) on the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Transport Committee (formerly called the Merseytravel Committee) will now receive a backdated basic allowance for their work on the Transport Committee annually of £5,675 each.
On top of the basic allowance of £5,675 (backdated to May) three councillors received extra amounts too. Cllr Les Rowlands received an extra £2,660 as Opposition Spokesperson, Cllr Steve Foulkes an extra £4,433 as Lead Member for Finance and Organisational Development and Cllr Ron Abbey an extra £4,433 as Lead Member for Bus.
A report of the Independent Panel on Member’s Allowances stated that prior to May “the allowances paid to the four Wirral Members were paid by the Council and reimbursed by Merseytravel” but went on to explain that after May 2017 Merseytravel would no longer do this and it would become a decision for individual councils.
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Earlier in the same public meeting, councillors heard from UNISON trade union representative Paddy Cleary who supported a Notice of Motion that called for the “immediate end of public sector pay restraint”.
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Monkey Island has one secret but how many has Wirral Council?
Monkey Island has one secret but how many has Wirral Council?
Monkey Island was a video game from my childhood which perhaps I played too much.
Monkey Island has but one secret but how many has Wirral Council?
However, this Employment Tribunal over the last fortnight followed the misadventures of Alison Mountney as she struggled to defeat the plans of Graham Burgess and his motley crew and win the heart of Simon Mountney. This involved the mysterious Wirral Council and its impenetrable secrets!
Protest outside Wallasey Town Hall about Girtrell Court 3rd March 2016 thumbnail
It is hard to know where to begin when writing about last night’s Council meeting of Wirral Council at Wallasey Town Hall to decide on the budget. Above is a photo of the demonstration outside the main entrance to Wallasey Town Hall protesting about Girtrell Court being closed.
Realising that councillors were bypassing this entrance and using the door by Committee Room 3, there was another protest outside that way in too.
The meeting started and within the first few minutes the petition item was reached. The Mayor asked Bernard Halley (pictured below with his son David) to present his petitions opposing the closure of Girtrell Court. His e-petition had 1,200 signatures (of those nearly a thousand were Wirral residents). There was also a linked paper petition with over six hundred signatories opposed too.
Bernard Halley said, “Both petitions begged this Council to keep Girtrell Court running until proper alternatives are established, costed, evaluated, consulted upon and proven to be adequate.”
Bernard Halley and his son David present a petition opposing the closure of Girtrell Court to a budget meeting of Wirral Council 3rd March 2016
He gave a similar speech to the one he had made at the Cabinet meeting. Mr Cleary felt closing Girtrell Court was contrary to one of the 2020 pledges to protect the vulnerable and his opinion was that the proposed saving through closure would not save Wirral Council money but cost more money. Reference was also made by him to a proposal in 2011 proposed by Cllr Steve Foulkes and seconded by Cllr Phil Davies to stop the closure of Council-run care homes.
He expressed concern about the quality of care in the private sector and added, “At a time when users, their families, the public and staff see press stories of the frivolous use of taxpayers’ money, we implore you to look in the mirror, look into the eyes of those people in the balcony upstairs and tell them hand on heart how there is better provision out there.
We know you can’t do that and as such we urge you to fully drop this proposal. Thank you for your time.”
Although petitions of over 3,000 signatures can be debated for fifteen minutes, a decision was made to debate Girtrell Court during the budget debate instead.
Each of the political parties on Wirral Council with more than one councillor had a slightly different policy in their budget about Girtrell Court.
The Labour budget proposed closing it, subject to a later decision of the Cabinet Member Cllr Chris Jones and Director of Adult Social Services Graham Hodkinson.
The Conservative budget removed the need to close Girtrell Court by finding savings elsewhere instead. Three of the proposed areas for savings (amongst others) the Conservatives proposed were removing the free taxi service for councillors to and from the Town Hall, deleting the Executive Support Officer post held by Martin Liptrot and reducing the Council’s press, marketing and destination management team from fourteen posts to eleven and a half.
The Lib Dem budget stated this on Girtrell Court, “Council believes that the closure of the Lyndale School and the anguished debate about the re-provision of services at Girtrell Court underline the need to work closely with service users and their families. Council has a duty of care to ensure their concerns are fully addressed.
In the case of Girtrell Court, Council requests that the Director of Adult Social Services and the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health produce regular reports to Members. These must set out how a range of sufficient quality alternative services is to be achieved. Members would be failing in their duty if they were not to seek assurance about the quality, availability and capacity of the
alternatives.”
Around three hours after the meeting had started, despite many heartfelt pleas about reversing their proposed closure of Girtrell Court, there was a vote on Labour’s budget and the amendments proposed by the Conservatives and Lib Dems.
The amendments proposed by the Conservatives and Lib Dems were lost (due to Labour councillors voting against them). The Labour budget was agreed (due to the majority of Labour councillors on Wirral Council).
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Why did Wirral Council’s Cabinet recommend closure of Girtrell Court despite a protest against closure and opposition from the trade unions?
There was a protest outside Wallasey Town Hall before Wirral Council’s Cabinet meeting on Monday morning. One of the decisions at that Cabinet meeting was to recommend to a meeting of all councillors (which will be on the 3rd March 2016) a budget for Wirral Council for 2016-17. The protest was about a proposal to recommend to close Girtrell Court. Pictures of the protest are below (each photo should link to a higher resolution image).
Protest outside Wallasey Town Hall against closure of Girtrell Court 22nd February 2016 photo 1 of 5 thumbnail
