Wirral Council defy law (for the 4th time) to ban filming at public meeting to discuss alcohol

Over two years ago, the law was changed and Wirral Council was criticised in a press release for trying to stop filming of its public meetings.

Last night Wirral Council’s Licensing Act 2003 Committee met.

Wirral Council started the Wirral Alcohol Inquiry in September 2015 and awarded the tender for this to Shared Future (a Community Interest Company). The question that they were asked to answer was, “What can we all do to make it easier for people to have a healthier relationship with alcohol?”.

The report that came out of talking with twenty Wirral residents made a series of recommendations, the most important one was seen as “Limit the number of licensed premises and make it easier for the public to object to licensing applications. Educate the public that you can have a say on local licensing. Explore how we can make it easier for the public to have their say on local licensing.”

Three of the twenty residents were present at last night’s meeting. However despite receiving legal advice to allow filming to go ahead, despite the law being changed over two years ago, councillors decided to adjourn the whole meeting, ironically to make is harder for the public to have their say on local licensing.

This marks the 4th time since the legislation was changed this has happened and here’s just a brief look back at when Wirral Council has tried this before since the legislation change.

The day democracy and freedom of the press died at Wirral Council: 28th October 2014

Councillors decided to ban filming of the Youth and Play Service Advisory Committee, to avoid future problems the Committee stopped meeting in public and now Wirral Council is subject to government intervention for the way it runs the Children and Young Peoples’ Department.

Labour councillor bans filming at public meeting to decide whether to licence a taxi that’s over 10 years old

There’s a transcript of what happened, but essentially a councillor wanted to ban filming of a public meeting discussing whether to licence a taxi.

Why has Wirral Council sunk deeper into the quagmire of poor corporate governance surrounding a complaint about Cllr Steve Foulkes?

At the Standards Panel meeting involving a complaint about Cllr Foulkes, the public were prevented from both attending and filming.

So yes, in scenes that remind me of the film Groundhog Day, watch below as councillors would rather adjourn the whole meeting, than have some openness and transparency.

Councillors were repeatedly advised by a solicitor advising the Licensing Act 2003 Committee to allow filming, but some chose to ignore him.

The vote was as follows.

For a filming ban (that they have no power to impose and is in my view unlawful) (7)
Cllr David Burgess-Joyce (Conservative)
Cllr Ron Abbey (Labour)
Cllr Chris Meaden (Labour)
Cllr Paul Stuart (Labour)
Cllr Denise Roberts (Labour)
Cllr George Davies (Labour)
Cllr Michael Sullivan (proposer, Labour))

Against a filming ban (2)
Cllr Bill Davies (Chair, Labour))
Cllr Dave Mitchell (Liberal Democrat)

You can watch below for what happened at the meeting itself. The 5 minute adjournment lasted twenty-six minutes.

Licensing Act 2003 Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2016 Part 1 of 2

Licensing Act 2003 Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2016 Part 2 of 2

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