Thanks to all those who have expressed an interest or forwarded information and comments about the court case involving Wirral Council currently unfolding in the Liverpool Civil & Family Court .
Whilst the matters under discussion have been flagged up on this blog for quite some time we’d just like to let you all know that , for obvious reasons, we will not be commenting, reporting or publishing comments until the conclusion of the case.
An email has been sent to all Members of the Council concerning an extraordinary meeting to take place to discuss the urgent appointment to the soon to be notorious/infamous ‘Investor Development Manager’ post
To all Members of the Council
Dear Councillor,
Would you please note that the Mayor has called an extraordinary meeting of the Council to be held on Monday, 6 March, 2017, at 5.30pm.
This extraordinary meeting has been called at the request of 24 Members, in accordance with Standing Order 1(4), to consider a Notice of Motion in respect of the creation of ‘a senior post of Investor Development Manager’ (requisition notice attached).
This extraordinary meeting will precede the Budget Council meeting which will be held at 6.00pm, or upon the rising of the 5.30pm meeting, whichever is the later.
A summons for the meeting will be published nearer the time.
The story has already been reported here:
And previously a report to Cabinet on 16 January 2017 dealt with the appointment as follows…
‘Although this was not a key decision, in the light of the time critical nature of these activities, it was considered necessary to request that call-in be waived. This would enable the activities to progress at once and, therefore, ensure that work was completed in time to meet deadlines for key events such as MIPIM. Due to the absence of the Chief Executive, and on his behalf, the Assistant Chief Executive had recommended that call-in be waived’.
A request for the extraordinary meeting of the Council was called by 24 opposition councillors as ‘we believe that the creation of this post requires further scrutiny, to enable council to decide whether it is justified’.
However the extraordinary meeting has been called for 6th March – AFTER the appointment has been made! Which rather suggests to us that the matter was NOT ‘urgent’ in the first place and in fact the waiver was a means of preventing anyone asking any awkward questions as to why , at a time of cuts and punitive charging measures , that the council taxpayers of Wirral are being asked to fund Council leader Power Boy Pip’s special friend to hobnob in the South of France at their expense as apparently one of the ‘key events’ is described as follows : ‘MIPIM Cannes is the premier event in the European Real Estate calendar and has become Europe’s showcase for major cities, property developments, investment opportunities and international networking’
http://www.liverpoolvision.co.uk/MIPIM/
Nice work if you can get it and you can get it – even when it’s a politically restricted post and you’re part of a corrupt political cabal!
We’re also becoming increasingly concerned by the role of the Assistant Chief Executive David Armstrong’s enabling role and his very dodgy decision making in the absence of the Chief Executive Eric ‘Feeble’ Robinson. Stressed Eric seems to have abdicated all responsibility when it comes to decisions which may come back and bite him on his plushly upholstered backside. Meanwhile Armstrong seemingly sails serenely towards a sizeable pension pot and is quite happy to acquiesce to whatever his political paymasters ask of him. Witness also his decision to commission Nick Warren to stitch up the council taxpayers over the ‘Wirralgate’ scandal in the power/moral vacuum that followed Graham Burgess’s hasty departure and proceeded Stressed Eric’s appointment.
All of which leads us to conclude that ‘bureaucratic machinations’ doesn’t come close to describing how Wirral Council operates and what makes it truly ‘ an extraordinary council’ for all the wrong reasons!
As you must know by now we are (and have been) fierce critics of Wirral Council and their uncritical friends ( Local Government Association , Frank Field etc;) for some time.
However it is reassuring that some parts of Wirral’s mainstream media (i.e. Wirral Globe ), local bloggers and our regular correspondents not only have the gift of critical thinking they now have the means by which to express their thoughts.
Unfortunately those means of communication were not around when the power bases were formed which we believe are responsible for the critical condition that Wirral now finds itself in.
So here we find one of our valued Wirral Leaks correspondents Dr Robert B Smith giving us a brief introduction as to how we think we got to where we are and why we all need to challenge the ‘alternative facts’ peddled by the powers that be . As the redoubtable Dr Smith tells us , there’s a book to be written here – especially about missing monies. If he’s looking for a title might we suggest ‘ The Neverending Story’! – Wirral Leaks readers are invited to offer alternatives.
WIRRAL – a Critical Mass of attractions
WIRRAL COUNCIL – a Critical Mess of afflictions
As a recipient of one of then-Cllr Jim (Jumbo) Crabtree’s strident early morning emails at 2.35am, the Wirral Leaks piece reported in Private Eye regarding the exposure of his death threats to Cllr LRJ, prompted me to put a few thoughts together about Wirral Council and councillors.
To understand Wirral’s problems, and there are many, is to understand its history.
To understand Wirral Council’s problems, and there are many, is to understand its history.
Wirral Council should serve its residents, businesses and visitors, but has insidiously created the ‘insular peninsula’. Wirral Council is a stricken organisation, nationally acknowledged as an organisation where abnormal behaviour is so deeply embedded it is accepted as ‘normal’; and the organisation is in terminal decline. Wirral councillors, and chief officers now occupy a self-created netherworld. This is almost beyond comprehension in many ways as, unlike Chief and Senior officers, councillors do live in Wirral with the consequences of their actions, and presumably are friends and neighbours with Wirral residents, businesses and visitors. Maybe that defines peninsularity…or possibly vested interests?
And this is the critical factor that almost entirely divorces Wirral Council from the public it is supposed to serve. The concept of public service for the upper echelons of Wirral Council, both politicians and managers is a distant memory. Self-serving organisational protection is in full-flow, after gaining momentum over the last 15 years or so.
Wirral Council’s finances have been in free-fall since the early 1990s, although no-one in Wirral Council will admit it – but the evidence is all around in the media and archives. Gradually diminishing services, cloaked in desperate efforts to create an illusion of visionary leadership, is not actually about services. It is actually about survival of the organisation and those that significantly benefit from being part of it. That does not include Wirral’s residents, businesses and visitors.
Wirral Council’s self-perception, and its perception of Wirral (‘The Leisure Peninsula’), have led it until fairly recently to vehemently oppose any links to, or association with, Liverpool. This has changed more recently as a matter of necessity due to a now imposed concept, not at all understood by Wirral Council, of a city-region and its interdependences.
Strategic thinkers amongst senior officers are long gone. Over the years political self-interest and party-political power struggles of whatever political persuasion, have taken their toll, at the expense of a great many staff, and those Wirral Council is supposed to serve.
‘That was then, and this is now’. 7 words that embrace a few decades of disastrous planning, and financial management. If in fact there was any planning at all. Wirral residents, businesses and visitors are paying handsomely now, for what happened then. It is interesting to see which councillors were around then, and which are still around now.
When, in the late 1990s, a councillor states “this year’s budget is in a mess, but never mind. The Director of Finance will pull something out of the hat, he always does”. When successive years of budget cuts follow, it doesn’t take an Einstein to know there will be trouble ahead. Chase the regeneration grants…over £500,000,000 spent in Birkenhead by 2008…Wirral Council just walks away and allocates no additional revenue to maintain or run the new facilities. Just take a look around.
Wirral Council owes around £500,000,000 to private banks as a result of borrowing £137,000,000 from private banks between 2001 and 2008. No-one in Wirral Council appears to know where any of that money was allocated. Maybe no-one could find the hat any longer?
Parking charges…again. Another bankrupt idea from an almost bankrupt Council you may think? The Wirral Council mantra “We need to raise additional income.” “We’re having our grants cut again!” “We are the victims in this!”
Are they? And that is the key – the Council see themselves as ‘the victims in this’. It is actually Wirral residents, businesses, and visitors who are the victims.
Parking charges just keep creeping back in. It cost the Council in 2014/15 £119,000 to enforce parking penalties. So the good citizens of the borough are paying for the privilege of penalising parking offenders. However, a separate income line from the same year is ‘the full amount of Pay & Display parking income receipts banked by Wirral Council, £1,689,267’ – taken again from the good citizens of the borough.
Freedom of Information requests – one of which was asked about parking charges. How many requests are refused? There is a procedure called ‘the public interest test’. However, in Wirral it does not exist. What does exist is ‘the Council interest test’. Which is why so many refused Freedom of Information requests are overturned by the Information Commissioners Office.
From start to finish this is a very expensive process. If a request is overturned, then surely the ‘public interest test’ was ignored. How much public money is wasted by Wirral Council, defending the obviously indefensible? A ‘successful’ Freedom of Information request confirms that no records are kept…which appears to indicate there is a bottomless pit of money when the Council wants it to frustrate enquirers by refusing legitimate requests.
Then again £2,000,000 can also be magically produced when the Safeguarding Board isn’t up to the job, and £237,960 per year (with little sign of private sector income to offset the cost) public money to finance the ‘Wirral View’ of Wirral (seen through Wirral Council’s rose-tinted specs). They can’t be read at luncheon clubs now the minimal funding has been axed, can they?
Which brings me back to now. And the legacy of ‘that was then’. Only one of numerous examples…What price is being paid to service a debt of £500,000,000 owed to private banks by Wirral Council? At an average of 6% pa, around £8,000,000 per year (this is not the total of council borrowing by the way) with the final payments being made in 2078. Tell your kids and grandkids if you are in your 20s now – Wirral Council mortgaged all our futures just to save political skins.
What price is being paid by Wirral’s Council Tax and other tax payers? The price of political failure over decades. But the rewards to politicians and some senior officers have been significant. There are not many paid jobs where the serially inept are rewarded with such significant sums of money for continuous failure.
Do any occupants of positions in the upper echelons of Wirral Council management just ‘leave’ without an additional ‘package’ of some kind– if not, why not?
By popular demand we’re back to an unpopular proposal. Yes , we’re talking car parking charges again. Isn’t it a shame the local electorate don’t get quite so agitated about the power,corruption and lies within Wirral Council that have been going on for years?
However some of our correspondents have suggested alternative proposals to the £1 million car parking charging proposals. They are all eminently sensible – such as the under siege and ineffectual council ‘leader’ Power Boy Pip Davies dispensing with a personal hand holder at our expense . Yes, that’s you Martin Liptrot (aka Liptrotsky) !
It has also been suggested to us that if the proposed car parking charges are approved that Wirral Council staff should stump up to park their car outside Wirral Council premises.
Whilst some of Wirral Council staff already pay heavily for the privilege and honour of having a monthly pay cheque we have to accept that the downtrodden rank and file staff of Wirral Council are just happy to have a job and are never going to question the excesses of their political paymasters which has let them enjoy the easy ride they’ve had all these years.
So let’s turn our attention to the people who make the decisions (or rather the people that make the proposals) – the ‘poor’ saps who head up Wirral Council departments who have to suggest ways to save money whilst trousering a big fat cheque.
Who can forget where this leads ? – the proposal from numbskull Rick O’Brien – whatever happened to him? , answers on a postcard please – that vulnerable people should have to wait 4 weeks before they receive a service to which they are legally entitled in the hope that they die and therefore save Wirral Council money. I’m sure we’re all agreed what an absolute hero that appalling piece of work was for coming up with that money saving scheme!
So here’s our suggestion (and let’s face it as they’re so bloody clueless we all know they’ll be taking notes) – how about those ‘designated’ parking spaces right outside the town hall side entrance for CEO, Leader of Conservative Party, Leader of Labour Party, and same for Lib Dems (if there are any left) painted in large white paint so nobody else is allowed to park there!! Are they willing to lead by example and offer to ease the burden of the local Council taxpayer , freely relinquish their privilege and pay for their parking space?
No thought not!
So how about those overpaid Council officers who come up with these madcap fundraising schemes ? As most of them don’t live round here , how about they contribute to the place they said they cared so ‘passionately ‘ about in their interview and pay for the privilege of a personal tax free parking space ? Perhaps we should ask the current Director of Law what he thinks about the suggestion – that’s if he isn’t too busy trying to arrange meetings in a car park with his solicitor and the scammers in possession of an incriminating tape recording. Just sayin’
As you can see we’re delighted to have made the hallowed pages of Private Eye . The latest edition of the satirical magazine features a Rotten Boroughs article concerned with ‘the appalling Jim Crabtree’. Wirral Leaks readers will be very familiar with the torrid tales of ‘Crabby’ and Cllr Louise Reecejones as they unfolded on this blog . However the article is a neat summation of the story so far………
We’re just grateful we got an acknowledgement as a source – something the Liverpool Echo journo who previously flagged up our stories to Private Eye regularly failed to do.
From our point of view the really scary thing is we don’t think that Crabby was the most ‘appalling ‘ Wirral councillor of recent times. Indeed we maintain that some of the most ‘grossly offensive and indecent’ offenders are still in power and making ‘appalling’ decisions about OUR LIVES. Clearly Crabby wasn’t considered important enough for the local Labour cabal to throw their seemingly limitless PUBLIC resources and extensive political influence behind him to save his sorry backside.
It must be galling for Crabby to be publicly (and justifiably) pilloried whilst his former colleagues keep on trousering those allowances and acting all important ,especially when -like Reecejones – he knows exactly what they’ve been up to…….
We’ve been musing on this car parking malarkey and we’re still trying to make sense of the madness. Last night’s Business Overview and Scrutiny Committee did nothing to dispel the notion that something amiss is going on here.
For a start haven’t we been down this road (pun intended) before? We remember that The Brand New Brighton Rocks On campaign forced Wirral Council to do a U-turn on parking charges in New Brighton in 2015. Now Wirral Council are thinking out of the box (and out of their minds) by proposing parking charges all over the place.
The Business Overview and Scrutiny Committee Cllr Michael Sullivan was at pains to explain during his comedy turn at chairing the meeting that these were only proposals, nothing had been decided and they had statutory duties . We assumed the main statutory duty was to cause as much dissent and opposition to the proposals as possible. In which case – job done!
It has been suggested by one of our commentators that :
Everyone seems to assume that this proposal is real.
Wirral has form for putting forward proposals similar to this so they can be withdrawn as a demonstration of “listening to the public”
Standard PR tactic.
What is it within budget proposals they are trying to draw fire from?
An interesting viewpoint and one we would certainly give credence to having observed the ‘bureaucratic machinations’ of Wirral Council over the years. Especially when the controversy over these proposals is creating a bigger smokescreen than a broken exhaust pipe. Perhaps to hide something even more toxic?
We also note how teen sensation Labour Cllr Warren Ward was given the elder statesman role as the rest of the councillors on the committee backed his notice of motion calling for an impact report on the proposals.
We anticipate this impact report will be very short and read : CATASTROPHIC
As we replied to our commentator :
We hear what you’re saying……especially when the proposals seem counter-productive to their so-called pledges. Nothing but nothing would surprise us when it comes to Wirral Council.
We await developments and political manoeuvrings with interest.
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Dear Mr Robinson, Dear Cllr Phil Davies,
Please forward my email to any new councillors.
Nothing has changed since 2015 regarding the legislation prohibiting using parking charges to raise revenue leading to the defeat at Fort Perch Rock in 2015 regarding questionable budget options. From the DCLG: –
Operational Guidance, and legislation, is clear that local authorities should never use parking charges to raise revenue. Where there is surplus income local authorities must ensure that any revenue not used for enforcement is used for legitimate purposes as prescribed in Section 55 (as amended) of the RTRA 1984, and that its main use is to improve, by whatever means, transport provision in the area so that road users benefit.
Another important aspect of the function of the Monitoring Officer related to legal compliance is clearly stated by the DCLG viz.,
All local authorities have a Monitoring Officer, and it is their role to ensure that the authority complies with legislation in its operation.
I paste the reply I received from the DCLG in full, below, for those with short memories.
Dr Robert B Smith
Dear Dr Smith
Thank you for your email dated 20 July to Greg Clark concerning proposed pay and display parking in New Brighton. I work in the team in DCLG working on high streets and town centres and have been asked to reply on his behalf.
Parking is vital to modern high streets and town centres, which is why we are encouraging all local authorities to consider the impact of parking policies on the health of town centres and to adjust their policies accordingly. We want to make sure local authorities operate fair and reasonable parking strategies that are not an unnecessary disincentive to motorists who visit our high streets and town centres.
Operational Guidance, and legislation, is clear that local authorities should never use parking charges to raise revenue. Where there is surplus income local authorities must ensure that any revenue not used for enforcement is used for legitimate purposes as prescribed in Section 55 (as amended) of the RTRA 1984, and that its main use is to improve, by whatever means, transport provision in the area so that road users benefit.
I am sorry that you feel that the Wirral Borough Council is not supporting the recovery of New Brighton, Wallasey. Parking is ultimately the responsibility of local authorities; it is for them to determine what is best for their own area. You are correct therefore, to raise this issue with your MP, as Ministers have no remit to intervene in a local authorities day to day affairs, except where specific provision has been made in an Act of Parliament. All local authorities have a Monitoring Officer, and it is their role to ensure that the authority complies with legislation in its operation.
You will be interested to know that the Department for Communities and Local Government has published new statutory guidance that ensures local residents and firms can petition to initiate a formal review of parking policies in their area from the council, with Councillors then voting on the action to be taken. This guidance describes in more detail a new mechanism to use petitions to give local residents, community groups and businesses the ability to challenge parking policies, and advises local authorities on best practice. The full guidance can be found at http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-challenge-parking-policies
Yours sincerely,
Kathryn Clarke
Town Centres, High Streets and Coastal Team
It must be this time of year, as we’ve been musing on money matters (or rather lack thereof). Clearly Wirral Council have been doing the same as they gear up to set their forthcoming budget and pursue a number of punitive charging regimes to offset central government funding cuts.
Yeah,yeah, yeah – we get it when they drone on about how badly they’ve been done to by central government and they have to make tough choices and priorities. But that’s what we take issue with Wirral Council here at Leaky Towers – it’s the choices that they make which indicate to us that their priorities are all wrong. Consequently they lose all moral authority when they start bleating about lack of finances.
So let’s take a quick look at where that money comes from and where it goes :
As we all know Wirral Council’s income stream is increasingly going to be us via Council Tax and any supplementary fund raising scams they can come up with.We look forward to their budget proposals now that they’ve been given the go ahead by central government to put up Council Tax by 3% to pay for the rising costs of social care. Rather frighteningly they also have the the opportunity to raise even more money via this route.Surrey County Council are looking at a total Council Tax rise of 15% but to do so they would have to put it to the local vote. We suggest that this is not something that the ruling group at Wirral Council wouldn’t risk but nothing ,nothing would surprise us about this shower of chancers.
David Hodge, Leader of Surrey County Council, announces proposal to seek a council tax rise of 15%
So , down to business – we’ve previously discussed the charming operatives from Kingdom Secrurity and their cash for trash extortion agency for the Council. As anyone who has seen a Kingdom Security in action – they go after vulnerable people who don’t have the means to retaliate . Much like the people they get their contract off.
https://wirralleaks.wordpress.com/2015/11/25/cash-for-trash/
It’s not about caring for the environment. Neither are other money-making scams devised by an increasingly desperate council. Similarly their car park charging proposals have absolutely nothing to do with maintaining the roads or traffic measures. It’s all about the moolah. Your moolah! – so cash cows out there prepare your teats for action as they’re going to be bled dry.
We’ve already reported the squandering of £80,000 on the appointment of an Investor Development Manager – rumoured to be a shoo-in for current leading Wirral Council puppet master Martin Liptrot.
https://wirralleaks.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/the-power-abusers/
Which again begs the question as to why there isn’t someone on a humongous salary with the requisite skills at Wirral Council – because well ,apparently there just isn’t ! Let’s not even mention what the likes of David Armstrong, Clare Fish and Joe Blott get paid – if you throw in Eric ‘Feeble’ Robinson that’s half a million big ones per annum between them.
Never mind the recent ridiculous ‘Are Wirral’s 66 councillors Value For Money?’ exercise conducted by themselves and to which the unsurprising answer was a resounding YES! – how about we have a VFM consultation on the above gang of four/flaw? – especially when we consider the damning Ofsted report into Children’s Services.
This has necessitated the appointment of troubleshooter Eleanor Brazil and former Children’s Commissioner for England Professor Maggie Atkinson as the new ‘independent’ chairwoman of Wirral Safeguarding Children’s Board. The appointment of such big hitters suggests us to that Children’s Services is in an even bigger mess than the Ofsted report indicated. Not that we’ll ever know because the Children’s Services Improvement Board meets behind closed doors. Lessons have obviously been learned from the last Improvement Board – no openness, no transparency, no public accountability suits the powers that be. We’re just asked to stump up the bill.
These consultants seem to be mainly tasked with finding out why Wirral Council can’t recruit and retain staff in Children’s Services. We can tell them free of charge : because it’s rammed with poor calibre middle managers who bully their staff on the instructions of passive/aggressive senior managers who earn a nice wedge spouting platitudes and duping councillors.Plus the fact that who in their right mind would want to do Child Protection work in Birkenhead. Think about that for a moment – beyond grim.
Another drain on resources that we never to get to hear about are the court cases that Wirral Council get ensnared in because they simply don’t know the difference between right and wrong….but they’ve got plenty of well paid people particularly in the HR and Law Departments who are prepared to blur the lines between the two in return for a big fat salary. We understand that there’s a court case coming up at the end of this month that could prove to be the defining moment of how Wirral Council chooses to ‘move forward’.
We’ll keep you posted.
We are grateful to yet another correspondent with an enquiring mind who has sought refuge at Leaky Towers. This instalment in the Wirral Chamber of Commerce/ Wirral Council shenanigans concerns itself with Egerton House. This is another property which somehow landed in the burgeoning Chamber portfolio .
Our correspondent asks whether he has to stick to the Wirral Leaks party line and launch into some ‘scurrilous criticism’ of certain individuals to get published. Absolutely not! there’s enough of that on here and anyway we appreciate and encourage independent thought and debate – unlike some other institutions we could name !
We just ask that you read for yourselves and make your own mind up although we do say amen and halleluljah to the view expressed about Kevin Adderley!
Egerton House – where has the cash gone?
Egerton House was the first redevelopment on the docks and was owned jointly by Wirral Business Enterprise Limited and CEWTEC, the training and enterprise council. Wirral Business Enterprise Limited owned its fifty percent outright after a grant from the rump of Wirral Task Force funds and CEWTEC’s share was in part funded by the Department for Employment. Essentially the purchase and re-development of Egerton House was publicly funded.
When the Training and Enterprise Councils were abolished the Department for Employment reluctantly agreed that its loan would be cancelled subject to assurances on board structure and activities and Egerton House could remain as a resource for Enterprise development on Wirral. To avoid a substantial tax bill the two companies then offered Egerton House to the University of Liverpool, Wirral Metropolitan College and the Local Authority with an option to lease it back. All pitched to take it over and the two boards of directors chose the Local Authority. A lease was granted back to Egerton House (Wirral) Limited – during negotiations over the lease the Local Authority sought assurances that one elected member of the authority would be on the board with an Officer as observer.
The directors of Egerton House (Wirral) Limited adopted a very cautious policy, fearful that they might lose their largest licensee and amassed very substantial cash holdings peaking at over £600,000. It is difficult to see how this caution allowed an imaginative contribution to the development of Enterprise on Wirral.
Following the ‘merger’ with Wirral Investment Network the old board left, apart from Dr David Prior and Asif Hamid became chairman and Paula Basnett joined the board along with others. At this point Wirral Leaks might require me to stick to their party line and launch some scurrilous criticism of these two individuals. I would prefer to say that Asif has managed to draw together the most credible board of directors that Wirral Chamber of Commerce has ever had and through his membership of the LEP and connections to central government strives to do the very best for Wirral. Paula Basnett has consistently worked hard to bring together the diverse players in business support and with help from Phil Davies (who I also admire) rescued the Chamber from exiting Wirral.
BUT
In its latest published accounts Egerton House (Wirral) Community Interest Company lists amongst its contributions to the community; a Dr Bike day to have ones bicycle checked out, a Macmillan bake off day, ‘Shower Grants’ in case you get a bit hot and bothered riding your bike to work and hosting a steering group on Enterprise mentoring. In fairness it also lists all the core activities at Egerton House that are in support of business and for the good of the community.
Its latest Confirmation Statement (Annual Return) notes persons with significant control as Asif Hamid and Paula Basnett. Not surprising since they are the only directors of what holds itself out to be a Community Interest Company.
What the accounts as at 31st March 2016 don’t explain is why cash at bank after so many years of being over half a million pounds is a mere £2518 down from £336,816 on 31st December 2014 with debtors up from £86k to £344k.
At the same time in the Chamber’s accounts for the same dates cash at bank has gone up from £59,734 to £302,000.
Would it be reasonable to suggest that rather than hearing about a Dr Bike day we as taxpayers who paid for Egerton House might be more interested in whether Egerton House has lent around £300,000 to the Chamber and if so on what terms and if not who has the cash?
Your correspondent has no problem with Egerton House funding the Chamber as long as it is secure and public and not spent on Kevin Adderley and no wish to call upon other busy people to volunteer more time by sitting, pro bono, on the board of Egerton House (although the Local Authority should be present on the board as required in the original negotiations on the lease).
In an ideal world Egerton House might be fully integrated into the Chamber along with its lease and the Chamber should then aim to publish the fullest possible accounts to its members and the whole Wirral community.
Until then perhaps they could make a start by explaining Egerton House’s disappearing cash at bank.
Get the party started : Committee Chair Cllr George “Good Times” Davies brings Public Health approved party food and a Wirralgate mixtape to the celebration!
The Birkenhead Constituency Committee have gone all Kool & The Gang on us. Although it must be said it’s more Gang than Kool. For tonight ladies and gentlemen wave your hands in the air, like you just don’t care (and let’s face it some of our local politicians clearly don’t) : YAHOO! THIS IS YOUR CELEBRATION.
Although the Wirral Council website still maintains that Frank Field is still the chair of this particular Committee when he’s not, his influence can still be seen in the the agenda for tonight’s meeting which reads like there’s a party going on right here, a celebration to last throughout the year.
http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=691&MId=5604&Ver=4
As you can see we have :
A Celebration of Birkenhead in Bloom
A Celebration of Food Hub and Christmas Hampers Project
A Celebration of Keeping Birkenhead Clean
Now don’t get us wrong we like flowers , we like food and we prefer not to be knee deep in food wrappers and dog crap but spare us the glitterball hyperbole . Furthermore whilst we applaud people who want to make a contribution to the community and well-being of others , knowing what we know about some of the politicians on the Committee we question the motives behind the party political party poppers .
What’s more and what doesn’t particularly sit right with us is ‘A Celebration of Food Hub’.
For a start – enough already with the word hub . We plan to set up an Anti-Hub Hub at Leaky Towers . The Anti-Hub Hub Sub will be a ‘task and finish’ group establishing synergies and developing strategies to eradicate the use of the word ‘hub’ . Perhaps by introducing fines for the gratuitous use of the word. All proceeds will be spent on our personal agendas ( i.e copious amounts of booze).
Call us contrary but should we really be celebrating ‘food hubs’ in 21st century Britain? – especially when no-one , absolutely no-one thinks ‘starving mites’ are a good idea. Shouldn’t we be channelling our energies into why there’s an apparent need for them and exactly who’s agendas are being met by their existence?
But we think what makes us want to be a party pooper is the fact that isn’t it a tad hypocritical to be celebrating food hubs when Wirral Council is withdrawing funding from older people’s lunch clubs?
What’s worse they are now asking those luncheon clubs to approach the likes of Birkenhead Constituency Committee for funding to enable them to continue knowing full well that their finances are either already committed or frozen !
So forgive us for suggesting where Wirral Council and Birkenhead Constituency Committee can stick their party blower :
Wirralleaks 