EXCLUSIVE: 10 more invoices paid by Wirral Council including £3,203.88 for budget setting and £15,667.25 for a special guardianship order
EXCLUSIVE: 10 more invoices paid by Wirral Council including £3,203.88 for budget setting and £15,667.25 for a special guardianship order
Below this are ten invoices paid for by Wirral Council during the 2013/14 financial year. The first is for £15,276.96 from Eversheds for the ever cryptic “governance and employment issues”. As it’s paid for by Wirral Council’s HR department it’ll be for employment issues and the Wirral Council reference is down as “Jim Wilkie”. This in itself is a bit odd as it’s for work done in February 2013, as Jim Wilkie retired on the 7th June 2012.
Next is an invoice from Eversheds, but for £3,203.88 for “Budget setting”. Again this is odd as the Wirral Council reference is down as “Bill Norman” and it is for work done in February 2013. Bill Norman however was made redundant by Wirral Council on the 30th September 2012 (through a compromise contract costing Wirral Council £151,416). So Bill Norman wouldn’t have had anything to do with the setting of the budget in February 2013.
The third and fourth invoices are from Weightmans for £4,976.64 & £4,482. I think this are for legal advice about Birkenhead regeneration connected to the plans that Wirral Council’s Cabinet recently agreed to consult on involving Neptune Developments Limited.
Moving to another regeneration project, the fifth invoice is for £8,133.90 for legal advice around a section 106 agreement connected to the Wirral Waters planning application. I’m puzzled about why this invoice was sent directly to Peel and the confusing VAT which was added to the total amount, then taken off it!
Invoice six is another Weightmans invoice for £1,668 for EU procurement advice. The next invoice is from Eversheds and is for £1,720.68 of employment advice. Eversheds also submitted another invoice for £4,811.74 for advice in March 2013 on “governance and employment issues“. As the HR department paid the invoice I think it can safely be assumed it was for an employment issue.
The ninth invoice from Seatons Solicitors is for work on a special guardianship order and is for £15,667.25. The last invoice for £1,660.80 is from DMM Psychology Limited for a cognitive functioning report and psychological reports (although this is for a quarter of the total amount as its being split four ways).
Wirral Council invoice Eversheds £15276.96 15th March 2013Wirral Council invoice Eversheds £3203.88 15th March 2013Wirral Council invoice Weightmans £4976.64 27th Match 2013Wirral Council invoice Weightmans £4482 2nd April 2013Wirral Council invoice Eversheds £8133.90 15th April 2013Wirral Council invoice Weightmans £1668 28th February 2013Wirral Council invoice Eversheds £1720.68 5th April 2013Wirral Council invoice Eversheds £4811.74 8th April 2013Wirral Council invoice Seatons £15667.65 25th March 2013Wirral Council invoice DMM Psychology Ltd £6643.20 8th May 2013
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Why did Merseytravel spend £33,781.20 last year with Veale Wasbrough Vizards about its move to Mann Island?
Why did Merseytravel spend £33,781.20 last year with Veale Wasbrough Vizards about its move to Mann Island?
I went to a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Audit Committee yesterday and if you wish you can view the video of that meeting below. The agenda and reports for that meeting is on Merseytravel’s website.
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Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Audit Committee meeting 12th May 2015
What did occur to me after the meeting finished was that since the Local Government Transparency Code applies to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, that Merseytravel (which is now part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) would be required to publish a list of payments made over £500 each month on its website.
Unlike Wirral Council and the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority, who also publish comma separated values files of the same information (which can then be sorted in a spreadsheet) Merseytravel just publish this information as PDF files.
Links to each of these files which cover the last financial year are below.
If you’re observant, you’ll have noticed a gap for the month from the 26th May 2014 to the 25th June 2014. I’ve emailed Merseytravel to ask for the missing month of payments.Ed – 22/5/2015 – Merseytravel got back in touch with me on the 21st May informing me the missing month had now been put on their website, so it is now linked to above. The missing month includes another payment of £680 made to Veale Wasbrough Vizards for legal costs to do with the HQ relocation that was not available to me when originally writing this article.
However the other 11 months make for interesting reading.
There are a number of payments to a Veale Wasbrough Vizards (which is a Bristol based firm of solicitors) relating to Merseytravel’s controversial headquarters move from Hatton Gardens to Mann Island.
1 Mann Island (Merseytravel’s new headquarters)
Here’s a list of the payments made to Veale Wasbrough Vizards:
Merseytravel also paid £977.50 to Sara Bradbury in October 2014 for “Counsels Fees”.
A number of insurance payments were made by Merseytravel with compensation given as the reason.
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE
16/5/2014
Compensation – Public Liability
S-2101
Ins – General
£7,008
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE
18/7/2014
Compensation – Public Liability
S-2101
Ins – General
£2,717.00
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE
14/8/2014
Compensation Public Liability
S-2101
Ins – General
£8,500.00
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE
25/7/2014
Compensation Misc
S-2101
Ins – General
£11,575.00
THOMAS COOPER
8/8/2014
Compensation Misc
S-2101
Ins – General
£7,300.00
MERCURY LEGAL LLP
18/12/2014
Compensation Employers Liability
S-2101
Ins – General
£7,182.17
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE
18/12/2014
Compensation Public Liability
S-2101
Ins – General
£16,790.00
Total
£61,072.17
There was a payment for £507 to Weightmans LLP for an invoice dated 31st March 2014 for “specialist services”. Merseytravel also paid five amounts (£3,800, £2,600, £4,400, £750 and £2,145) to a firm of solicitors called Davies Wallis Foyster LLP for invoices in 2014 for the services of a solicitor.
Two payments of £15,115 and £15,590 were made to Royal & Sun Alliance for invoices dated 27th August 2014 and the 3rd December 2014 for the costs of external 3rd party solicitors.
Robert Jackson Solicitors charged £2,000 in an invoice dated 13th February 2015 for legal costs associated with an insurance claim, in the same month Merseytravel paid £4,812 to CS Cooper C/O Collins Long Solicitors which was again for legal costs to do with an insurance claim.
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Wirral Council U-turn on refusal of request for information after complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office
Wirral Council U-turn on refusal of request for information after complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office
Last year, during the 2013/14 audit I requested various information on various payments Wirral Council has made to legal firms. One of these was an invoice for £700 for conveyancing done by DLA Piper UK LLP (a copy of which is below).
Wirral Council invoice DLA Piper UK LLP conveyance £700 7th August 2013
As you can see above it’s for a BACS payment (although the payments over £500 list this as a CHAPS payment) for £700, split into £200 for a contribution towards sewers (although the rest of what the £200 is for can’t be made out due to bad handwriting) and £500 to do with the purchase of the freehold title.
If you look at the image above you’ll find the address of the property is blacked out. Section 15 of the Audit Commission Act 1998 allow Wirral Council to redact information if it relates to a member of their staff (or payments or other benefits made to their staff connected with their employment) or to withhold personal information if the external auditor agrees to it.
So going back to the PR1 form above I wanted to know what the address that this £700 for conveyancing spent by Wirral Council was, so back on the 26th January 2015 I asked using the Freedom of Information Act for the address.
By the 24th February 2015, having received no reply to my request of the 26th January 2015 within the 20 days Wirral Council have to respond to FOI requests, I requested an internal review because of the lack of response.
She then went on to refuse the request using an exception in Regulation 12(5)(e) which states:
“the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided by law to protect a legitimate economic interest;”
The reasons she gave for refusing the request were:
“in that a public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that its disclosure would adversely affect the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided by law to protect a legitimate economic interest. I have had regard to the guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office, “Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information (regulation 12 (5) (e) Version 1.2. I consider that the following applies to the requested information in the context of the other information included in the payment requisition fund:-
The information is commercial or industrial in nature
Confidentiality is provided by law
The confidentiality is protecting a legitimate economic interest
The confidentiality would be adversely affected by disclosure.
I consider that the information relates to the commercial activity of a third party. I also consider that confidentiality is provided by law in that it is imposed on the Council as a public authority by the common law of confidence and contractual obligation. I consider that the confidentiality is protecting a legitimate economic interest. The First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) confirmed in Elmbridge Borough Council v. Information Commissioner and Gladedale Group Ltd (EA/2010/0106, 4 January 2011) that to satisfy this element of the test, disclosure of the confidential information would have to adversely affect a legitimate economic interest of the person the confidentiality is designed to protect. I consider that disclosure of the requested information would adversely affect the legitimate economic interest of the third party and also that of the Council.
This exception is subject to the public interest test.
Public interest factors in favour of disclosure
Promotion of transparency and accountability of public authorities
Public interest factors in maintaining the exception
Disclosure would adversely affect the legitimate economic interest of a third party and interfere with commercial bargaining in the context of existing or future negotiations
Disclosure of the requested information would also affect the bargaining position of the Council with third parties.
I consider that in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. I am therefore refusing your request for information on the basis that the exception contained in Regulation 12 (5) (e) of the EIR applies.”
On the 25th March 2015 I appealed Wirral Council’s refusal to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Today Wirral Council reversed their position and stated:
“Following your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the Council has decided to reverse its position, having previously relied on the exception contained in Regulation 12 (5) (e) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. I do not consider that releasing the information would now adversely affect the legitimate economic interest of a third party. The address of the property, which you have requested is 13 Thorneycroft Street, Birkenhead. I have copied this response to the Information Commissioner’s Office.”
Now I know the address is 13 Thorneycroft Street, Birkenhead, I know what this payment for conveyancing is for. The properties in this road as far as I remember had been demolished by the date that this payment to DLA Piper UK LLP for conveyancing happened in August 2013.
In August 2013, Keepmoat were granted planning permission for 125 new houses here and have since built them and sold them on. In fact 13 Thorneycroft Street, Birkenhead doesn’t exist any more, it’s either part of the public open space at the back of the Laird Street Baptist Church or an off-street car parking space for one of the new properties.
So what was the “legitimate interest of a third party” that Wirral Council claimed it was protecting by not supplying the address? How on earth does giving this address interfere with Wirral Council’s “commercial bargaining in the context of existing or future negotiations”?
Did Cllr Phil Davies breach the Code of Conduct by linking to a party political website in a Wirral Council email?
Did Cllr Phil Davies breach the Code of Conduct by linking to a party political website in a Wirral Council email?
Councillor Phil Davies at a recent Cabinet meeting
Yesterday I was forwarded an interesting email which is a reply to a resident asking the recently reelected Councillor Phil Davies (although at the time of the reply he hadn’t been reelected in Birkenhead and Tranmere yet) in response to a question about why he doesn’t allow comments on his blog. For those who don’t know Cllr Phil Davies is Leader of Wirral Council and of the ruling Labour group of councillors. I’ve obscured the email address & name of the resident he’s writing to. Below is the email followed by some comments of my own.
Thank you for your email. Comments facilities on blogs are generally not moderated, so people can post basically whatever they like and the comment will be published. Given that my blog is linked to the Council website, and available to view by residents of all ages, the Council has taken the decision to disable the comment facility entirely to remove the risk of inappropriate, libellous or otherwise offensive comments being posted on the blog and, by extension, the Council website. If any resident wishes to contact me directly they can do this easily as all of my contact details – email address, phone numbers, home address etc are published on the Council’s website.
Kind regards.
Phil Davies
Councillor Phil Davies
Leader of Wirral Council
Labour Councillor for Birkenhead and Tranmere ward
If Councillor Phil Davies wishes to moderate comments, he need only log into the WordPress admin panel for his blog, click on Settings, then Discussion, tick the box that I’ve highlighted with a red oval below, then scroll down and click on save changes. If he does that then people will be able to leave comments, but he will get to choose if they are approved (and therefore published) or not.
Moving to the sentence where he writes “Given that my blog is linked to the Council website, and available to view by residents of all ages, the Council has taken the decision to disable the comment facility entirely to remove the risk of inappropriate, libellous or otherwise offensive comments being posted on the blog and, by extension, the Council website.”
This is a very curious statement to make. Below is a screenshot of Wirral Council’s homepage which has a picture of Councillor Phil Davies, which also links to the last two posts he’s made to his blog.
Wirral Council homepage
As you can see it just displays the last two headlines from his blog and links to the last two posts made on his blog. Now I have comments enabled on my blog (in fact the latest blog post of an election result has two comments on it). So what happens when I replace the address for my blog with Cllr Phil Davies’ blog on Wirral Council’s homepage?
RSS feed changed on Wirral Council’s homepage
As you can see, even on a blog with comments on such as mine, the script on Wirral Council’s website just displays (and links to) the last two blog posts by whatever headline was used, not the comments. So comments (if he had any) on Cllr Phil Davies’ blog wouldn’t be cross posted to Wirral Council’s website.
Finally I notice that Cllr Phil Davies links in his email to this website (which if you were in any doubt was a party political website I include two screenshots from it below). The first is the top of the website, the bottom is the imprint:
banner for Labour websiteLabour website imprint
Bear in mind that when Cllr Phil Davies wrote that reply, he was a candidate in the election of a councillor in Birkenhead & Tranmere (and a councillor).