Wirral West Constituency Committee asks Wirral Council’s Cabinet to decide not to close Girtrell Court
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Wirral West Constituency Committee 11th February 2016 Part 1 of 6 starting at agenda item 8 (Community Question Time)
The question time item at the last Wirral West Constituency Committee was dominated by questions about Girtrell Court. Girtrell Court is a respite centre run by Wirral Council in Saughall Massie. On the 17th December 2015, Wirral Council’s Cabinet agreed to consult on closing Girtrell Court (the consultation ran from 17th December 2015 to the 29th January 2016).
The Chair (Cllr Jeff Green) took a number of questions from those connected with Girtrell Court. A transcript of some of the questions, followed by the answers Graham Hodkinson (Director of Adult Social Services) gave at the meeting are below.
Cllr Jeff Green (Chair)Is there somebody from errm please the carers and users? Is there someone here? Is there someone who’d like to start off or ask a public question about that? Errm, yes, the young man at the far side there and there’s someone will find you with a microphone.
Member of public asking question at Wirral West Constituency Committee about Girtrell Court 11th February 2016
Wirral Council’s Cabinet agrees to consultation on £2.498 million of cuts
There were hundreds of people at last Thursday’s Cabinet meeting.
In fact there were so many people present that the venue for the Cabinet Meeting that evening was moved from Committee Room 3 (maximum 46 people) at Wallasey Town Hall to the Civic Hall (maximum 370 people). However those maximum numbers are reduced further by about twenty if you bear in mind the ten councillors on the Cabinet plus senior management that support the Cabinet at its meetings.
Before the meeting started at 6.15pm there was a large protest outside Wallasey Town Hall.
As it was dark, at that time of the evening my photos of the protest haven’t come out very well. You should however be able to see the flags and some of the protest slogans in the pictures below (although I apologise that some are unreadable). The trade unions were protesting about the potential loss of jobs, there were those who use the Council’s services that are under threat there too.
Protest outside Wallasey Town Hall 17th December 2015 before Cabinet meeting photo 1 of 6 thumbnail
Wirral councillors agree 2 new policies on attendance management and discipline
Wirral councillors agree 2 new policies on attendance management and discipline
Councillors at Monday night’s Council meeting approved two Human Resources policies (apart from the Mayor who abstained and Cllr Pat Cleary who voted against). These were the Human Resources Policy Update (including revised Disciplinary Policy and Procedure) and the Attendance Management Policy.
Approval of the Attendance Management Policy led to this exchange between Conservative Leader Cllr Jeff Green and the Labour Chair of the Transformation and Resources Policy and Performance Committee Cllr Janette Williamson.
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Councillor Jeff Green asks a question about a letter from UNISON at the Wirral Council meeting on the 12th October 2015
Cllr Jeff Green: Mr Mayor, am I allowed to ask a question on that particular item? I was just wondering as UNISON have written to me about this, I just wanted to know what the current position is.
Mayor Cllr Les Rowlands: Cllr Green, would you like to ask your question now?
Cllr Jeff Green: Yes Mr Mayor, the question is relatively straightforward. I’ve been written to, probably other colleagues have been written to by UNISON around the Attendance Management Policy and so on and I just wondered whether the Chair can update us on where we are with that letter and our discussions with the trade unions?
Councillor Janette Williamson responds to a question from Cllr Jeff Green at the Wirral Council meeting of the 12th October 2015 about UNISON
Cllr Janette Williamson (Chair of the Transformation and Resources Policy and Performance Committee): Well, firstly Jeff you did have a chance to ask your question before but chose not to do so. You had a chance to ask a Chair’s question before but chose not to do so.
This went before the Committee and received all party approval when it went there. We did have a request from a member of UNISON beforehand to attend and for him to ask a question and he decided not to errm on the night of that. It’s been agreed by the Committee and passed by every Member.
Here are links to the new policies on Wirral Council’s website.
Why did Merseytravel spend £2,775 on a “Parliamentary Reception”?
Why did Merseytravel spend £2,775 on a “Parliamentary Reception”?
Below is an invoice from the House of Commons to Merseytravel for £2,775.
Merseytravel invoice House of Commons £2775 7th May 2014
Sadly the invoice doesn’t state a lot other than Ms Louise Ellman MP was the sponsoring MP. To find out what the room booking was for is better explained in an invoice from Bircham Dyson Bell (see below).
Merseytravel invoice Bircham Dyson Bell £2298.95 30th June 2014 Page 1 of 2Merseytravel invoice Bircham Dyson Bell £2298.95 30th June 2014 Page 2 of 2
As you can see from the pages of the invoice above Bircham Dyson Bell charged Merseytravel £425.50 + VAT to attend a parliamentary reception on the 25th June 2014 plus £327.99 + VAT in travel expenses.
I’ll leave it to readers to comment on whether they think Merseytravel being charging £55.50 + VAT by Bircham Dyson Bell to write an email is reasonable in these times of public sector cutbacks.
Next is a “strictly private and confidential” matter. In fact so strictly private and confidential the invoice for £1,867.80 from Weightmans below only specifies that it is for “Matter number 44 Re professional services”.
Merseytravel invoice Weightmans £1867.80 27th June 2014 Page 1 of 2
But as anyone me, I like demystifying such matters, so let me let Weightmans explain what this invoice is really about.
Merseytravel invoice Weightmans £1867.80 27th June 2014 Page 2 of 2
In case you can’t read the above I’ll quote the pertinent bit here.
“Strictly private and confidential Employment advice
Please find enclosed a bill of costs for work carried out by myself and Simon Goacher in relation to issues surrounding the Chief Executive and Director contracts.
I have not put any detail of the work on the bill or identified what it is for reasons of confidentiality. However, there is a breakdown of the work done so far on this matter attached for your attention.
I assume that matters are currently progressing satisfactorily but if you do require any further advice when the drafting is completed then please do not hesitate to contact either myself or Simon Goacher.
Thank you for your kind instructions in this matter, it is always good to work with you.
Kind regards,
Yours sincerely
Bernadette Worthington
Partner
For and on behalf of Weightmans LLP”
Going back to the original theme of political engagement is an invoice below from Kenyon Fraser for £29,160. This is for work on Merseytravel’s campaign to have a high-speed rail connection to Liverpool.
Merseytravel invoice Kenyon Fraser £29160 28th July 2014
Continuing on lobbying but this time at party political conferences is an invoice for £11,429.96 for “PTEG Political engagement at Party Conferences and events each PTE see attached”.
Merseytravel invoice Nexus £11429.96 12th March 2015 Political engagement at party conferences
Finally, here is an invoice for £811.20 from Key Travel for train tickets for travel from Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston. So what’s so unusual about that? Well the passengers are just listed as UNISON and it’s Merseytravel that have paid the invoice (I hope the costs were charged back to UNISON)!
Merseytravel invoice Key Travel £811.20 train fares London to Liverpool
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Over 3,000 people sign 2 petitions against Wirral Council cuts generally and to West Kirby Marine Lake
Over 3,000 people sign 2 petitions against Wirral Council cuts generally and to West Kirby Marine Lake
There are two large petitions on the agenda of tonight’s Council meeting, which means each petition organiser has up to fifteen minutes to speak. The first petition of 4,042 signatures (combined across an e-petition and paper petition) is from Sue Kellett of UNISON and is titled “Save Our Services”, the front page of which can be viewed here. It’s basically an anti cuts petition.
On the subject of libraries, below is some information on Wirral libraries recently given to this blog:
Wirral Community Libraries Baby Bounce and RhymeWirral Community Libraries Storytime visitsGroups at Community Libraries Page 1 of 3Groups at Community Libraries Page 2 of 3Groups at Community Libraries Page 3 of 3Community Libraries Number of PCs for public use May 2013Community Libraries ICT Log Ins April 2014 to October 2014Wirral Community Libraries Summer Reading Challenge individual branch figures 2014 & 2013Wirral Community Libraries books issued and renewed August 2013 to August 2014Wirral Community Libraries Borrowers monthly August 2013 to August 2014Wirral Community Libraries Total number of visitors monthly August 2013 to August 2014Panel Community Libraries budget option Wirral Council page 7Panel Community Libraries budget option Wirral Council page 8Panel Community Libraries budget option Wirral Council page 9Panel Community Libraries budget option Wirral Council page 10Panel Community Libraries budget option Wirral Council page 11Panel Community Libraries budget option Wirral Council page 12Panel Community Libraries budget option Wirral Council page 13Panel Community Libraries budget option Wirral Council page 14Panel Community Libraries budget option Wirral Council page 15
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