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.
The photos below are from the Civic Hall where the public meeting of the Cabinet was held.
I also recorded video of the meeting which can be viewed below. The item most people were there for (item 4) should be when the video starts (but if it doesn’t this is at the 2 minutes 5 seconds part of the video).
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Cabinet (Wirral Council) public meeting 17th December 2015 Part 1 of 2 (starting at agenda item 4 (Council Budget 2016/17 and Medium Term Financial Strategy) at 2 minutes 5 seconds
Before Cabinet decided on this item, its Chair Cllr Phil Davies invited Paddy Cleary (Wirral UNISON Branch Secretary) and Alan (or Allan?) Small from UNITE.
Paddy Cleary (of UNISON) has since the Cabinet meeting published the text of his speech on Wirral UNISON’s website.
Both union representatives referred to impact of changes to terms and conditions for employees, the jobs that would be lost and the impact on those who use Wirral Council’s services if these changes were later agreed.
Councillor Phil Davies (who chairs Cabinet meetings) pointed out that a final decision on what was being proposed wasn’t being made at the Cabinet meeting. That decision would be taken in 2016. The decision to be made at the Cabinet meeting was about a consultation on the proposed changes.
Cabinet decided to agree to the consultation (which ends at 5pm on the 29th January 2016).
Further detail on the budget cuts proposed as part of the consultation can be found at Appendix B (which starts on page 16 and ends at page 32).
Wirral Council has further detail about the budget proposals on its website which also contains a link to the survey used as part of the consultation.
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